After 10 years classical training, nearly as long performing in orchestras
and bands, and about 4 years composing, SpaceChild introduced me to
Impulse Tracker and thus set me on the road to exploring the infinite power
of the PC in making music.
That was about 4 years ago.
The second ever hipnotic track made it into issue #10 of Computer Music. The
addiction grew; I soon progressed to Buzz and by Spring 2000 I completed
my first EP, music to fall asleep to. Shortly afterwards I joined keiretsu, which was to revolutionise my songwriting and confirm music as the dominant pursuit of my life. intended as
a live drumnbass band, keiretsu soon grew to a 12-member behemoth with a
palette of dnb, breaks, jazz, trance, ambient, folk, rock and much more.
in october 2000 I co-founded dnbscene.com,
a website dedicated to highlighting the finest cuts from the underground
scene whilst offering advice, support and community for up-and-coming producers.
we now have over 850 artists and over 650 tracks reviewed and rated.
during the end of 2000 I did some post-production and mastering on keiretsu's
first cd, the vortex studies ep (a 500-copy limited edition run, now nearly
sold out). meanwhile, I completed the tracks for the second hipnotic ep, burning bridges.
APC Magazine ran the title track from this
ep at the start of 2001, but after this the hipnotic alias fell into creative
disuse while I concentrated on dnbscene.com and put my studio time into
other projects. at first, this was producing and co-producing tracks for
keiretsu's second cd,
the seismosis ep. then a long-held and barely dormant penchant for heavy funk
surfaced, and the dragon base all stars,
with housemate and bandmate tim robinson co-producing, were born in the summer of
2001.
my attention then turned to the dark side of dancefloor drumnbass and breaks,
and the solipse outlet was created.
with the burgeoning array of production projects and djs within the keiretsu
camp, d:art recordings was
launched to oversee their development.
that autumn, Computer Music
featured one dragon base all star track ("great tune, great stuff"), while
Future Music made the other Demo of
the Month in issue #117 ("makes jamiroquai sound like a twee pop band").
In January 2002, dnbscene.com relaunched
with a new skinnable look, more great new features, and exciting ambitions in the
pipeline. In Feburary 2002, Computer
Music (yes, them again!) announced they were selecting keiretsu's flagship
track 'seismosis' as Demo of the Month for issue #45.
And I decided it was about time to gather all this new experience, return to
hipnotic, and see where I could take it now...