REVIEW: D3WON — Believin feat. Rebecca Brunner (SINGLE)
Chicago’s own D3WON isn’t interested in producing clandestine harmonies in the style of his predecessors in the new single “Believin’” with Rebecca Brunner this September. On the contrary, this player is intent on pushing the surreal envelope as much as he can with a psychedelic-tinged beat scheme that can only be described as divine when paired with Brunner’s enigmatic lyricism. With velvety vocals on one side and a charismatic beat seeping through the cracks on the other, the likelihood of you getting lost in the hypnosis in “Believin’” is almost certain this autumn; and I say this having fallen under the track’s spell just recently.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/d3won_music/?hl=en
Brunner’s vocal is such a terrific complement to the sonic depth of the bassline and the percussion here, but it doesn’t break up the cool, removed tone of the synth parts at all. I don’t know that the singing was meant to cut through the hollow frontend of the master mix so much as it was meant to create a little definition beside the lead guitar in the latter half of the song, inspiring both catharsis and a sense of adventure we might not have noticed in a setup different from the one D3WON went with in this scenario.
At over four minutes in total length, there’s a compositional ambitiousness to this piece that seems to bleed into the performance Brunner is giving behind the mic, making every powerful moment feel as though it could last for a lifetime. Without inviting a lot of negative excess into the mix, D3WON is able to straddle several different themes in “Believin’,” neo-soul and post-rock among them. It would be interesting to hear him collaborate with a straight avant-gardist, particularly in a setting where he wouldn’t be as restricted by lyrical narratives as he is with a singer as talented as this one is in the studio with him.
I will say that despite the superb polish over this track, the broken beat has a DIY feel that imparts authenticity where it counts the most, further illustrating the legitimacy of this player’s rising star status in the Chicago underground. There’s no credibility behind the scene politics that separate smart players from the potential they can unlock within themselves, and D3WON is an artist who lends no quarter to the kind of drama and prerequisite conceptualism that would otherwise leave his dreams in arrested development. He knows who he wants to be, and most of all, the kind of records he wants to produce.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Believin-feat-Rebecca-Brunner/dp/B08BFVX54H
One of my favorite songs off of his 2020 debut LP, “Believin’” is D3WON doing what he does best and bringing along a very gifted singer for the ride. R&B gets a futuristic hue in this performance and circumvents the camp that a lot of funk tracks were forced to sport beside their postmodern elements, and to me, that’s the kind of revolutionary moment in pop worth getting really excited about this fall. D3WON is a star in the making, and that’s indisputable when listening to his all-new single.
Colin Jordan
