Friday — 7 July, 2014 — saw the official release of a brand new EP by MR SAKITUMI entitled Sweet & Sour Vol. 2.. It follows the release of Vol. 1 (in December 2013), which was the first in his Sweet & Sour Series.

The concept for the venture is about contrasts – a contrast in musical style to his normal signature Mr Sakitumi sound and a contrast of each track featuring two different versions. The ‘sour’ part of each song, consists of a bassier, grimier, harder and dancier version of the track, whilst the ‘sweet’ part being more intimate as a piano/orchestral version. Vol. 2 features newer, more banging tunes along with beautiful, gentler piano/orchestral versions to contrast. For the first time, one of the tracks – ‘Mr & Grrrl (Sour)’ also features The Grrrl on vocals with Mr Sakitumi.

I’m experimenting a bit more with the ‘sours’ in this one, pushing the envelope. It has my fastest track to date ‘Space Fortune Cookie (Sour)’ which clocks in at 180BPM! The ‘sweet’ versions are going to be such great contrasts once again.

VOL.2 still features Mr Sakitumi’s signature epic element which threads through – to a degree ‘Mr & Grrrl (Sour) feat. The Grrrl’ has a lyrical sense of humour. Mr Sakitumi found inspiration for the EP whilst being out at clubs and festivals, hearing friends and DJ’s playing much harder music to what he normally do. Mr Sakitumi always wanted to try a really fast track inspired by this genre, so this is how it came about. He drew on elements, but made it his own.

The EP was written over the last 3 months and mostly recorded in his own studio. He is currently in Berlin, and had to mix most of the EP on headphones, whilst being out of South Africa. Mastering was done by his friend and fellow Lark member, Simon ‘Fuzzy’ Ratcliffe (Sound & Motion Studios), who also mixed the 3 Sour tracks.

As always, I’m excited to put new music out there! This EP pushes me to think and create differently, both in the ‘sweet’ and the ‘sour’ tracks. Vol.2 just became a level up for me!