Cherry Tree by Tarek Funk & Onglish
Cherry Tree EP is the artchild of Onglish and Tarek Funk. Cherry Tree is a lyrical deep dive into Tarek's mind. His bold poetic multi-syllabic verses contain reflections on his Syrian-Palestinian identity and the global resilience of working-class people in the face of capitalist colonial neo-feudal systems of governance and oppression. Onglish produces a backdrop of grimy Hip Hop beats influenced by almost 15 years spent building the scene in Hamilton. Additionally, Tarek's frequent collaborator Lee Reed joins him on We Massive, and DJ Rac One provides cuts on the title track & Relax.
HOTFOAM
Latest Project
Reading Wavs - Onglish
[Ambient Beat Tape]
Bio
Onglish is a reinvention.
Born Brett Klassen in a small town in Southern Manitoba, Onglish has performed in bands, DJ crews, hip hop duos and as a solo act consistently reinventing himself in genres ranging from hardcore, house, pop, yacht-rock, ambient and anything his musical appetite desires. Throughout his years of creation, he has gone back and forth from being a vocalist and producer. For Brett, Onglish feels like something can give meaning to, an invention of reinvention; unfinished, imperfect, but innovative.
He has been a music producer since his brother downloaded a cracked version of FL Studio to their family computer when he was in grade 6. Since then he has worked with a wide variety of Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning artists from Canada and the USA, working with singers, rappers, and poets and contributing to theatre productions and art installations. Most recently, Onglish produced all of the music for Messy: A Chaotic Black Femme Rage Musical, which played at the Hamilton Fringe Festival (2024).
He describes his latest project, Reading Wavs, as an ambient beat tape; "Functionally, the project works well to put on while reading. Reading Wavs. Simple as that: Ambiance for reading." says Onglish. Building on the sound he has pursued on Wav Pocket (2019) and Skywav Broadcasting OST (2020), this instrumental project is a more intimate look into the producer's life starting with aligning himself with the BDS movement on Bookshare, Bankrupt, Boycott, denouncing the modern capitalistic A.I. usage as being counter-revolutionary on A.I. Can't Write Graffiti, remembering the closure of the downtown youth centre he worked at called The SPACE on Centring, and building a soundscape out of noises made by his partner Aisha while she worked from home on the aptly titled Aisha Works From Home. The ambient beat tape is populated by field recordings of water, rocks, wood, synths, voices, samples, and percussion. It is as emotionally evocative as reading a book; sometimes disorienting and a little strange but overall a meditative experience in understanding oneself and another.
![SOAP - WHIFF - Dappling (Saturday Morning) ft. Eye-Sha - [COVER ART].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62684de392de84165ea65938/4c40ddf7-7f2d-40bd-bd2f-63ddc3fc26df/SOAP+-+WHIFF+-+Dappling+%28Saturday+Morning%29+ft.+Eye-Sha+-++%5BCOVER+ART%5D.jpg)
