Some techno for you…
Dystodrift is the lead track. It’s based on an idea that was sitting around since 1997. My old Spirit mixing desk sounded very nice when overloaded, making this very intense sound like a didgeridoo. So I put in some drums with some pitch bend. I re-discovered the track this year while remixing music by one of my old bands. Turns out there were enough melodic ideas already there to develop the intense vibe. What really lifted it was using some new old synths which are better than the old synths I had in 1997 (honestly that make sense, read it again lol). These are a MiniMoog and an ARP2600 (not real ones, computer models). So with those and some little musical tricks I’ve picked up since then, the track took shape. Then there was this really great drumming by Declan Campion, so I made some loops of that and it’s the big beat that kicks in halfway through. Thanks Dec, it was worth all the work 🙂
Track 2 is inpsired by bonzai (she’s all lower case as well, cool) saw her at the Forbidden Fruit Festival this year– awesome show.
Transitions 3 is a bit of sound design in Kontakt with samples I made in 1999 of a Cristal Baschet at the Triskel Arts Centre, an amazing sculptural instrument.
Leeds Warehouse (club mix) is inspired by the work of Mark Bell of LFO (RIP) who was an amazing producer whose work inspired me back then. I programmed the drums from a Wild Beasts song into a Roland TR-909 (again a computer model, not an actual 909). That guy is an AMAZING drummer.
Transition 4 is loosely based on the choir chords from “Leeds 1990” but in a more pensive key, with a Gregorian choir I nicked from Thomas Dolby’s soundtrack for the film Gothic (great music, his first time with an orchestra, real genius). He was tongue-in-cheek-annoyed about it when I told him years ago, when I emailed him a couple of times at his Headspace company; because he said spent so much time sampling it into the Fairlight LOL. Seriously, he really doesn’t mind. It turns up on the Prefab Sprout (love them) song Micheal as well, and now I’ve used it too. It’s a nice way to come down from those dance beats.
Download the full EP on Bandcamp
I hope you like it 🙂