I really love the more musical side of techno but all too often getting too heavy on the keys means a dampening of the dancefloor experience. The tracks that manage to deliver warmth and emotion but also smash it up with the crowd are probably the tracks I love the most (think George Fitzgerald/Jon Hopkins, Ode To Basement, Growler).
With “Balance Work”, I’ve tried to create my own hard hitting musical journey by combining a rolling techno rhythm with uplifting string hits and trippy arpeggios. It’s half techno, half prog and its been worked well for me when I’ve played it at places like Egg and Origins.
The remixes come from two of my favourite producers right now. Loco & Jam are absolutely smashing it (Twisted Minds / Kick It Up are my personal faves and the huge Beatport selling Sleepwalker is hard to ignore!). They add a wicked vocal to my wonky synth and make a pure techno banger.
OC & Verde deliver the other mix. Fresh from their Essential New Tune award, the guys take the original musical parts and turn them around to create a synth-heavy techno masterpiece that took the roof off Sankeys when they tested it there recently.
AVAILABLE @ BEATPORT
And if you’re thinking, that’s all very well but where’s the follow up to “What U Want” then check out “Holding You”. My love of all things disco continues with this, the most straight up party track I’ve done since Linus Loves.
AVAILABLE @ TRAXSOURCE
Kevin McKay, August 2016
Support from: Pete Tong, Hot Since 82, Matt Sassari, Pirupa, Skream, Paride Saraceni, Andy Cato (Groove Armada), Paco Osuna, Supernova , Mike Vale, Hollen, Oscar L , Vangelis Kostoxenakis, Vanilla Ace, Steve Lawler, Claus Casper, Alaia & Gallo, Angelo Ferreri, Lucina Sinclair (Pete Tong/BBC r1), Jamie K, Brett Gould, J Paul Getto…