It’s probably no surprise to hear that this track draws its main inspiration from Photek. However, it’s also heavily influenced by a style of drum and bass that Dom and I call Faux-tek. This is where producers either directly sample from a Photek song, or recreate his sound by finding new elements that are similar to the ones he was using around his Modus Operandi LP.

Shortly before we began working on this track, a friend sent me a mix by Esmé where she played an all-vinyl selection of drum and bass and jungle. While there were many standout tracks in her set, Theta Phase by Dissident really caught my attention. Dom and I had already discussed creating something in the Faux-tek style for this project, but hearing Theta Phase encouraged me to gather samples for ambience, melody, and texture while Dom sourced clean drum breaks from Modus Operandi, and a complimentary drum sample to help him craft the groove.

As for the musical samples, we already had the main house pad in our sound bank, which sounds incredibly powerful when it’s held over multiple beats in a bar, and helped create a sense of being suspended or frozen. This chord ultimately led to the track’s title, Tundra. I then found another pad which was less dominant and more dreamy; this allowed us to shift moods in the arrangement while never having a breakdown or drop.

We were working on another song at the time that had the flute sample in, but we agreed it sounded perfect in this as it gave the track some mystery and added to its overall mystical quality. The final main addition was the Rhodes and horn sample which Dom used to help glue the track together.

I have to say that Dom never ceases to amaze me with his ability to take a folder of my samples and perfectly fuse them together. His knack for turning sounds from a variety of sources into something natural, fresh, and original is a true skill and something that has been paramount to our Totem productions.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and we all hope you like the track which can be played below or here.