An Immersive and Experimental Electronic Album from dronehands
- R.A.G.
- 2 hours ago
- 9 min read
A brilliantly constructed album from dronehands recently dropped, and this thing embodies a particular kind of emotionally driven electronic soundscape that constructs moods and atmospheres with each song, which I found really alluring and even a little bit invigorating.
The LP showcases a producer and artist who takes the right kind of time to build songs. Again, a lot of these feel moody. Not in a dark or down way, but they have emotional backbone, which is something you don't always get with electronic music.
The songs utilize amazing layers of synthesizers, creating a sonically immersive kind of vibe, and once you are a few songs in, you're just swimming through all of it.
Some of it feels a bit cinematic, which comes with the territory, but a lot of it also has great drive and loads of melodic structure, to the point where certain melodies stick in your head long after songs have ended.
The record is called vs. Universe, and it doesn't waste a lot of time building those engulfing soundscapes with its first track, "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life", which is a song that brings out very minimal sort of percussion and instead delivers loads of these textures that you can sort of swim through. They invite you to float alongside them, and the whole thing gives you a strange spiritual sense.
I definitely dig this because you get swallowed up by it pretty easily. It's a very uplifting and positive feeling. A lot of the melodies are major as opposed to minor, and it gives you that almost calming sensation.
This one is definitely kind of orchestral. The way he puts together layers to create something bigger is pretty amazing, and this is a damn near perfect track to introduce the record with because you're getting some of the great Staples the rest of the album boasts.
Having said that, this is absolutely a record that you listen to from beginning to end, all in one shot.
There are definitely some surprises around its corners, but if you listen to the whole record at once, it pulls you away from wherever you want, whatever you're doing, and gives you this great sort of sense of escapism. It's an excellent experience when you do the whole record.
"Skip Tracer" dives a little deeper into hints of classic synthwave, a bit more of a driving beat, and again those layers give the song depth, still built with a melodic approach, but with a little more edginess.
Then there are more experimental tracks. This is what I mean by delivering music with surprises around its corners.
This one blends other genres pretty seamlessly, utilizes some vocals that feel like they're samples but also feel live at the same time, and brings in this sort of underground '90s hip hop or chill element.
Wow, from here the record keeps going with its experimental branching out. I really enjoyed how there were no two songs that were very alike. The way you can hear the producer's many different influences throughout this record was pretty astounding, and songs like "Shibboleth" showcase rock influence, with this vintage tonality that overlays the whole thing.
Some of the beats on this record are really creative, and the way he brings in some of the very classic, old-school, or as I mentioned earlier, vintage sounds and blends them with almost futuristic ones is pretty cool.
The title track, "vs. Universe", comes through as one of the catchiest ones. You can really hear this kind of current pop undertone that he holds on to; brilliant synthesizers and keys creating a hook on top of hook is really fun, and this one still holds to more of that pop element, but also blends everything from the experimental to the futuristic, the synth wave, to the filmic.
Again, this is a great song that you can really hear the emotion behind. It's got a sort of intense feel.
One of the most memorable tracks on the record is actually the closing track called "All Waves Point To Heaven", which has some deep-toned synths and brings back some of the uplifting and elevated elements of the genre and his approach. It feels good to listen to this track.
He's got a lot of those hooks on this one, but this single also has more of that sense of deepening.
The whole record has this realism to it. Like all these songs serve as soundtracks to chapters in the artist's life.
I can feel that connection, and this is again, is one of the reasons why you want to listen to the whole record in one shot.
These songs are like chapters in a book. You wouldn't skip chapters of a book, nor would I suggest skipping songs on this record.
This track hit hard, and upon listening to the song and the entire record, I really wanted to know more about how it was all constructed, what influences really came into play when creating it, and what might be coming up for dronehands.
So, while you listen to the record, have a read through of our interview with dronehands below.
Absolutely don't miss this one, and I suggest listening to it with headphones on, to say the least.
It's one of the best ways to soak in all of those layers. You'll see what I mean.
Hello and thank you so much for taking some time with us!! I'd love to jump right into "All Waves Point to Heaven"!
Thank you so much for listening to the track and for having me!
Where did this release come from and what is it all about?
The working title for this song was “Waves Heavenwards”, which was pulled from a line on a random page from a book of poetry. I find that doing something like this for titles saves a lot of brainpower and that it’s best to just pick something at random and get on with it. I do not recall the original context of the phrase but over the years of working on the song I thought about what the meaning of waves and their relationship to heaven would be. I thought about ocean waves, and sound waves, light waves, and their back and forth, up and down kind of nature and how in a way they all had a directionality that point upward or outward, and that direction is what we associate with Heaven. Eventually the meaning to me became “All Waves Point to Heaven” and that became the title of the song.
Did you have an outside producer on this record, or was it all you?
This was just me on the production, but I did have some outside advising from my friend, Jay (see below).
How did the project start?
This project started when I was working with an early version of VCV Rack, a eurorack influenced DAW, on my Twitch stream. I was messing around with a virtual version of the Mutable Instruments’ Elements module and noticed a weird, distorted sound coming from a particular high note. My friend Jay (jaynothin is his artist name), who was watching the steam, noticed that something was off too and said that it was probably a glitch in the programming when they converted it from the hardware version. I think he even went so far as to report the bug to VCV so they could fix it. I thought that the weird glitch sounded cool, so I recorded the sequence and based the song around it.
Is there anything new you are working on since this is out?
I'm always working on stuff. I currently have 3-4 albums in the works and hours of ambient tracks that I haven’t found a way to properly release. I like to collect tracks and projects and then group them together in interesting ways to make an album rather than write something straight through from start to finish. This takes a lot longer probably, but I think I have fewer regrets and what ifs by taking the scenic route.
What kind of setup do you have in terms of synths and DAW?
I tend to make music by any means necessary. The instrument or tool used is less important than a strong idea to start a project and I'm not too particular where the idea initially comes from. Most of the time I’m just trying to get the thing I hear in my head into reality so others can hear it, and the process largely consists of that struggle.
I have a synth setup in my studio with a eurorack and some modular synths that I run through guitar pedals. I control stuff like the clock and midi notes with an ancient MacMini and I do all of my live performances on the internet and studio production on an old version of Ableton Live 10. I use VCV Rack to create samples and tracks that I use in songs quite a bit because there are things you can do in VCV that can’t be done with the physical eurorack (and vice versa). I also like to use 4 track cassette tape recorders, tape loops, toy keyboards and lofi samplers to create sounds I take to the DAW.
What would you say people can expect from this song?
That initial recording I made with the glitch turned out to be a bit of an earworm for me so I designed the song in a way that if someone wanted to they could listen to the song on repeat and not get tired of it. I guess you can expect them to get that glitch stuck in their head and want to hear it a bunch of times.
There are such cinematic approaches on this release. What is your approach, and who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Before I made music I tried my hand at filmmaking. One of the things that I discovered while learning about film was this chart plotting the dramatic tension of a movie against time. It showed how the amount of movie drama would rise and fall throughout a film and eventually build to a climax before fading towards the end. It’s something that stuck with me and I ended up incorporating that concept into my music process. Oftentimes when I am making a track I try to emulate that same kind of rise and fall in terms of energy over the course of time and a lot of the structure of the song ends up being a byproduct of that.
My main influences musically are classical greats, Mozart in particular, and his ability to endlessly pull melody out of thin air. In terms of approach, I'm a huge fan of the Beatles and David Bowie and their constant experimenting with sound and production techniques, basically always trying to do something different and new. As for composition I find a lot of inspiration from Tangerine Dream especially their long drawn-out pieces and live performances. Finally, I derive a lot of sonic inspiration from hard rock bands like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins with their use of heavy distortion and fuzz, and breakcore electronica like Boards of Canada for drums and rhythm textures.
What's next for you now?
Currently I'm trying to look both into the future and the past with my production. Technology seems to move faster than my creative process, especially in terms of computers, operating systems, and programs, so right now I'm trying to build a bridge from my old computer setups to the next generation. I recently revived a project that was 10 years old for a track on an upcoming album and I'm trying to make it so that sort of thing is maybe possible with whatever current ideas I’m kicking around 10 years from now.
In terms of the past, I have been retracing my creative tracks looking for new material and ideas by revisiting old techniques. I spent a few months making a library of breakbeat patterns, for use in future production, and I made a bunch of EMF recordings of household electronic items for making synth patches and samples. I also recently picked up a Yamaha VSS-30 toy keyboard/sampler, and I got out my circuit bent Casio SK-1 to make samples and effects for future music productions. I felt like I had used up a lot of my ideas from what I had collected back in the day and needed to go back to the well.
Before we go, is there anything you'd like to express to fans and listeners?
Sure, thank you! I live in a forest with these very tall trees; like hundreds of feet tall. Every year millions of pinecones and acorns are made and released into the forest in hopes of becoming new trees. A lot of them are eaten by critters or just don’t quite fall in the right spot to become a seedling. And out of all the seedlings that make it, a lot of them just don’t get enough sunlight or water or whatever to grow up and become a tree. In the landscape of music, I feel a lot like one of those seeds cast into the forest hoping to become a tree. And though I don’t want or need to be one of the really tall trees, I would like to be part of the forest and have a place in it. I would like to thank anyone who has helped, is helping, and would help me find my place in the landscape of music.