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Dark Electro

Elevated Focusion Reflects on his ‘Dark Nights’ LP and Sonic Fusionist Style

Elevated Focusion

In this exclusive interview, Elevated Focusion took us into the shadows of his latest album, Dark Nights, exposing the eclectic sonic styles which have shaped his unique artistic identity. From his roots in the late ’90s rave scene to his exploration of outlaw country and dancehall, Elevated Focusion discusses the transformative role of live instrumentation and how classic rock concept albums inspired his approach to producing a yet genre-fluid tour de force. Read on to discover how Elevated Focusion’s past and present musical identities intertwine to forge a path forward in his artistic career.

Elevated Focusion, you made an unforgettable impression on us with your album, Dark Nights. You’ve nailed the darkwave pop aesthetic in spite of the genre-fluidity which permeates the 11 tracks. Who were your foundational influences for the album? 

I am so happy you guys like the album.  Musically it is a real gumbo.  I definitely wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here but rather try to build a really cool car based on parts of the things I love personally.

I grew up during the late 90s rave scene, so The Crystal Method and The Chemical Brothers were an influence here. I was influenced by some of the more modern dark electronic artists like TR/ST and Anders Manga. In the industrial world, I was inspired by the fun experimentation of Raymond Watts and Pigface.

I probably listen to my Outlaw Country playlist every day so that poetic language really speaks to me specifically with artists like Waylon Jennings, Charlie Daniels, and Billy Joe Shaver. Dancehall artists like Patra along with early 2000’s rock artists like the Deftones had their influence as well.

What was the initial spark that led you to create ‘Dark Nights’, and how did the concept evolve from that first idea?

I always loved the idea of The Judgment Night soundtrack where hip-hop artists collaborated with metal bands. That soundtrack came out when I was 12 years old, and was probably my biggest influence in trying to bring musical worlds together as a whole.

I also love the concept behind UNKLE & Massive Attack with having a variety of singers on different tracks.  I personally love listening to an album straight through.  So each album I make is meant to flow from beginning to end.  The overall “concept idea” is inspired by concept albums from classic rock.

Thematically I got the idea for the overall concept from the horror anthology series Tales From The Crypt.  Even though every episode had different stories, actors, and sometimes directors, you could always tell that each episode was part of Tales From The Crypt.  They all stood alone with individual storylines, but they still had something recognizable to tie them together with that show.  And that’s what I wanted to do with this album.  Create a musical Tales from The Crypt…lol.

How did your experiences in Queens during the early 2000s influence the sound and stories on this album?

During the early 2000s, I was in my own little musical world.  All I really listened to was my own music that I would make on my keyboard.  I honestly had no idea about what was going on in the outside world.  So I love creating a little world of its own with each song and album that I create.

From 2001 to 2004, I probably made close to 1000 songs. Most were incomplete and just moods or melodies.  When I stopped making music on my keyboard in 2004, it was the time in my life that I really got into researching other music.  For nearly 20 years, I never did any type of artistic activity.  I just listened and explored every genre and subgenre I could find.

I never planned on ever making music again until my wife convinced me to start releasing my old keyboard music during Covid.  Things just happened and I started creating new music again in 2023. It is a combination of things that brings me to where I am today as an artist.

What role did live instrumentation play in the creation of Dark Nights, and how did it differ from your usual electronic production?

Live instrumentation really helped me take the songs to the next level.  It definitely took my sound from being simply synth music to something a bit more elevated.  I had a very ambitious vision of my mixing my synth drums with live drums as well as mixing all my layered synth sounds with live vocals and instruments.  These things really make you appreciate the role of an engineer….lol. And I happened to be fortunate enough to work with Chris Conway who is an absolute master of his craft.

I don’t really know anything about musical theory, and I cannot read or write music either.  So, working with live musicians really helps with my own limitations as an artist.

Could you give us an inside view into the production process behind one of the standout tracks on Dark Nights? 

Sure, let’s talk about Club Hell. I started out wanting to make a simple fun dance song.  Over time I added, changed, and edited the sounds until I had something that I liked.

I went back to it and thought, this really sounds like it is a club in hell.  So, I started writing to it with that theme in mind.  At first, I didn’t have a rap verse in mind.  Then, I thought it could be cool to have something fun to break things up a bit. So, I created a rap verse section on the instrumental and wrote a verse for it.  Something that was just meant to be fun, not analyzed.

Once the vocals were recorded, I still felt like something was missing.  So I reached out to a bass player to give a really funky synth bass line.  That was definitely inspired by Herbie Hancock. Once I had all my ingredients, I headed to the studio to give it a mix where Chris Conway helped me to find peace amongst the chaos of the song.

How do the lyrical themes of the album manifest in the instrumentation and production?

I usually start with the instrumental first.  And eventually, something will click. I will hear a sound or there is something that brings a familiar memory.  Just as a scent can kinda trigger something familiar. Once I get that familiar feeling, I will really get into character, and then the song comes together very quickly.

How do you think your musical identity as Jonny Rythmns during 2001-2004 contrasts or complements your current persona as Elevated Focusion?

As Jonny Rythmns, my music wasn’t really focused.  My emotions were high but the music wasn’t really there yet.  It was sloppy and wasn’t really mixed properly, but you can definitely feel the raw emotion that was going on at the time. However, the music was still very raw as well.

Elevated Focusion is the product of 20 years of exploring every artist of every single genre and subgenre I can find.  The sound is more focused with the purpose of bringing together every musical influence I have experienced during my 20-year hiatus from making music combined with my own synth style that I developed during 2001 – 2004.

What do you hope your listeners will take away after listening to Dark Nights?

I honestly just hope that people enjoy the experience.  I don’t claim to be the most technical musician out there.  The only thing that I hope that someone would take from listening to ‘Dark Nights’ is that they enjoy it enough that they want to listen to it again.

How has the creation of Dark Nights influenced your thoughts on the future direction of your music?

I loved ‘Dark Nights’ but I’m ready to move on to the next concept.  My next album is already recorded and ready for mixing, so I already know where I am heading…lol.  It is somewhere completely than my first two albums. I don’t want to say too much, but I hope to release it next summer.

Stream Elevated Focusion’s discography on all major platforms via this link.

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

Baby Tap possessed the hardstyle genre with the maniacal aggression in DEMONS

Hardstyle got infinitely harder with the latest release from one of the most versatile Electronica artists and producers in any scene. Baby Tap’s latest feat of synthesised obscurity, DEMONS, is enough to rival the most visceral hits in $uicideboy$ and Wage War’s respective discographies.

The adrenalized aggression of the flawlessly finished released effortlessly resonates as galvanizingly chaotic energy, which won’t fail to leave you psyched by the UK-based experimental artist’s possession of the hot and heavy domain of electronica.

It may be different from what we have heard from Baby Tap before, but the cornerstones of subversion, darkness and cyberpunk harsh techno remain, and we stand firm on our position that asserts Baby Tap as one of the most seminally superlative acts in the UK right now.

DEMONS will officially release on June 6th; bastardise your ear canals with it by heading to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lucretia Death forged her industrial vampcore metal signature in blood in LIKE BATHORY

https://on.soundcloud.com/ah3bL

As scintillatingly seductive as Angelspit and Zombie Girl and with all the attitude as My Ruin, Lucretia Death’s latest single, LIKE BATHORY is a dark electro hit that you won’t dare to forget.

As murderous as God is a Girl with a Butcher Knife, LIKE BATHORY pays homage to a Hungarian serial killer Countess who shed the blood of up to 650 victims before history enveloped her with vampiric lore. The hypnotically caustic downtempo industrial beats effortlessly gel with her scathing declarations of monstrous affinity and narrations of evil by the hand of one of history’s most bloodthirsty.

The Phoenix, Arizona-residing solo artist brings the night to life through her sonic signature of industrial vampcore metal. This project began in April 2022, after the artist darkened the airwaves in various solo and collaborative conquests. Her most notable performances include performing at the Denver Vampire Ball and several other Vampire/BDSM events in Denver, Colorado.

LIKE BATHORY will be available to stream from January 27th via SoundCloud.

Follow Lucretia Death for updates and live performances via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Paul Edward Yu – T Montana: Cinematically Harsh Alt Electronica

https://soundcloud.com/pauledwardyu/t-montana-1?in=pauledwardyu/sets/the-shape-of-sound

With their latest release, songwriter, session guitarist and electronic producer, Paul Edward Yu, proved himself to be in the tragically small minority of artists with the ability to squeeze emotion from electronic sequencing alone.

Their 2020 album, ‘the shape of sound’, is home to a plethora of electrifyingly evocative instrumental tracks, but the perfect introduction to the Boston MA-based artist’s psychedelic stance on electronica is the single, ‘T Montana’.

It’s a progressive minefield of aural curveballs, the cold ambience the prelude serves is soon stripped-back and replaced with harsh cinematically caustic industrial elements contrasted by strikingly bright tonal textures. But discernibly, Paul Edward Yu saved the best for last. After the dub-laden tremulous breakdowns, the guitars tear through to the front of the mix in a way not easily forgotten.

T Montana is available to stream and download via Bandcamp or you can check it out via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

JJ Mickey delivers adrenalizing Techno ingenuity with “Razor Elegant”

Canadian artist and producer JJ Mickey has dropped their most mesmerising release to date, Razor Elegant. From carnivalesque kaleidoscopic whirlwinds to build-ups which will leave you tense with anticipation, you can expect all of that and more.

The excitement I usually reserve for bands such as Nekrogoblikon started to manifest as soon as Razor Elegant hit it’s momentously entrancing peak. With the artist’s proclivity to play around with 8-bit and 16-bit Chiptune along with their affinity for Trance, Industrial and Classical, JJ Mickey delivered an insanely (quite literally) immersive drop with Razor Elegant.

If you have a penchant for experimental producers, you’ll definitely want JJ Mickey on your radar.

You can check out the adrenalizing mix for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Illegal NoiZe – Keep it Trill: Darkly Phantasmal Electronic Hip Hop

When it comes to dark Electronic Instrumental Hip Hop, no one quite beats the ominously captivating tones of Illegal NoiZe. Their recently released single “Keep it Trill” is just one of the hauntedly fresh singles which you will find on their debut album “The Black Album 2”.

Instead of producing a lucid Dreamwave soundscape, they’ve used their experimentalism to take you on a journey of chillingly atmospheric aural alchemy in Keep it Trill. Spooky season is over for this year but Keep it Trill is a chilling mix which will keep on giving. It may be a downtempo track, but there’s little chance your attention will falter from the dystopian single.

You can check out Illegal NoiZe’s single Keep it Trill along with the rest of their album via Spotify

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Long Earth Trading Company – The Long World: Darkly Dystopian Tech House

If you’re looking for darkly dystopian soundscapes to delve into, look no further than the tracks found on up and coming Electronica artist Long Earth Trading Company’s debut album “Sifting Through the Wreckage”.

While each of the singles offers their own doom-laden mise en scenes using aural atmospherics alone, the best introduction to Long Earth Trading Company’s sound is “The Long World”. The futuristic Tech House mix always keeps you within a grip of curious disconcertment as you anticipate how the mostly instrumental mix will evolve next. There’s a spacey Sci-Fi vibe behind the beats while the vocal samples will make you feel as though you’ve ended up in a darker old school Doctor Who episode.

You can check out Long Earth Trading Company’s single The Long World for yourselves by heading over to Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

MAR1 – Thunderstorms: Accessibly Sweet R&B Dark Electro

Even for those who find exploring the EDM scene a little daunting, music fans of all persuasions are bound to find accessibility in MAR1’s latest single “Thunderstorms”. With his latest single the up and coming artist created an Alternative Electronic R&B track which progresses with a moody tonality and crystal-clear vocals which allow you to form a real connection to the vocals as the emotively-steeped lyrics to Thunderstorms are versed.

Alongside the strikingly pensive vocals, the beat constantly switches up in momentum, lacing the single with viscerally raw anthemics. The choice to end the melancholically-mused single on a tentative piano melody was nothing short of genius after the lashings of bass which you are treated to throughout Thunderstorms.

You can check out MAR1’s latest single Thunderstorms for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast