… One mindbending remix at a time

Name: Sinjin Hawke

Where He’s From: Montreal, currently residing in Barcelona

Genre: Instrumental hip-hop, re-imagined

Most Similar: DJ Raff

The Sound: DK Khaled riding a golden Pegasus through azure skies

There’s been much ado about the halting, sometimes awkward fornication happening between mainstream US hip-hop and Euro-style EDM happening these days (see our Crookers interview). Yet  despite all their synergies, hip-hop and electronic music still orbit in different solar systems, for the most part.

Enter Sinjin Hawke. The Barcelona-based producer (of Montrealer extraction) has made a name for himself in the club world by transforming the biggest imaginable hip-hop and R&B club-bangers (Beyonce’s “Countdown,”  DJ Khaled’s “I’m On One,” The Dream’s “Fancy”) into futuristic, danceable sound-poems.  In Sinjin’s hands, these omnipresent jams take on a new emotional life, joined by frozen pianos, otherworldly synthesizers and glimmering curtains of sound.

“In a way, it seems that ‘mainstream’ and ‘underground’ are always inspiring and stealing from one another and they seem to be getting more and more harmonious with each other,” said Sinjin in an interview with Live For The Funk, while explaining the concept behind his creations.

Although his DJ career has been made largely on the strength of those unofficial remixes, Sinjin isn’t only about the radio hits. He’s also been known to remix the likes of Brooklyn avant-pop group Lemonade, and this year, he put out an EP of original instrumentals, titled The Lights, on Belgium’s formidable Pelican Fly imprint. The EP’s tracks are made up of trap and footwork beats layered with the shimmering, emotional sounds that have become Sinjin’s trademark. One second there’s a sizurpy, pitched-down vocal; the next, a glorious electronic harp glissando.

Stream a teaser for The Lights EP below.