Set No. 007 - kun.mp3 (feat. Kunal M.)

Back in 2017 I was an intern at a tech company. We had a beach volleyball court out behind the building so it wasn't very long before a bunch of other interns and I started playing semi-regularly after work. I hadn't played organized beach volleyball at any point in my life prior to that, but after a while I thought I started to get what I thought was pretty good. I subbed in for a friend's beach rec league games a few times and did pretty well there too. Obviously I was feeling myself. Then I moved to Southern California in 2019 and out of nothing but pure arrogance, I signed up for a competitive beach volleyball league. You can imagine how that went. 

My conversation with Kunal gave me a similar feeling to the first time I stepped on the court in SoCal. I know I know music, but Kunal knows music which only makes sense considering his night gig as a DJ. "A lot of my day is spent finding and downloading new music. I kinda started [to DJ] in high school and continued through university, but over the last 4 or 5 months it's started picking up. It's more music than ever now." he shared.

Kunal in his element

Curious about the genres he mixes when he DJs, I asked Kunal, and he replied with "open format," meaning he typically plays a mix of everything. However, he called out Baile Funk (which I admittedly have never heard of) as a genre that he's got a pretty strong love for at the moment especially since the crowds tend to have such incredible reactions whenever it's played. As a whole though, he is incredibly flexible when it comes to his musical palette as a DJ. "I try to play everything man. Some cool shit starts to happen when you start mixing genres. You never want to limit yourself to just one." Kunal continued to drop DJ knowledge on me as we went through the fundamentals of mixing house music and how to introduce a crowd to new genres over the course of a night.

We talked about his blossoming DJ career and the venues he's at around the Greater Toronto Area. We geeked out over Mike Dean and what an absolute genius he is with the synths. We talked about Lil Yachty's most recent album and how it subverted our expectations. We, well he, talked about Skrillex and how he's the undisputed GOAT of EDM production. Needless to say we talked about a lot of things. Of course though, we talked about what songs Kunal is feeling at the moment. 

Here's his 3TrackSet.

Long Distance

Sam Gellaitry

The introduction to Kunal's set is a track called "Long Distance" by Sam Gellaitry. "This one is a good opener because I actually play this song if there's a guy playing before me and I have to let the crowd know that the set is changing" he told me. Not even 3 seconds after pressing play Kunal was already pointing out musical elements in the track, notably the synths gliding from ear to ear as they slowly increased in volume. About 50 seconds into us listening to the track together Kunal once again chimed in with "watch the 808s in the back" right as the aforementioned 808s entered the mix adding yet another layer to the already captivating instrumental. I let out an "oh damn" about halfway through the song right when the track switched up to a slightly more melodic section.

During our listen Kunal at one point said "[Long Distance] is like experimental but it's still easily digestible" which is a statement I'd wholeheartedly agree with. I'm sure it's obvious enough by now that I'm not the biggest consumer of EDM. I wouldn't say I'm intimidated by it, but often times I find it either extremely repetitive or extremely chaotic which is likely a byproduct of me not knowing where to explore when it comes to the many sub-genres in the space. This song was a great middle ground as it featured trap elements I was familiar with but also introducing a new feel that pushed my boundaries just the right amount.

As our discussion of this track was winding down, Kunal mentioned how the song was not only attention grabbing but also was incredibly easy to work with from a DJs perspective given the amount of room he has to work with acoustically. "I might throw some Drake vocals or some afrobeats on top of it and it becomes something that people know." 

Solid track in my books.

Forever Ever (feat. Young Thug & Reese LAFLARE)

Trippie Redd

I was shocked during our conversation so I'll say it here again; I was absolutely not expecting a Trippie Redd song to part of Kunal's set. He's an artist that's been kind of on my peripheral but something about his voice and his production choices sometimes puts me off. But since I respected the curators stylings and the fact that I saw it included a Young Thug feature I figured it'd be best to put my preconceived notions to the side and just rock with track. And I'm glad I did.

The song kicks off with one of Young Thug's signature auto-tuned "YEAH" drenched with reverb before letting the instramental breathe and then getting into his chorus featuring his signature delivery both in tone and cadence. "Here's the best verse" Kunal exclaimed as Trippie started rapping. During some high points in his verse he couldn't help but rap along to some of the more outlandish bars. Something about the line "Hanging with some big gorillas and they go ape" had me outright laughing. As Trippie's verse was on the verge of wrapping up Kunal excitedly exclaimed "watch the hand off here" just as Young Thug re-enters the track carrying on right where Trippie left off just as smoothly as a baton being passed between runners of a flawless 4x100 relay race.

I foolishly asked if this was a song that Kunal ever mixed in his sets. "Nah nah nah this is like a drive home type of track you know? It's a bit too sad and depressing." he replied with a short laugh. Me even considering this song being played in a packed club is exactly why nobody should let me DJ a public event...

I went into this track with a slight bit of hate in my heart for Trippie Redd, but perhaps it shrank three sizes this day. Another excellent track.

 

Drowning

Zhu

The last track in the set had Kunal a little indecisive but after some deliberation he finally settled on an atmospheric electronic R&B-sounding track called "Drowning" by Zhu which marks the second artist out of the three in the set that I hadn't heard of prior. 

The only thing I can compare the listening of this track to is if you've even been out to dinner with a friend and made it through the meal with minimal conversation because of how good the food was. That's exactly what happened here. Other than me making some minor remarks on how the song gives the feeling of some of The Weeknd's older stuff, we both really didn't have too much to say, and given how chatty the both of us were up until this point; I'd say that's an extraordinary sign. The song ends with a saxophone solo on the outro which I'm always an absolute sucker for.

"What's your deal with that one?" I asked Kunal right as the song ended. "It's like a late night drive, it's nice when you've got someone else in the car too you know?" he responded slyly.

The description of this one is sparse but for good reason, just listen to it for yourself, preferably at night when the weather gets nice wherever you're at.

If you want to keep up to date with Kunal and where you can catch him next, be sure to shoot him a follow on Instagram @kun.mp3 where he always has any upcoming gigs posted to his story.

Until next time. Happy listening!