As stated a few days ago, I temporarily shifted my focus on artists and not the music entirely, since the so-called established names are having a hard time to release impressive tracks as before. Let’s talk about one of my favorite producers around: Zafrir. He reminds me of KSHMR for some specific reasons, albeit there are differences which makes him further intriguing.
Like KSHMR was introduced with the hyped ID “Megalodon”, Zafrir unexpectedly popped up in the scene a couple of years back (although there are some older releases as Zafrir Ifnach, his full name) with a boom. His début was a collaboration with Armin van Buuren, Vini Vici and Alok. Yep. Probably one of the massive debuts ever, and hence I suspected that the guy must have fiscally wrenched himself inside this synergy, at the end of important list of features.
After a number of releases, I can admit my initial observation about Zafrir being wrong, and he indeed was a crucial part in the making of “United”. Akin to KSHMR, the said artist might have been a co/ghost producer for other significant names, enhancing his network before moving onto his main alias.
Since we are comparing the two names, the second parallel drawn here is of course the ethnic sound palettes: Zafrir often includes Arabic and African instruments in his creations, usually in Psy-Trance or Brazilian Bass oriented ideas.
However, the Israelite producer has a strange marketing strategy, chaotic if put along side KSHMR’s career (with a mysterious alias and well-designed free downloads). He released on many labels, depending on the various genres of his songs: Revealed, Rave Culture, Dharma, Controversia, even Generation Smash and inHarmony! Sometimes he presents complex, exotic structures, like “Esso Esso” and the other times forgettable standard ideas, such as “Warfare” and “Zangi”. The collabs could be with stars like AvB or Alok as well with new names such as Grimix or STVNS.
I can’t grasp his strategy, as he seems to follow a random pattern, perfectly fine for a so-called “artist”, one who keeps inventing and following new roads! KSHMR adopted a more business-oriented campaign (as he got a contract with Spinnin’), while the latter simply seems to enjoy making music and sharing it around, with humility and hard-work aplenty.
Those are the rationales on why I have much respect for the mentioned personality, even if I despise his Brazilian Bass; he doesn’t stringently follow the defined EDM business rules, and thus create and experiment to his wish. With this he brings a whole new level of inception in the ethnic EDM niche, since KSHMR’s origin. I’m waiting for a new collab between the pair, since “The Prayer” didn’t fully convince me, considering their potential.
What do you think?
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