It is safe to say that Ridin is as much a song infused with BASE’s Lebanese roots as it is with by the influences of his current Los Angeles base. It certainly has all the hallmarks of music made for the US market but amongst its western grooves and four-four dance rhythms there is also evidence of more eastern infusions. These exotic elements may have been rendered into electronic form, drifting hazes of warm sonics, intricate musical motifs which colour the edges of song and otherworldly treatment of the vocals, but there is something wonderfully all-encompassing about its charms.
And it is such music which is truly reflective of the world we live in today. A world where music-makers are truly global, mixing and matching the influences which reflect their own story, a creative clash of cultures, the sound of unity rather than division. Ridin would sound at home on any dance-floor, in any club, anywhere in the world and it is perhaps the fact that its musical DNA is so wonderfully unique, which makes it so hard to pin down. Its beats are confident and solid but allow for enough space to hang all manner of great sounds within its structure, from skittering electronica to futuristic vocals, from synth sound waves to punctuating bass pulses.
And the result is a track which is infectious and sassy but which also says something about todays world, but only if you look for the signs. I’ve never known what world music is, but perhaps it is merely music made by people who don’t allow geography or genre, culture or conformity to get in the way of the music that they make. If that is the new definition of world music, then this is surely it.
