EARMILK Presents: Weekend Selector – Attaque (WKND21)

The weekend has landed and all that matters now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties. You've got 48 hours off the 9-5, it's time to unbutton your hustle and breathe vigor back into life. Whether it be through losing your soul on the dance floor or grooving to it, we have your soundtrack covered. The EARMILK Weekend Selector, an exclusive guest mix series where we invite the latest budding talent from behind the booth to usher you through all the boozie and jam. From your morning bedside to tonight's evening formal, your weekend selector is here to fill a void of good taste and allow fresh connections to flow vicariously.

(WKND21) EARMILK Presents: Weekend Selector – Attaque

Dragged out of his watering hole in Essex county, amidst doles and drinks to boredom comes a techno diamond in the rough. A precious talent with the name Attaque, crafted to quench in splendor he's at the forefront of a breaking sound engaged to the autoKratz imprint startup Bad Life. They call it "future techno" and its curators are unconventional faces like NT89, TWR72, and our Weekend Selector on decks. He's since moved to Brighton and since released his first LP When Light Falls. An unusual sight to see with an act so fresh in his career, but a move that is sure to put him ahead of bedroom entrées with bullets already under his belt. Tracks like "Shadows" and "Shine" wanted for mowing down festivals mobs. The motive is simple, gradually build tension and release when the crowd has already lost its mind.

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The album proves itself to be for the basement and the warehouses with numbers like "Moderate" and "Sensor" which sinks into a deep frolic of techno nods and slumping footwork with a back against the wall. No gimmicks or compromise, When Light Falls is for the people that take the abyss to heart. And of course where there's techno, there's experimentation. The release sits on the authentic drive since lost from electro to flesh out tracks that can run over its audience while still being canny enough to amuse the surviving chin scratchers. The attitude has bona fide grit but the sonics are clean and distinct making for a polished message that can be both deranged and aggressive no matter where the dance floor or the time.

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With Attaque behind the booth to steer the weekend, the man from Colchester rides into a territory all too familiar to him. Even if that means opening in a mystery, the grooves are elementary but layered and modulated professionally to build your anticipation. Tony Senghore's Animal Language collaboration introduces a love for heavy swing not seen in his original productions while the Alex Metric freebie "Rave Weapon" feels like a throwback to the 90s, a decade he's sure to pull from as his influences. Of course who can resist not pitching one of the sides of the latest Erol Alkan and Boys Noize collaboration, as the underrated "Brainstorm" gets the cue it deserves in the thick of the mix. When Light Falls makes its cameos at the peak of the tape, with "Reflection" and "The End" taking your whits out for one last spin only to smooth out and gradually park as the 60 minutes come to a close. There's still much to hear at the end, call it an abrupt ending or call it a reflection of Attaque's career as a bubbling techno producer. Even after finishing his first LP, there's still much to explore.

… because that's what it's all about: moving forward, keeping things fresh and looking to the future.

EARMILK: You're quite a fresh face in the scene but I'd say things are quickly growing around you. Talk to me about your discovery, who opened the door of opportunity and is there anything you can recommend to wannabe producers today to get their foot in the door with the right people?

Attaque: Well I was discovered by Autokratz on a chance meeting when I was living down in Brighton, it just so happened they had set up Bad Life and were looking to sign new artists, they were instrumental in helping shape my sound and building me as an artist.

My advice for new artists would be to be patient, sometimes I take weeks to get back to people and react to promos. Also make sure you target the right people, it's horrible being sent a generic email that you know has been sent out to every artist out there and always send a streaming link as who wants to download something they might not even like.

If people don't get back then it's probably their way of saying they don't like it but don't get too bogged down in getting big DJ's reactions, you need to believe in what you're doing and try and create your own thing. Start your own label or club night or blog.

EM: So you have an LP out already called When Light Falls, an early release in your career considering other dance acts don't even think about writing an album without a few EPs under their belt. Were you pressured or is this something you've always had in mind?

A: I've always wanted to do an album but to me When light Falls is just a collection of club tracks rather than a full artist album. I still wanted to do it as music is so disposable now so I felt that it was a good idea to put everything I've done out in one package in the same way Boys Noize did with his album, it's about making a statement.

EM: Considering this is a techno album, was there a premise behind the work? Is there a message or feeling When Light Falls is trying to convey?

A: Well they started out just as singles and like I said I feel they are a collection of club tracks. But saying that they do all work together well and I feel they flow together as an album. To me "Shadows" is more of an album track and I feel it was a good track to finish on as it shows where things might head next. I guess by releasing When light Falls I was just trying to say to the electronic world "this is Attaque".

EM: What tracks from the album do you see yourself playing out the most and getting a good crowd response?

A: "Light Falls", "Moderate" and "Shine" always get a great response. It's funny though, I did "Moderate" before "Light Falls" but I wasn't sure about the track as I thought it was a bit too tech house sounding. It was only when seeing YouTube videos of Fake Blood playing it to thousands of people I realized that yeah this is a big track.

When I play those tracks the crowd always recognise and cheer when they hear them coming in which is great but on the flip side it's been amazing playing "The End" and "Reflection" as they have been getting huge responses even if people haven't heard them before.

EM: I noticed some of those tracks are also on Bad Life's Future Techno 1 compilation so let me ask, where do you see the future of techno going? Is there a growing audience that may come to the forefront of electronic music instead of being a niche outside of whatever is the next trendy genre ?

A: Well proper techno like Adam Beyer, Richie Hawtin, etc and all the Drum Code lot are huge and it is at the forefront in some respect but what we are doing now is a sub genre of other sub genres so I don't think the sound is distinct enough or there are enough people doing it for it to blow up like dubstep has but there are some positives to that. It keeps the scene alive and the producers creative rather than everything becoming generic and the scene imploding. You see what happened on the Bromance tour in the U.S, people loved it so it certainly doesn't feel niche anymore.

EM: You've done remixes for big players like ZZT and Bart B More, have you been approached by bigger names since? Are there any more remixes in the pipeline that you can talk about?

A: I turned down far more remixes than I did last year, I really wanted to concentrate on my own material and only accepted a choice few. I recently did a remix for Karin Park but I pulled my remix as I wasn't 100% happy with it. I really want to keep up a high level of quality control and I don't think I could do that if I were doing a remix every week. There are a few in the pipeline, some I'm probably not allowed to mention but I have just finished one for Mustard Pimp on Dim Mak. I've also just handed in a new three track E.P to a new label which sounds very different to what you hear on When light Falls, because that's what it's all about: moving forward, keeping things fresh and looking to the future.

TRACKLIST

01. ??????????????? – Envelopes (Original Mix): CDR

02. Rebbecca & Fiona – Dance (Loops Of Fury Remix): CDR

03. Tony Senghore & Cristian Dinamarca – Feelso (Original Mix): Animal Language

04. Destructo feat Oliver – LA Funky (BS1 Dub): BNR Trax

05. Bumblebeez – Rodeo (Franz N Shape remix): Bang Gang

06. Alex Metric – Rave Weapon (Original Mix): CDR

07. Mumbai Science – Alchemy (Original Mix): Lektroluv

08. Polymorphic – Chicks Love The Car (Attaque remix): Lektroluv

09. Erol Alkan Boys Noize – Brainstorm (Original Mix): Boysnoize Records

10. Elektropusher – Anemic (Henzel & Disco Nova remix): CDR

11. Frederic De Carvalho & Slapstick – Snails (David Carretta Remix): Absolut Freak Records

12. Mass Digital – Mass Replica (Gronland Remix): 505Monarch

13. Attaque – Reflection (Original Mix): Bad Life

14. Tai – At The Disco (Ado Remix): Dim Mak Records

15. Black Asteroid – Engine 1 (Unsubscribe remix): CLR

16. Attaque – The End (Original Mix): Bad Life

17. Stsb & Saalmen – Aeskapade (Henzel & Disco Nova Remix): Kiez Beats

Grab When Light Falls off the digital shelves and keep an eye out for Attaque as this album is just a murmur of what's to come from this erupting act. Also have a look at the Bad Life collective as they continue to push the bounds of techno and electro to only put out what's good and what's right. The future has been laid before you.