Episode 114: Between Dreams

Last Wednesday’s episode of Step to the Music was another Grey Area experiment. This time, rather than focus on the usefulness of triplet polyrhythms in switching between 170 BPM Drum’n’Bass and 127 BPM Techno, I limited the pallet to Grey Area and D’n’B, keeping the beats per minute at 170. The first third of the playlist sticks with D’n’B, segueing from the lush, Leone-tinged cinematic jazzstep of Amon Tobin to an austere Autonomic feel. Then the experiment begins: Lemna’s “Dice” shifts to a shifting Techno feel, before Clarity takes us back to Autonomic. This is the first time I’ve used a Grey Area track without it being a transition between different tempos! The flirtation with a slower BPM is, in this case, just a tease.

The middle third of the mix sticks with Grey Area, playing three tracks in a row. This is another first for me, and the power of extending the rhythmic ambivalence without resolving it either way came as quite a surprise to me! After the first two experiments, with their wild tempo swings, the idea for this one seemed tame until I actually tried it out. I’ve apparently been unfair to Grey Area in only thinking of it as a DJ tool to jump between wildly varying tempos. It can stand well on its own!

The middle section ends with Stickman’s “Tunnelled,” a track I’d previously tried to mix in with little success. It’s a tad too weird to work in most contexts. Following the unhinged noise of Ena, it comes across as a tuneful relief.

The final third starts with another Grey Area tune, and then back to Autonomic before shifting to more standard D’n’B sounds and ending on quite a frenetic note. If I were to do this one again, I’d move the dBridge track to the end where it could serve as a proper warmdown.

The next idea that presents itself is for a similar mix, but one that goes back and forth between 127 BPM Techno and Grey Area Techno without any D’n’B at all…

• Amon Tobin – Straight Psyche [Foley Room]
• Interline – Servant [Nurtured Beatz Xmas Freebie 2014]
• Sam KDC – Between Dreams [Horo Vision]
• Genotype – Further Searching [Mosaic Vol. 1]
• Lemna – Dice [Urge Theory]
• Clarity – A Thousand And One [Infinite]
• ASC – Collider [Point of Origin]
• Lemna – DLPFC [Urge Theory]
• Ena – 2nd Divided [Divided]
• Stickman – Tunnelled [Horo Scope]
• ??? – #2 [Grey Area Volume One]
• dBridge – Forgot What I Needed To Forget [Mosaic Vol. 1]
• Gremlinz & Homemade Weapons – Ruff Age [Fallen EP]
• Mineral – Other Life (Trisector Mix) [Mineral EP]
• HMR – Raw [A New Tribe]

BPM: 170