In Sunsets in Bushwick, New York-based producer Mikayli delivers a vivid, emotional journey through time, tone, and texture. Even more impressive is Mikayli’s willingness to self-release such an ambitious project.
I had a chance to listen to the seven-track mini-album, and wrote down my thoughts on my first impression, then was able to do a follow up interview with the man himself:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
The project opens with Bad No More, a lush curtain-raiser that sets the album’s tone. Its live-sounding breaks, guitars, and horns blur the line between studio precision and street-corner warmth. From there, Sunday — featuring rachel-alice and LuFilthy — pairs call-and-response vocals with sunlit optimism, evoking that hazy afterparty feeling of friendship and renewal.
As the record unfolds, Growth and Blue deepen the palette. ‘Growth’ begins with a nostalgic piano phrase, bringing in natural sounding breakbeats and ethereal, whispering vocals before giving way to a halftime symphony of brass with the same natural sounding drums, but slowing things down. Overall the track feels uplifting.
‘Blue’ begins with echoing laughter and a deeper electric piano. The drums on this track flutter in an almost jungle-like pattern, with more crisp and modernity. rachel-alice’s vocals bring a certain longing and melancholy to this otherwise emotional yet upbeat track. The track ends with yet another halftime section, reinforcing the sound Mikayli brings from his previous discography.
The Growth->Blue->Nightcap run feels like the passage of time from the afternoon into evening into twilight. Fluttering synths and textured are layered over a melancholic a subtle synth phrase I think is one of the catchiest underlicks of the entire release. This is one of those songs you’d listen to while driving in the middle of the night – just thinking about life and where things are headed. Nightcap also continues the pattern of featuring a turn in its second half, featuring a tasteful drum & bass electric guitar solo before returning to the nostalgic synth line.
‘Sunrise Symphony’ with The Big Tones continues the passage of time into the morning. The track is true to its name – with fluttering synth lines layered amongst enveloping vocals and natural sounding horns. The track drips nostalgia.
‘How did we get here’ builds on the sunrise energy, and is arguably the “hardest” dnb track on the project, but it keeps things tasteful by layering Mikayli’s signature background horns and electric piano over top otherwise dirty basslines. The bridge again gives way to a signature Mikayli halftime section, before headed back to the chill and symphonic sound that embodies this project. Ordered yet chaotic, the track feels like traversing New York City traffic, then finally getting to your destination. And with that, the album ends.
Overall, it’s clear the piece flows like a single day in Brooklyn, from golden-hour reflections to late-night introspection, fusing liquid drum & bass with organic instrumentation and heartfelt vocal work. Ultimately I was so blown away I had to reach out to Mikayli for an interview to find out more about the project:
Interview with Mikayli
Q: You mentioned these songs began months ago. How did this process differ from your past projects?
A: “I actually started working on this album the day after I got back from Submersion Festival last year. That week, I was on a creative high and ended up writing six or seven different drum and bass tracks of all kinds. After a while, I realized a lot of what I was making leaned toward a more liquid and chill DnB sound, so I decided to really focus on that direction.
About five months later, I had around twelve tracks, and that’s when the concept for Sunsets in Bushwick started to take shape. I began building a vision around it, creating a sonic and visual mood board. Eventually, I narrowed it down to the six tracks that best captured what I wanted the project to represent. The final piece I made was “How Did We Get Here,” which I wrote as a kind of send-off, blending in more sound design elements as a nod to my roots and the sound I started with.”
Q: Is Sunsets in Bushwick technically your debut album?
A: “Sunsets in Bushwick is my debut “mini-album.” For my full-length debut, I want to create something more diverse, a project that moves through all the genres I love to produce. The full length album will tell a story across different tempos. Sunsets in Bushwick, on the other hand, was more of an emotional snapshot, a collection of tracks connected by a shared mood and feeling.”
Q: Do you view this as an evolution of the Mikayli sound? Or more so an isolated body of work?
A: “I view the “Sunsets in Bushwick” project as an extension to Mikayli. My project isn’t meant to be confined to one sound. I like to express myself through all the different genres, from Hip-Hop, to Drum & Bass, to RnB, and beyond bass music. The goal of this project is to blur the boundaries of all the genres. I want to bring artists of all different genres together and create something special.”
About Mikayli:
Queens-born and New York-based, Mikayli has carved out a distinct lane in the experimental and bass music circuits. His technical chops as a mixer, engineer, and performer have taken him from Infrasound to Elements Festival, and venues like The Black Box and The Ogden Theater, where he’s supported kLL sMTH. With releases on Deadbeats, Aspire Higher, Sweet Spot Sounds, and Gradient Perspective, he continues to bridge the gap between the underground and the emotional, redefining what liquid DnB can be in 2025.