012 - Cryosauna - Restless

 

The fusion of two musical genres is a risky business.  You wager that the two styles will mesh in such a way to create something greater than the two parts.  All too often the end result is lesser than the sum of its parts. On a rare occasion, a marriage of styles occurs where both styles are taken to another level.  Where the music is not only improved, but rocketed into a new stratosphere.  

The mixture of 2-step with dreampunk flows as natural as a stream does to a lake.   The dreampunk ambience is deep, engaging, and mesmerizing.  The 2-step percussion is interesting, unpredictable, and driving. The fusion creates something entirely unique in dreampunk and its name is Cryosauna.

The balance that he has struck demonstrates the mastery that he has over his craft.  Neither style dominates, rather they compliment each other.  It would be easy to just create some ambient dreampunk songs and put some garage beats underneath them and call it a day, but that is not what Cryo has done here.  He has carefully chosen which songs to add the percussion to and what songs to remain in the ambient style.  “Midnight and Disused Sector were gonna have beats but worked better as ambient tracks, but I knew that Steel and Dreamcipher were going to have beats.”

Utilizing warped vocals, tasteful urban samples, and melodic synth pads, Cryo creates a distinctive multi-layered take on ambience.  This album could drop the beats completely and still be a very engaging album.  In fact, just over half of the album is nothing but ambience.  

The final track, Midnight highlights all of the intricacies that are done within the ambience of the album.  The song is crafted from several melodies and synth pads along with the aforementioned samples.  The track also features both male and female vocals with heavy effects on them.  They alternate within the song, almost as if having a conversation. With the lyrics obscured, we are only privy to glimpses of what might be said - like passing people on the street.  “Instead of focusing on what the vocals were saying, I was more focused on the texture, tone, and rhythm of the vocals.”  

It's in this use of vocals that Cryo adds to the uniqueness of this album.  It’s not unusual to have vocals in a dreampunk song, or even throughout an album.  But what is unusual here is the amount that they are used, and how they are critical to the ambience and atmosphere of the album.  

Taking cues from future garage, deep dubstep, and 2-step, Cryo creates interesting and dynamic beats.  This album could eliminate the ambience all together and be a dynamic beat driven album.

Dreamcipher showcases the percussive prowess that Cryosauna displays throughout the album.  The ambience in the track is minimal, using only some male vocals and synth pads.  The first two minutes of the song features 2-step beats, paying homage to artists such as Burial and Vacant. It’s in the second half where the song truly blooms.

Without changing any of the structure of the song, Cryo adds in some bass wobble.  This one effect drives the song to the next level.  Not only are the intricacies of the percussion there, they are now complimented by a tasteful use of deep dubstep.  The first time I heard everything come together on this song I was floored.  It's my favorite composition on the album.  

And that is what this record is: an album.  It has two distinct phases, or chapters. The first five songs act as the quieter, more relaxing portion of the album, while the second half is more diverse and varied.  Immediately upon hearing Disused Sector I knew something was going to be different.  Cryo confirmed this, saying “Disused Sector was the tipping point between the 'dreamy' half and the 'dark' half of the album.  After making that track I made Dreamcipher.  I wanted something heavy and oppressive to contrast against the romantic mood (of the) first half.”

Restless showcases the growth of Cryosauna as an artist, beatsmith, and producer.  Every moment of this album contributes to the greater whole, not a moment goes to waste.  The mixing of genres is often a risky business but here it pays off in spades.  Time will be the ultimate judge, yet at this moment Restless is not only one of the most enjoyable dreampunk albums of this year, I would contend that it can stand next to albums such as Birth of a New Day and Hold it Together.  It's that good.

Equipment Used

“A Lot of the synths were made in Massive. I love using Massive, it's a great VST. What I like to do is add an LFO to the FM dial, and what it does is add this shifting texture to the pads which I really like. The basslines were made using both Massive and Reaktor 9, but it's not too complicated. It's either one wavetable or a detuned sawtooth, haha. I remember while making Dreamcipher I added this low pass filter to the bass and I had it going in an upwards ramp with high resonance in triplet timing. I then added an OTT (another great and useful plugin) and what came out of it was the heaviest bassline I'd ever created. It reminded me of early 2000s dubstep, like something you'd hear in a Skream or Loefah record.
I've since upgraded to Serum and while I like Serum, I always come back around to Massive.”

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Cryosauna for taking the time to talk about his music and the album with me.  Cheers man!  As always thank you to Blissmonkey for promotion and editing.