Chanpan dance between jungle and jazz on stimulating single “buzzin”

Chanpan are the newest cool kids on the block; the trio comprises Grace Dumdaw and the double threat of twin brothers Lance and Matthew Tran. Their music was born from the streets of Chinatown, they eventually came alive from a “positive reception to their busking performances”, and found themselves motoring with the release of 2023’s debut single “jungle”.

Their latest high-energy drop “buzzin” follows a COLORS performance debut, and is as sweet sounding as anything, packed with an aftertaste that lingers long after the track is over. Speaking about the new song, Chanpan shares that it was born from a sample of a video of a sex toy buzzing.

Weaving the sounds of drum & bass, jungle, and pop-infused jazz into a cohesive package, the group's perspectives on their chameleon sound are as interesting as you’d expect. “We are three people with very differing tastes and listening habits,” says Dumdaw. “But we have a shared love of jazz, from growing up near Kansas City and New Orleans, that anchors our sound. We give each other room to devise and layer so our songs are original amalgamations of all of our different instincts.”

Chanpan come tied to a distinctly DIY approach, and for the band, that can only be attributed to the trials and tribulations of making it in NYC as creatives. Space is hard to come by, and most people have to pay to rent out a studio space in order to access a drum set and jam together. “So many of our songs start from a laptop in an apartment,” says Tran. “Limited access to instruments meant we were forced to be much more prudent in what we record, and instead turn to samples and chopping and resampling what we recorded.”

That limitation ended up shaping Chanpan's sound into the meld of electronic and organic that you hear now. “We are totally honored to be living in and influenced by a city with such a rich and living cultural history, and to be making music that people now consider to be a part of NYC culture. We started busking on the street and are now beginning to tour around the entire world... feels like it only could have happened in New York!”

It’s hardly surprising that, with such a love for drum & bass textures, the group are heading over to London next month on a debut trip, headlining at The Lower Third on 11 May. Chanpan's “buzzin” is exactly the type of track that, if played before a hungry and receptive crowd, they are bound to exit with all the right attention captured.