DJ Unknown drops a brand new video "Farewell" ahead of his uniquely creative new studio album "Leaving Earth"

Experience the epic animated video for "Farewell" from DJ Unknown's upcoming album Leaving Earth. This stunning CGI space opera tells the emotional story of humanity leaving Earth, set to the powerful fusion of live instrumentation and electronic production.

Music

This song is a metaphor for my shifting from “just” a beat maker to a full on composer / producer.  It was the first beat I made when starting this project, and I intentionally let the hip hop beat ride for a good minute, to symbolise my past as a beat maker.  However, when the change occurs around the 1 minute mark, I switch gears and let the band open and up roar with power chords and heavy rock drumming.  This is the moment I personally “left earth” (ie left my past self) and embraced a more genre free approach to song writing.  This song is me waving goodbye to the limitations I had put on myself as a beat maker.  This was the first song I wrote on this album - and it started as a loop. I wanted the song to have dark and ominous tones that move to a rebellious feel as it climaxes, bringing the listener to the point where they feel like “something has to happen”.  The final cuts are all b-movie space samples about leaving earth and exploring space - but really, it's about us, and taking a leap of faith.

Story

This is the start of the story, where Ohm Phono, the main character - a DJ set in a future dystopia where his whole city is run by AI algorithms.  Ohm comes to the realisation that he feels trapped in the capitalist algorithm that is his city. He bides his time as a robot repairman, doing small jobs, and wishing to break free.  As Ohm tries to find his way, he ends up getting caught up in the corruption within the City of New Hope Ltd. Ohm takes a deal from a corrupt politician who was a client of his repair shop.  Meanwhile, he learns taht his best friend is getting involved in the brewing rebellion against their corporate  overlords, and they are trying to destroy the algorithm.  Feeling torn, confused and spiralling spiritually, Ohm consults his uncle Kenrick, who lives off grid in the trash district of the city, and Kenrick tells him that his soul needs nourishing, and that happiness is not transactional - the algorithm may not be the problem

This whole time, Ohm is being watched by a shadowy being, lurking in and around his shop, and following him on his various encounters around the city…..

Farewell is out now- https://urbnet.com/dj-unknown-farewell

Leaving Earth is out Friday 29th November- https://djunknown-urbnet.bandcamp.com/album/leaving-earth

For more information on DJ Unknown:

https://www.instagram.com/deejay__unknown

https://urbnet.com/dj-unknown
https://x.com/deejayunknown

Album Summary - Leaving Earth

In general, I started this record as an attempt to pay homage to Dj Shadow’s classic album “Entroducing”.

I spent 6 months listening to records and cataloguing samples, as I wanted to produce a full length, sample based album that had many moods and arrangements.

After 6 months of digging in the crates, I started working on the songs.  I produced 3 beats over a weekend that were mostly one section loops, and that's when I got stuck.  All the samples I catalogued still sounded dope on their own, but I had trouble visualising how to string any of them together within a single song to create different arrangements.

One weekend, after sitting on those beats for about a week, I decided to take a fresh approach that I hadnt done before. I loaded up an electric guitar VST and jammed some guitar riffs on some open drums on song 1 (Farewell).  What happened next caught me off guard, as I these riffs that just started pouring out of me. 

Over the course of the next 2 weeks I wrote the ENTIRE Leaving Earth album using a blend of samples and VST instruments.

It was a true moment of inspiration, all the music I loved outside of hip hop was pouring through me and manifesting in this album. All the while, I started forming this story narrative about a DJ who feels trapped on earth, and longs to leave the planet to explore the wonders of the universe.

I had the whole album done, and started playing it for my band mates - and their response was universal “This music is fantastic dude, but you gotta let us play the rock arrangements as a band”

And thus, the final interaction of this album was born - a hybrid of sample based hip hop with live band hard rock, with a DJ as the lead.  I am not sure there’s anything really like it out there, but in spirit, I think its still a direct descendent of Entroducing.