NYC based producer/DJ Chris Malinchak has touched fans internationally through his worldly fusion of jazz, r&b, and electronic music. Fast forward to 2020, and Malinchak, who refuses to be constrained by one genre, is getting ready to release his most ambitious project to date, his first original full-length album. For Malinchak, there is no limit to the future. Fresh off the tail of his newest single release “Somebody,” we’ve asked the musician to help us reach nirvana with his personal playlist of tracks to wind down to.
“When you’re playing with people you love playing with, a song like this never ends! See how the whole feel changes as it takes you out? Everyone starts riffing, adding more, going different places…like how the guitar does that 16th note down line A-G#-F# with the organ right there too? Incredible!”
“The bass holds this down. And the chords in that other section, the way the vocals play across them, are you kidding??”
“Originally done by Shuggie Otis, The Brothers Johnson hit it a little harder. It’s a haunting song, so full of feeling, like a funk-soul fairytale.”
“With the adrenaline of the stage coursing through you, this song goes on forever! But when you’ve said all you have to say, you just start in with that final guitar lick and the rest of the band knows it’s time”
“I love this record way too much. It’s got that stompy strut in the break. Grrrr.”
“This is a particularly good feeling guitar line to play. Just feels mean. Anthemic, tough, dark and groovy. As I’m writing this I’m suddenly struck by how profoundly the physicality of an instrument affects things. It feels a certain way to play that line on a guitar. It doesn’t feel the same on a piano. Additionally, the architecture of an instrument encourages certain things or goes so far as to make others not possible! Bananas!”
“If you wake up, pick up a bass and play this, you will smile for the rest of the day.”
“If I’m holding it down solo, I’ll do the sax with the right hand. There is a certain loose precision to this. It needs to be handled just so. It swings in 5/4. It’s just so cool.”
