Many may draw comparisons between Flying Lotus’ recently released Until the Quiet Comes and the new album by Brooklyn beat-master KRTS. The album, his debut full-length on Project: Mooncircle, called The Dread of an Unknown Evil, shares some similarities with FlyLo (both feature members of their family, also a somewhat similar color scheme on their covers, maybe even a vaguely recognizable body part), but ‘the many’ would be wrong in placing these two artists within the same category.

Some may also see this as another R&B revival, which has become a ubiquitous trend in electronic music of late. But here, again, they would be mistaken. KRTS has done something more important than pay tribute to past decades’ heavy influence in modern music. On all ten tracks of the album I don’t get the feeling KRTS is striving for any particular sound. That is, these tracks all seem effortless and as an output of KRTS alone, his ‘own sound’ if you will. If anything, the genres found within this album are closer to soul, house, and jazz than they are to R&B.

The opening track to The Dread of an Unknown Evil is fittingly titled ‘Something New,’ and features KRTS’ brother Jon Hairston providing vocals nothing short of gospel. KRTS and Jon do a remarkable thing here, as neither artist really deserves the definition of ‘adding’ to the other performer on the track. The production of KRTS and his brother are inseparable. At times, KRTS backs the vocals with rich atmospheres and quick ticks of hi-hats and hand claps. Elsewhere the vocals meld into background sound as Jon lifts KRTS up for display. The two seem to weave around each other, creating a seamlessly coherent track.

‘Fire,’ has, as KRTS puts it, been the most talked about number of the album among friends. It’s a heady bass track supplemented with the repetitious line, “How can we keep this fire burning?” The production of the track is layered with what sounds like pops in a campfire and haunting snippets of vocals, as if KRTS was inviting us to sit around with him and share ghost stories. The crescendo of the track doesn’t hit until halfway when KRTS summons piano chords that are punched with heavy elbows.

If there is one recurring theme to the album, it is that of innocence and fear. From the album’s name and title track, to the track, ‘Close the Closet Door,’ and ‘Strange Boys in Blue,’ like looking at officers from the eyes of a child. Forgotten anxieties take form as hazy memories and KRTS uses his music to gain access to these and overcome some unknown evil. Like a Freudian sit-down, everything is tied to family, loss, and what is buried underneath. If the album has a story to tell, it is a ghost story.

I could be totally off-base about all of my interpretations of the album. This could be anything, really. What KRTS has created here is a totally personal album, one that only he can find some clarity in. I do, though, think his personal experience of The Dread of an Unknown Evil is carried on into its listening experience. We can feel that what is being emitted here is deep, sacred, and troublesome, which makes it so successful.

Hey, yeah, I was talking to you, casual reader and Percussion Lab fan!  Thanks for coming over to chat for a sec. So, a couple of things you may have noticed over the years: We have a lot of music on this site, and it's a nice place to come and look for new talent, download sets, or stream away all day at your office.  You may also have noticed that banner ad up there ^ right now.  We've never had a bannner ad before! Because we have principles, and believe that music should be shared with people, and that money and commercialism can sometimes taint the musician-listener relationship. This site is dedicated to supporting the gloabl electronic music community, and we're constantly surprised at how many sets we're currently hosting - over 4000! - and where the people using the site are located - all over the world! We get a lot of emails telling us we're doing a great job, but there's this one little problem and if we coul fix it we would be doing just that little bit more of an awesome job here. 

For all of our principles and integrity, we do spend money to allow you to download and stream to your heart's content.  Kind of a lot of money at this point, around $5,000 US per year, what with all of the data being uploaded, downloaed, and streamed all day long.

You know what's funny? About 1,000 people visit Percussion Lab every day. So we thought to ourselves, if each of those people donated $5, we could run the site for a year!  And we wouldn't have to put up any ads and compromise our integrity!  Wait (we thought), how do we get $5 out of the hands of a bunch of rabid music fans?  Then we remembered our talented friends, and we reached out to a bunch of our oldest collaborators and partners in crime to lend a helping hand.

The result is 'Cambio,' our first compilation or release of any kind. The download, available here for a suggested $5 donation (feel free to donate more), features a bunch of artists who we've been championing, in one way or another, for over a decade.  

As you know, Praveen from Sepalcure and Braille founded and runs the site.  Praveen has been friends with Daedelus, Machine Drum, RJ Valeo, Calmer, Handshake, Ezekiel Honig, Mux Mool, and Shigeto for more than 7 years, and we've been booking all of those guys regularly since 2005.  Lando Kal and XI are monsters of the contemprary bass scene, and have become friends of the site over the last couple of years. Contakt is a fantastic producer, good friend, and is one of the people behind the monthly TURRBOTAX® night, one of the best events in the city.  And the guys in Archie Pelago, and Albert 'ENOE' Hernandez, are some of the more talented and dedicated musicians we've encountered in New York in the last few years, and we're proud to include them on this survey of what we consider our scene. 

Long story short, we're dedicated to providing you with an ad-free platform for enjoying electronic music from around the world. If you have a few bucks, we could use some help in maintaining the site and we sweetened the deal by assembling 15 exclusive tracks by great artists for your enjoyment. 

Alternatively - you can donate directly to the site. Donations and compilation purchases will be going towards bug fixes, more options for users to update their profiles, an embeddable player and improving search. If you use the site often, we'd love for you to show your support. 

Thanks in advance! 

A conversation with Policy. 

Percussion Lab: Can you give us some background on how you started producing, maybe up to landing on Rush Hour?

Policy: I started messing around with making beats around late 2007. At the time, I had just started a temp legal job at a Wall Street bank in order to support my wife and newborn son, and making music late at night became my sole creative outlet. Going back to work in an office was difficult because I had given up the big law firm life four years before that, to pursue my own solo law practice as well as filmmaking, both of which I did with a fellow lawyer/filmmaker buddy of mine. Fortunately, at the bank, I met a colleague who was exploring music production, and soon enough, we were sharing our latest tracks with each other, sneaking every opportunity to talk about music and Craigslist gear finds. I still had a traditional band mindset though, using the guitar and keyboard to produce “songs”. Well, one day, my colleague introduced me to Burial's album “Untrue”. I didn't have a strong reaction at first, but then I started to become obsessed with it. That album became my soundtrack for the next half year. Everything I made after that point was part of my attempt to unlock some secret about what I was hearing. I've been a musician all my life, but you could say that Burial was my entry point into making electronic music with any level of intentionality.

In late 2009, I started putting my music up on Soundcloud, and soon after, I got two tracks signed to Car Crash Set, which were released in summer 2010. Shortly after that release, I emailed Rush Hour and they responded enthusiastically. 

PL: So you have two kids; how does that affect or not affect your production/performing/ability to absorb influences/stay current (if that's even relevant to you or in general)?

Policy: It might seem difficult to do what I'm doing while raising two kids, but honestly I don't know that it's more difficult than what everyone else I know is doing: holding down a day job, trying to have a social life, etc.  Right now, my day job is taking care of my boys, and when I go out to events or stay up late at night working on a track, I've got the same considerations everyone else has – How am I going to get through tomorrow? If anything, having kids helps to keep it all in perspective. I don't get distracted by the latest 'free download by so-and-so' when my youngest is screaming at me to play with him. The question of absorbing influences is a good question though. Since I only started producing after our first child was born, I'm accustomed to having a limited amount of time to actually listen to music, but that's what has worked for me to this point. And I'm not sure how different that is for other people. It's true that raising kids can be all-consuming, but it also means I have more moments throughout the day where I can just reflect on what I'm doing musically, without the pressure of a boss hovering over me.  I think a lot of stay-at-home parents might agree that we live for those moments. For some, it might be the chance to watch a show on Hulu. For me, it's the chance to review what I've been working on. 

PL: In the context of the contemporary music industry, does this constitute a job? How do you navigate this landscape? 

Policy: Making music hasn't become a 'job' yet. I do dream about it becoming a self-sustaining endeavor though. We'll see how things go :)

PL: Your facebook page states that you make ' white-collar, corporate casual, electronic music.' How do you balance that statement with the undeniable fact that your output is body-moving, and dancefloor oriented?

Policy: Well, I never thought of myself as making, or capable of making, truly danceable music, so 'corporate casual' was sort of a safe, tongue-in-cheek way to describe my work. I mean, for a couple years, I was basically listening only to music that was digestable in a crowded subway train and at the office. House or techno just isn't very conducive to navigating in those environments :)  It wasn't until I quit my job and started staying home that I started to intentionally make interesting, yet danceable tunes, which is still an ongoing quest. 

PL: What are your goals as a musician?  I.e., why are you doing this?

Policy: I don't have any very specific goals except that I want to keep progressing as a musician to the point that it becomes easier for me to put ideas down any which way I want. It's tough because I've found as I've progressed in my production skills, you can't help but notice what others are doing, and there's always the temptation to compare yourself and wonder if you're doing things wrong.  These days, I'm pretty selective about what I listen to, out of necessity really, but it works to the extent that I need to be in a vacuum to be free to do my thing. Do I want my music to be relevant? Of course. With my album release, though, I'd say that it's already fulfilled a large part of my musical dream, which was to have an LP out.  I'm finding that it also gives me some freedom to not worry about whether someone will hear my music now, and enables me to focus on making good tunes. I can't deny there is the urge to be heard by more and more people, but that probably goes without saying about anyone who has submitted demos anywhere. 

PL: What role does dj'ing play in your life/creative process?

Policy: To be honest, it's a relatively new part of my musical creativity, as I didn't grow up wanting to be a DJ. It's an art I've grown into the last few years, but I definitely see it as something distinct from my music production. They feed off of each other, of course, and I'm sure the relationship will mature if I'm given the chance to play out more regularly.

PL: Who are some of your favorite New York producers at the moment?

Policy: There's a lot of energy in this city, and it's bubbling with talent.  I've always adored Falty DL's music. Machinedrum blew me away with “Rooms”, and Braille made one of my all-time favorite tracks, “The Year 3000”.  I also really dig what Anthony Naples is doing. Guys like Contakt, Blind Prophet, Enoe, and Svpreme Fiend are making quality music as well and I look forward to what's in store for all my music bro's.

PL: What other events do you consider a must in New York right now?

Policy: I don't get to attend as much as I want to, but I love what Justin and Eamon are doing with Mister Saturday Night. Their guest DJ's and vibe at their parties are spectacular. I still have to get to a Dog and Pony Show event, as those guys have been big supporters of mine. They've also been bringing class acts to this city.

PL: Does visual art play any part in your inspiration?

Policy: I've always loved the combination of visuals and music, so of course movie soundtracks were a big part of my tape collection growing up. I don't necessarily use visuals as inspiration for my electronic music, but a lot of feedback I've received mention that my work is cinematic. There's probably a cheese factor that subconsciously inspires me.  But I'd say that my film work really helped cultivate the notion of creating scenes or moods that tug directly at people's emotions. If they conjure visuals, that's probably why my music has been described as cinematic. I definitely don't have synethesia, but maybe I have a distant malformed cousin of it, where notes produce a particular camera shot. I will say that “Look at Them” on my album is a direct response to a particular movie scene in a Scorcese film. I tend to remember powerful scenes, as if they were important moments in my life.

PL: TURRBOTAX®  seems to be a reference point for you. Do you have any affiliation with the idea of  'post-dubstep' ?  Do you see a connection to that scene with your current sound?

Policy: If I've felt a connection to “post-dubstep”, I think it's mostly been as an attitude and a direction for me. Honestly, I don't think I ever fully appreciated dubstep, because I was not involved in the scene until very late.  Turrbotax was instrumental because it exposed me not only to other people in the scene, but also music that I wasn't really tuned into on my own. As far as my sound, I probably am lumped in with the post-dubstep crowd because my earliest work was very much influenced by the darker, rolling low-end of dubstep. But it wasn't until I signed with Rush Hour that I started to see references to house and techno in connection with my sound. I never even considered myself as a house or techno artist either. So I guess I'm an orphan, because I never fully lined up with a particular genre.

PL: What's your studio setup?  When you play live, what's that look like?

Policy: I've used Cubase since the beginning, along with some outboard synths. I like starting with samples or sounds outside of the computer and bringing them in and processing them.  If you see me play out, you might see some records and some digital files going through a mixer :)

Listen to Policy's exclusive mix for Percussion Lab here. You can buy Plolicy's debut full-length, 'Everything Hits,' out now on Rush Hour, here. 

Lorenzo Senni's latest output for notable leftfield label Editions Mego, 'Quantum Jelly', turns trance music on its head. Eliminating the beat and focusing solely on the "build-up", Senni unfurls a batch of hypnotic, serpentine electronic compositions that'll make your head spin faster than a whiskey shot and a vintage blotter. We had the opportunity to send a few questions to the Italian native, and his responses offer a compelling perspective on compositional progression and the core nature of trance. 

Percussion Lab: 'Quantum Jelly' is a fascinating study on reductionist trance - you've eliminated the 'release' of a build up, in favor of slow change through evolving repetition. What inspired you to compose music in this fashion?

Lorenzo Senni: I think of the build up as the most important part of a trance track. I don't really like drum beats in trance songs. The build up is the point where a producer of trance music can express him/herself in a creative and technical way…that's why i think it is a dense part, full of information. The idea was to extend this to a five, seven, or ten minute piece of music - but a dramatic progression from 0 to 100 was too much and i also wanted to work in a more "dry" territory, and make a kind of real track from this …and not re-make just a longer uplifting build-up. I'm not a trance producer and i had no interest in making a classic build-up; I prefer to listen to them.

Slow changes and micro-modulation are very important in the way that 'Quantum Jelly' tracks are ascending tracks …but it's not so full of emotion and dramatic like a standard trance build-up because i think that the structure, chord progression, and arpeggios implicitly preserve the song's emotional tension and drama..

PL: And these compositions were all performed in real time w/o any overdubs - did you practice these movements in advance, or simply set the parameters and improvise?

LS: I first composed the MIDI parts, then sent them into the JP8000. I practiced a bit, modified the arpeggios, searched for the right sound, tried to find a way to tweak the sounds without being too playful and dramatic with filters etc etc …and then I'd play each song over and over again, choosing the best take for the final record. For example: the first track, XMonsterX, a thirteen minute track (the longest of the record), is a good example of what we are talking about …this track is very simple, and in the middle you can easily hear that i'm playing around with the JP8000 DELAY (i think is a good delay) and then, after a while, i sync it with the pulse and i keep building up a dark-supersawed-percussive-rave final …so, this middle part of crazy delay changing is very helpful to say "I'm playing with this" and live it works a lot cause the tension grows. And, you know, the JP has been designed very much as a performance instrument and the level and flexibility of real-time control is great.

PL: What else about the JP8000 attracted you to focus on this synth for the entire release?

LS: THE SUPERSAW: "The Supersaw is a special waveform originally created by Roland for their JP-8000 and JP-8080 line of analog modeling synthesizers. The idea behind the Supersaw is to emulate the sound of more than one sawtooth oscillator using just one oscillator. The waveform is described as a freerun oscillator and its shape is produced from 7 sawtooth oscillators detuned against each other over a period of time." (via Wikipedia)

PL: What was your computer-to-synthesizer setup? What did you use//do to wield and manipulate these arpeggios?

LS: MAX/MSP, SUPERCOLLIDER or LOGIC9 + MIDI INTERFACE …and my hands on the synthesizer manipulating parameters ...and sometime using arpeggiator in a unusual way.

PL: What would you say are the differences in emotional drama between "non-build-up" and "build-up" music? Or, what kind of emotion do you think repetition/"percussive arpeggiated melodies" channels?

LS: When I say "non-build-up", I mean something that is still uplifting, exciting, and full of energy, but not in the classic super-dramatic way. 'Quantum Jelly' tracks build-up from 75% to 90% …classic trance build-up from 0% / 20% to 100% (I hope these percentages help explain the difference). I wanted to have tracks that already start "up in the sky" and evolve in an interesting way from a both musical and sonic perspective, not just emotional. I used to work a lot with textures, timbre and dynamics… and about trance i like the structure, the chord progression and the mutable approach to a very closed musical genre … so i tried to bring it to me.

About repetition, I don't know…too many people have already discussed this topic. We should ask Terry Riley or Steve Reich; I just use it. I think that repetition of good things is good; repetition of bad things makes them better.

PL: After a few years of 'maximilist' electronic music flooding the mainstream, do you see a growing trend of reductionist electronic taking its place? Recent releases from yourself and other members of Editions Mego, as well as Ricardo Donoso's latest output, seem to find more promise in stripping away the beat rather than relying on it.

LS: I don't know if it's reductionism so much as just music made by people who work in a different way. The way I worked on 'Quantum Jelly' is an important part of the concept of the LP: I just wanted to work with a certain sound texture (the super-saw) within the context of my background, and channel it through certain trance-music-archetypes. The result is something that, if you listen in a club, you can dance to even if there's no drum beat.

'Qunatum Jelly' is out now on 12" and digital by Editions Mego.