Elusive Producer Huey Daze Shares LP ‘Gemini With Mood Swings’
September 20, 2022 BY Jason Currell
Today, elusive lo-fi producer Huey Daze shares a new LP, Gemini with Mood Swings, his debut project with Nettwerk Records. Daze dug through an untapped treasure trove of samples from Nettwerk label partner, Justin Time (home to catalog releases from Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lightning Hopkins, and more) in order to craft the project. Each of the 14 tracks feature Justin Time samples thoughtfully woven into his beat-making and chill aesthetic.
“It was wonderful looking through Justin Time Records’ catalog, a lot of great stuff,” shares Daze. “Creativity flourishes when there are certain boundaries you are set to work within, in this case only using records in Justin Time’s catalog. Creative freedom is achieved only within the context of a boundary that is set in place.”
Gemini with Mood Swings arrives off the heels of strong Spotify editorial support, with singles from the LP landing on the coveted lofi beats playlist (4.7M) as well as State of Jazz (837K), Jazztronica (533K) and lofi cafe (330K).
The project also sees the debut of Huey Daze’s new character avatar, designed by noted illustrator Kazuki Oekaki. Oekaki also created 12 animated visualizers to accompany the project. Staying true to the Gemini trait of split personalities, six of these visuals are set on Earth and six are set in space. Today, the 12th and final visual—for the track “Gigi’s Revenge”—goes live to complete the cycle.
Gemini with Mood Swings is available at digital retailers here: https://hueydaze.ffm.to/geminiwithmoodswings.
WATCH VISUALIZER FOR “GIGI’S REVENGE” HERE
Gemini with Mood Swings Tracklist:
1. Velvet
2. Birds of Greenwich
3. Back To You
4. Reign On Me
5. Blue Giant
6. Yor
7. Elegua
8. Nocturne Notary
9. I Wish
10. Erase Your Head
11. Place
12. Solaris
13. Gigi’s Revenge
14. Horizon
ABOUT HUEY DAZE:
Huey Daze is an instrumental project that focuses on finding synchronicity between music and nature. Raised in New York in a traditional Japanese home, he gravitated to 90s hip-hop and developed a name for himself as a beatmaker and producer. After spending the 2020 global shutdown in the deserts of Arizona, he packed up his sampler and laptop and moved to the urban sprawl of Las Vegas. Against the backdrop of glitz and decadence, he was drawn to the writings of Carl Jung, the recordings of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the surrealism of David Lynch. These literary, musical, and film interests guided his new music.
“I was watching films like ‘Eraserhead,’ ‘Mulholland Drive,’ and ‘Blue Velvet.’ Beautiful stuff. I love artists that aren’t afraid to work in abstractions, to be so unapologetically themselves that their work can’t help but be faithful to the ideas they have,” he shares.
