Photo by Transmental [Meniskos is Kawaakari (pouring out the liquor) and Spendee (far right)]

Ages: 27 & 24 • Neighborhood: Logan Square • Follow: Twitter // SoundCloud

[A Meniskos (Greek: μηνίσκος, plural Meniskoi, English translation: "crescent moon") is a bronze disk mounted above some Greek statues on an iron nail drilled through the statue's head. - Wikipedia]

Made up of best friends and roommates Kawaakari and Spendee, Meniskos is a production duo you might not have heard about. They came on my radar while they were in the midst of releasing three EPs in three months. Not only were these EPs unique and completely instrumental, but they were fully conceptual. The first, Weather, features weather reports and vintage samples of brewing storms. The songs have titles like "Why We Need the Wind" and "How the Thunder and Lightning Came to Be". They followed that up with Hunger, a six song EP with education attached. For example, clicking on the song "Hidarugami's Interlude", you will given a link that directs you to reading that "If you are walking through a mountain trail, and find yourself overcome with a sudden hunger—a soul-killing hunger that drives you to your knees like true starvation—you might need to do more than reach into your backpack for an energy bar. You might be under attack by the Hidarugami, the Hunger Gods."

After these two EPs, Meniskos dropped Frequencies, five songs about different sound levels. Clicking on "RE - 417Hz" will read: "Intent: undoing situations and facilitating change. The next main tone from the Solfeggio scale produces energy to bring about change. This frequency cleanses traumatic experiences and clears destructive influences of past events. When speaking of cellular processes, tone ‘Re’ encourages the cell and its functions in an optimal way. 417 Hz frequency puts you in touch with an inexhaustible source of energy that allows you to change your life."

What more do you need? All three of these EPs were released in 2014 and if they flew under your radar, be sure to take that flight. While Meniskos have yet to deliver a proper follow-up, I'm told they are hard at work on something forthcoming, something sample-free. In the meantime, member Kawaakari is constantly mixing and mastering projects over at Classick Studios (for Appleby, Ravyn Lenae, and others), and both members of Meniskos have been producing for artists like Kolby Woods, sipsake, Breevie the L.A.M.E. and more. If you dive into the world of the collective Nefelibata Tribe, a collective of friends (all pictured above), you'll discover a soulful world full of Meniskos backdrops. For those unfamiliar with the word Nefelibata, according to Urban Dictionary, it means "cloud walker: one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination, or one who does not obey by the conventions of society, literature, or art." Get familiar.