In Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, a young martial artist finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve the head of a sacred statue. In Ong Bak, the forthcoming EP from Swedish producer Lokey, the artist finds himself reflecting on his own head. Coincidence?
In Lokey’s own words, “[the EP] reflects the headspace I entered when I came home at 4 or 5 in the morning every night while I hadn’t seen the sun for 3 weeks.” While Ong Bak might actually have nothing to do with the 2003 martial arts film of the same name, our intuition does follow the * coughs * laws of reaction, conflict, and self-defense, like codified systems of combat. Indeed, all music is ambient music, unless we cling on to the violences that categorize our perceptions.
Loosen your grip some more and listen to the serenity of Ong Bak’s title track. The full release will be out May 16 via W - I.