I’ve been thinking more and more about dance music recently. It’s something that I’ve had a fleeting interest in previously but not what I’d chosen to pursue. Having been trapped at home for many more months than I can recall, I thought it would be interesting to push my production in a way that I haven’t previously – as practice and development more than anything.
I got to work with my old broken synths and drums machines, trying to stay clear of cliche and and played out rhythms. I tried to keep the sound of my studio in tact too – given that it was designed with more of an ambient/avant-garde bent it isn’t particularly well suited to this style of things.
All things considered, I think this came out pretty well. There are six (admittedly quite similar) tracks which all sound original enough and interesting enough to share.
I’m happy that the sound of these records is clearly still that of my studio, and the character of that has managed to stay in tact, and that there were relatively few compromises during the whole process.
I’ve probably used most of the gear in my studio, but I think the key elements to the sounds were made using the following: Korg Polysix, Akai MPC 4000 (vocal samples), TC Electronics Fireworks, Toft ATC-2, Vermona DRM1 mkIII, DigiTech RDS 1900, Waldorf MicroWave XT, Novation DrumStation, Yamaha TX81Z, and an eclectic mix of guitar pedals. Oh, and the ART Pro VLA II on the master. Also while not usually being one for VSTs, I did try a demo of some Lexicon reverbs which I found to be wonderful – even if they stressed out the old Mac.
These are still very much demos in my eyes, but I’ve reached a point where I’ve satisfied my need to continue production with them. My plan now is really to strip them back to their individual components, rework them with simpler drum patterns and try some sort of live setup with the MPC.
I do love the artwork.
Downloads