The post disco vibes are especially strong with Chiiild’s newest single, featuring the wonderful Mahalia, Awake, but the groovy track isn’t without some twists and turns.

The song tells you exactly what it sets out to be right from the moment it starts. The four-on-the-floor rhythm, acting as the composition’s heartbeat, already plateaus the energy level in this song. Initially, reading that, you might think of that as a bad thing, with the two giving out the peaks right away, but I promise you it’s a wonderful thing. There was a point where I wondered where the song went, when I realized that the energy really got as exciting as the intro groove, but right before it started becoming stale, the song pulls a complete one-eighty. Before we visit that, let’s explore the first half further.

Both Chiiild and Mahalia do an excellent job complimenting the tone of the song. Both have the kind of soul that fits perfectly leading the composition. The chorus is incredibly catchy, and both of their verses does a wonderful complimenting the instrumentation. The gritty vinyl-crackling gives it that classic 70s funk vibe, especially with the bongos aiding the rhythm and the heavily compressed and distorted drum kit. There are various other percussions thrown around that each bring flavor to the mix, but the two elements that really breathe life into the song are the little guitar chords strummed every couple measures and the retro synths bouncing from right to left, giving a pool in which the song can float.

Half way through the song, hinted by a rhythm switch during the second chorus, changes tone drastically. The horn punches are replaced by soaring strings, the catchy four-on-the-floor is subdued for a very slow trap-influenced beat, and suddenly everything feels like it’s soaring. Chiiild’s voice is far sleepier, which gives so much value to the tone of this part. Mahalia and Chiiild reprise the chorus, but this time with this newfound rhythm, and it’s honestly hard to tell that it’s the same unless you really paid attention to the melody, especially on your first go around. They did such an excellent job giving the composition two sides, of the same coin, mind you. It’s a twist I hadn’t been expecting, but feels incredibly welcoming.

Awake is a very daring song that pays off in all the right way. There is a lot of ambition that relied on the wonderful execution by the two musicians for this to sound alright, and they did that and more. This is an incredible dance song that shifts to one of the most interesting switch ups in recent music. 

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.