We’re falling for Dutch/Moroccan producer EAUXMAR‘s new EP ‘Juxtaposition’. The young producer is making a metamorphosis of sorts. Havings signed his first record label two years ago at STMPD, he’s off on his own path now beginning both a musical and personal transformation. One which can be heard by listening to the subtle and calming synth-driven sounds on this latest EP.
Citing inspirations such as Four Tet, James Blake, Burial and Kanye West, EAUXMAR puts sampling, experimentalism, and new age influences into the forefront of his new body of work. Across the 5-track EP, he uses analog gear, vintage synth vibes, UK garage, acoustic drums, J-Dilla inspirations, and ’90s R&B to craft a synergistic piece of work that offers a variety of flavor and flair. We had a chance to let EAUXMAR put the EP into his own words with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown below. Sit down or dance, but whatever you do, enjoy it from the get-go!
Not an intro
Well, obviously this is an intro *wink*. I actually made this track just in time before delivering my EP as I felt like it needed a proper intro track. The EP was actually going to be named ‘VHS files’ as I was running a lot of the drums and synths through analog gear such as tape recorders and old aka samplers. The intro track captures the worn and vintage synth vibe that sways throughout this EP. The spoken word vocal is from a very old documentary about electronic music which I thought sounded really dope. The drums in this are heavily swung and obviously inspired by the legends Burial and J Dilla.
Juxtaposition
This is probably one of my favourite tracks of this EP. I always try to capture the sonic ideas I have in my head and try to make them reality, but 90% of the time these ideas don’t work or are almost impossible to make. This track was one of those ideas but it actually worked out in. I had an idea to have a different take on Uk garage/2-step rhythms. Where you’d usually have drums throughout a whole track, I didn’t and UK garage usually have a lot of 7th and 9th chords with more common soft sounds synths but I chose for some bright chord stabs that added an energetic dynamic to the track. The vocals glued it all together and that’s also the part where the title came from. Juxtaposition meaning ‘’the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.’’ Is exactly what’s happening with the vocals. If you listen closely you hear that the vocals in the background are simultaneously singing different or contrasting lyrics, which first I thought was a bit distracting but I ended up digging it a lot. The lyrics express a longing for a solution to the doubt and hardships of a musician.
Kasybo Joy
Kasybo Joy is the track that introduces the more R&B side of me and it introduces a less fast pace of this EP. For this track. I wanted to go for something that was a bit more dreamy and melancholic while maintaining the tight semi-acoustic drums. Keeping this song almost fully instrumental was hard but I managed to have the piano solo to be ‘the voice’ of the track. In the second chorus I switched up the drums to a more breakbeat sounding pattern which was adding more tension and euphoria to the track with some super J Dilla type raw hats that syncopate nicely with the soft R&B/Funk lead sound.
Opal:
With this track, I was really going for a moody melodic club 2 step type of vibe. I didn’t want to have a vocal on It so I just used adlibs from a recording session I had a long time ago. Drum and vocal processing were inspired by the early future garage movement in the UK. Unlike other tracks of the EP, I went with a smooth track arrangement that requires a little more patience than usual but it was the only way this track would’ve felt right. the main element of the track is an arpeggiated harp/synth that repeats into eternity and is only introduced very late in this track. I also had to add this short Kanye-esque outro just because it felt so right to add something completely different at the end.
Given Away/Given Back
With this tune, a lot of inspiration came from the early work of James Blake and Kanye West. For me, it’s an emotive track, where I moulded ’90s R&B samples with the use of semi-acoustic drums, soft keys, chimes, gliding pads and dreamy filtered vocals. It all comes together and creates a unique sounding release with energy but still evoking feelings of floating on a cloud. the softness of this track defines the end of this EP as the clouds evaporate into eternity.
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