234: Carnaval Odyssey, by Dowdelin

Dowdelin (France/Guadeloupe/Martinique)
Carnaval Odyssey (2018)
10 tracks, 34 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ Spotify ∙ iTunes

This album by Dowdelin is one of my big discoveries of this year – although, yes, it came out last year. I was a few months late, but as long as we get there in the end, good music is good music, right?

And this is good music. Dowdelin are a trio based in Lyon, France, with their heritage across the Caribbean, particularly the French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The music reflects that heritage, but it doesn’t quite take the form that you might expect. The rhythmic language at play is recognisably Afro-Caribbean, even occasionally using traditional percussion instruments (or samples of them) to build up the rhythmic foundations, but from there it goes in all sorts of directions. The two main strains of Carnaval Odyssey that overlap and entangle are jazz and that strangely indefinable sound of chillwave/lo-fi hip-hop.

The percussion, the jazzy sax and the soulful Kréyol vocals, but it’s the synths and the drum machines that really get me excited about this one. The synths have that very particular flavour that is nevertheless difficult to put one’s finger on; the sound is wavy, soft but still slightly distorted and comes in swells and drifts. You know that feeling you get when you’re trying so hard to stay awake and your eyelids feel like the heaviest things in the world? That’s how Dowdelin’s synths sound. No, I’m not sure I know what I’m going on about either, but still. Then those synths find their home in the mix of J. Dilla-esque drum samples and traditional beats and then with all the other sounds involved, and it all sounds like some sort of futuristic-yet-retro disco party on the beach of a French Caribbean island paradise.

When I sat down to write this entry, I went looking for what the band had done before, and I looked for quite a while. Obviously, this is their debut. Which makes sense for why I hadn’t heard of them earlier. But their sound and their vision are so fully-formed that it feels like they’ve been on their own odyssey for a long time. If this wickedly groovy album is what they came up with on their very first disc, I can’t wait to hear what happens once they’ve had enough time for all the elements to percolate for a while. Exciting times!