LightWav Music is a recording collective started by Seattle-area producers Bogi and Sir Nicolas. Also part of LightWav is local producer Pheso, the latter of who won Beatmatch 2019. Together, they create a space for all local talents to advance their musical development. Talents have been quietly flooding out of this studio, dropping some major projects in the last month, which the collective features on their Instagram. Artist such as Rara, Justin Hale, and Cenzo, who is also part of the LightWav collective, are a few.

Rara

Rara, based out of Seattle, teamed up with LightWav to infuse her honey into some homemade lemonade. Dropping her debut single, ”Lemonade,” Rara owns her dominance in new found romance. She sweetly serenades her man with her enticingly sweet honeytongue. Love making never sounded so fresh.

The song is a medley with an electric piano acting as the pastiche of strokes of a harp. The beat unveils with hints of synth clicking and pressing lyricism like “know you want it / you can get it / bring that ass here,” demanding the love she needs. 

Rara’s urgency, as she counts the time of anticipation with “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” before her lover arrives, presents confidence in this song, as she expresses what she wants. This sound paints a picture of a woman meeting the right man, and, once they have stirred the pitcher, they create a sweet lemonade that they can’t stop drinking from. Assertive in her tone and lyrics, Rara — matched with LightWav — is display of pure mastery. 

Justin Hale

This mastery doesn’t stop there, as we hear the magic of LightWav production in Justin Hale’s full-length album, March Madness. Following his 2018 EP, Rain City, and his 2019 EP, Thorns, he continues to drop pure confidence. Hale brings hometown Los Angeles vibes to Seattle as he places bars like “I don’t have too many friends / I fell asleep counting the bands,” exclaiming his motivation for chasing his dreams. The album is a walk into fame glorifying Hale’s abilities as a man and an artist.

The production is timed to make the sound of Hale simple, direct, and timeless. LightWav adds flare to songs “Fate,” “Baby Girl,” “Madness,” “Lonzo Ball,” and “Love Letters from LA, Pt. 3.” LightWav’s production dominates March Madness with layers of intricate instruments to match these songs. “Madness” especially develops this intricateness, as the production boosts a smooth manifestation of reverberation of how madness can translate.

Cenzo

The production team at LightWav has magic that holds debonair and simplicity. With his self-titled EP, Cenzo brings himself into his sound. He produces 80s beats enmeshed with disco influence from his upbringing. DJing for the last seven years, Cenzo wrote his first tracks in his recent music project. Infusing a fresh take into modern EDM with old school influences, he tries to inflict a carefree attitude to all who listen. 

Songs like “Follow” remind me of Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” and Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines.” Inklings of this flavor resonate throughout the instrumental dance EP as a taste of hip hop nostalgia. The influence of old school hip hop and disco has made Cenzo into a magician of sound as he blends the two to manifest something new in this EP.

We especially get the disco aspects in songs like “Takeoff,” as Cenzo incorporates more four-on-the-floor rhythms with light vocals faded into the background. The timing of these songs are spot on as Cenzo manages to place every sound possible into pockets that isolate them into their own. This EP fits neatly into our hip hop and disco pockets as we cruise through the city or get ready for the night of our lives. 

LightWav divulges all styles of music, from R&B to EDM, as they make waves in the Seattle music scene. Be on the lookout for their next hits, as they might dive into your genre next.