Five Tracks: SPL

If DAD loves anything, it's drum & bass. What's interesting about the EDM scene of today is that there are a lot of prominent producers who were killi

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

If DAD loves anything, it's drum & bass. What's interesting about the EDM scene of today is that there are a lot of prominent producers who were killing it on the dnb scene, only to blow up bigger when they switched into dubstep or other forms of bass music. While many chose to change their names to escape any hate surrounding their new sound, you have producers like SPL who powered through any hate and won. His aggressive sound was picked up by the likes of Tech Itch Recordings, Evol Intent, Freak, and Sinuous, but as you'll see in his own words, he got tired of the dnb scene and moved onto dubstep, and gained steam with SMOG, Play Me, Argon and other solid imprints backing his tracks, including this week's release on Rottun.

For his edition of Five Tracks, you get to track SPL's growth, from the neurofunk of Kemal & Rob Data to Noisia and Deadmau5, and throughout, you get a clear picture of a producer who's still discovering what moves them, and how they apply it to their own productions. Dig in to SPL's Five Tracks.

Kemal & Rob Data - "Gene Sequence"

Not Available Interstitial

This tune!  This tune made me want to explore the dark, tech-y side of drum & bass.  This tune spawned a seven-year era of my life in music. The twisted synths, techno baseline, percussion and that rave alarm bass drop, all tied into a twisted progressive structure.  This made me want to focus on a sound and it made me want to learn and get better. The fact that this was released in 2001 still blows my mind.

Technical Itch ft. Jakes - "Pressure Drop"

Not Available Interstitial

Feel the pressure drop.  The dark techno infused futuristic intro was like nothing I'd ever heard at the time.  Jakes' pitched down vocals, letting you know what you were about to sense.  The amen work in this made me want to fuck with the amen like nothing before it.  Then there's the acid swarm breakdown and the "more than epic" lowering spaceship bass attack that slowly pushes it's way into subsonic frequencies.  You can feel the air get icy when you listen to this.  To this day I still pull this one out for inspiration.  Can I get a reload?

Noisia - "The Tide"

Not Available Interstitial

This is the tune that proved to me that Noisia were the kings of twisted original bass sounds.  This remains true to this day.  The energy within the chaos of this tune still stands up to todays filthiest tear out.  The most creative bass sounds at its time vice-gripped between the warmest, punchiest, hardest drum work of the time.  From start to finish this track is pure ear candy.  Vibes.

Deadmau5 - "Strobe"

Not Available Interstitial

This tune made me want to explore house music and melody.  The subtle, minimal and patient intro leading into the electro-fueled house journey sets you up for the melodic changes in the middle of the track.  By the time you get there, you are conditioned to respond to a truly emotional climax.  This track is modern day romantic era classical dance.

Emalkay - "Frequency"

Not Available Interstitial

Let's rewind to 2006.  I was sick and tired of writing drum & bass and how if I was going to keep afloat doing the dark stuff, I was going to have to make it like gabber.  Don't get me wrong, I love gabber, (enough to have a few records under my belt in that genre actually). But if I want to produce or listen to gabber, there's this genre called gabber for that.  So there was this thing called dubstep.  And it caught my ear and my production boner.  There was space in between the drums to squeeze cool bass sounds into, there was a lot of unexplored territory.  So I'm in the record store and I drop the needle on the b-side of Emalkay's "Gut Feeling."  I thought, "finally someone was pushing the boundaries of sound design and engineering in the same way that I wanted to."  This song spoke to me and said "hey, in dubstep, you aren't alone."

Latest in Music