Wax Motif Turned FOMO Into Dance Floor Dark Magic on 'Tokyo' EP: Premiere

Wax Motif
Armando Fragoza Barajas

Wax Motif

Withholding is a sick kind of punishment, but when one withholds from oneself, great things sometimes grow. Maybe you'll create some fire tracks, like Wax Motif and his two-tune EP Tokyo.

"I decided to stay home and work instead of going to Coachella weekend 1 and started getting serious FOMO,” the L.A.-based Australian says in an emailed statement. “The only thing I could do was switch my phone off, get off socials and go in.  I made 'Tokyo' and most of 'Make It Rain' that night and sleepily decided to shoot them to Tchami and pass out. I wake up and there's a bunch of WhatsApp replies, saying the tracks are sick and asking what I was doing with them. I think we both already knew they belonged on [dance label] Confession."

Tchami is a purveyor of the darker side of funk, and in that sense, Tokyo is perfectly at home on his label. The title track is devilish house at its grooviest. A Japanese xylophone melody brightens the heavy bass between bum-shaking wonks. The groove goes one deeper on “Make It Rain,” a cool, synth-heavy hit that once again drives the listener to get low on the murky, bass-fueled dance floor.

Everything about this two-track EP is bootylicious. Listen to it in full below, out everywhere on Confession, and next time you feel like you've just got to go to that cool party, consider that the real party might be in your head.


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