Sometimes it feels like the litmus test for an artist's newness is the unavailability of their photograph. There are notable exceptions, but the reluctance and ambivalence to post your face is a very just-starting-out thing to do before your name becomes a stock phrase posted around, demanding an attractive profile pic to make it stick. Liverpool's Dauwd is now known to his friends as David Hilali. His first physical release, the brilliant "Could It Be" single, comes out soon on Pictures Music, but all the tracks have been on his Soundcloud for months. Being a "new artist" probably doesn't matter to him, or impact how he defines his brand of soothing, organic UK Dance-ish productions peppered with careful, interesting samples (a bird's call, ever so faintly, graces "Shimmer"). As Dauwd's name gets bigger—and it really, really should—someday we'll probably see his face, but maybe we don't care and it's cool if he's the Dalai Lama forever.
Download: Dauwd, "Could It Be"
