A dirty, gritty electro number this one. The essential groove is insistent but with sweeps and some delayed guitars, it moves along nicely. The drums are overdriven (consciously so) and compressed within an inch of their life. This give the acoustic sound the power needed to compete with the other powerful parts.
Like many of my tracks, it is essentially in a traditional song structure and has plenty of space in the mix for a vocal. Really, this would be essential for it to be anything other than a reasonable instrumental. Vocalists; form a disorderly queue.
Where’s that from? Ooh, it sounds so familiar this guitar riff. The clue is in the title for those struggling. This track is based around a sample from one of the greatest bands to come from the Motown label. If, by some cruel twist of fate you are a lawyer for said label, I’d just like to point out that I’m just a struggling musician which perhaps even the Temptations were once. Oh balls, that’s let the cat out of the bag hasn’t it? Well, in the interest of artistic transparency it’s Cloud Nine; go and buy it, listen to the differences and feel free to post a comment.
Personally, the upright bass felt right from the beginning. There is no over reliance on the sample with plenty of original added parts and although I’ve got a version without it, I feel it is another track entirely to the original. In order to keep the listener from getting tired of the sample, there’s a question and answer structure: The question being the Temptations riff, the answer being my own delayed acoustic guitar part. The part that I am particularly proud of is the breakdown at 2′20″. The insistent chords that come in just seem to wash over you with the samples plus the chopped up drums it’s an understated but effective 16 bar build up. No machine gun snares here just a fusion of the old and new.
So, Mr (or Mrs) Lawyer send me an email and let’s do a deal.
Once, when I was feeling frivolous and was too young to realise the value of money, I took a taxi home through West London just as dawn was breaking. I’d love to say I got home, fired up the old PC I was using at the time and wrote this track but unfortunately I got home lay down and thought; “wow! That taxi ride was really, really zzzzz…” Months later, this tune came together and before anyone calls me tone deaf, the slight dissonance is deliberate. It’s pretty timely with the Chemical Brothers using a it on The Salmon Song. Theirs feels a bit too much for me, but that’s a difference of musical opinion. I wanted to encapsulate that slightly wrong feeling you get going home after a big night out and for some reason the two step beat and old school bass did it for me. It’s not something you’d dance to nor is it full on chill-out; it’s in between the two.
As a producer of a lot of four-to-the-floor material, breaks can be a welcome relief and a creative challenge. This track has a special appeal for me as it is the sole survivor of a fatal hard drive failure a few years ago. The drums were custom as were the synth stabs used to underpin the whole track. It put me off doing so much work for a while after it happened; pain in the arse, computers. It’s pretty hard, tempered by some strings both legato and pizzicato in the bridge. Could be a tough edged film soundtrack piece, coming at the end when the credits roll. Much like Extreme Ways by Moby at the end of the Bourne films. Play it from the first time the drums drop 8 seconds in and see what I mean. . .
A synth string intro gives way to a piano melody as the different elements of the rhythm section are introduced. A piano part in trance never hurt Robert Miles, so this track in good company. As a melody, I’ve tried leaving it out of the breakdown but here it’s left in so decide for yourself. After the build up, the piano stops and the synth pads take over driving a hand-in-the-air moment 2 minutes in
Trance relies on a lot of automation to keep thing moving and the subject track of this post - Europhile is no different. It involves gates and all sorts of other business that most people are (quite rightly) bored by. The important result is a moving melody that pulses, along with the harmony; combining rhythm and tonality.
This track started with the acoustic Guitar and really took shape after the piano stabs were added. It has a Spanish Flamenco vibe thanks to some stamping, clapping and finger snaps all provided by the excellent BFD Percussion Expansion Pack (see the About page for a kit list). The contrast of a fairly hard 4/4 kick with house-style hi-hats and the jazz kit parts was to make the pounding beat have more impact and give a shuffle to the “verse” sections.
