Daktyl
          

This guy is going to be big soon, trust us on that. Rich Lombay was born in England and started to make beats around age 19. Now, two years later at age 21, he has already released two EPs and has an album due out in 2015 with MAD DECENT.

Rich grew up playing piano and guitar. He was inspired to start producing and beat-making due to the amount of technology available these days. One can make anything into an instrument, resample it and turn almost nothing into something brand new. Listening to his tracks you can tell he takes full advantage of the creative process by not sticking to one simple idea and merging so many. Influences from hip-hop, soul, garage, house, and trap seem to all come together and the result is something so beautiful and so groovy, you can’t help but dance to it.

His recent remixes of Dawn Golden’s “All I Want” and “Last Train” display exactly what Daktyl is all about. Take a listen to the originals and then the remixes and you can see his simple creativity; he doesn’t do too much to rework the songs. Instead he adds the perfect amount of synth and production value, creating a great blend. It’s something brand new, yet it doesn’t forget about the original. I love it!

He has previously toured alongside Lunice, Baauer, and, most recently, Slow Magic. I got to see Daktyl open for Slow Magic in Ann Arbor and boy, was his set good. He played only his material and it was one of the best electronic shows I have seen to date. It was refreshing, creative, and original, something you don’t find much any more with the big name music producers and DJs.

Just this last week we were graced with Daktyl’s first single on MAD DECENT, “Stay (feat. Dive Deep)”, released to SoundCloud and available to download. This is his first original release in a while, and the wait was worth it. It builds with beautiful melodies with sampled vocals on top of them. Then it drops like a wave crashing after it builds up and rolls towards the shore. After my first listen I was immediately hooked and even more excited for his upcoming album next year.

Coming up in the near future for Daktyl is his Diplo & Friends mix, airing on November 29th on BBC 1. Be sure to look out for that, as it is sure to be full of some of the more unique sounds out there today. Then on December 2nd “Stay (feat. Dive Deep)” will be officially released, along with “Forgettable (feat. Evan Mellows)”. 2015 is going to be a huge year for Daktyl. Make sure to watch out for his album and get ready for Daktyl to take the electronic music scene by storm.

By Ben Lowden

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