isolatedmix 114 - R.A.D.E

  Our latest isolatedmix comes from R.A.D.E, an English artist who (at the time we first spoke) was living in my home of Los Angeles. We were introduced to each other after both he and Illuvia were included in a Bandcamp feature by Joe Muggs, and I thanked Joe for bringing R.A.D.E’s music to my attention, along with many other great releases in the article. It turned out both David (R.A.D.E) and I were both in LA, so had planned to meet up and talk all things music, but life got in the way and David unexpectedly moved to Barcelona earlier this year. Mixing breaks, ambient, bass, and DnB elements, R.A.D.E’s music sits in that nostalgic territory for anyone who grew up listening to a wide variety of electronic music. Working anywhere between the dancefloor and the chill-out room, it’s a style that draws upon the best parts of each genre, sometimes across a single track, and is often caught varying in focus between each EP, making each of his releases so far, a lovely, varied listen. The Overview EP by R.A.D.EAs Joe Muggs, put it in the original Bandcamp article best; “The L.A.-based R.A.D.E. loves smooth textures and high production value in his outer-space inspired grooves. Occasionally, that can steer things towards the excesses of prog house (as on “Alta Vista” here); but more often, it works as an update of the warm ‘90s vibes of The Orb, Future Sound of London, and LTJ Bukem”.With an obvious connection to a musical era and many heroes that I grew up listening to, I was keen to get to know what inspired the (so far) two lovely EP’s from the R.A.D.E camp.ASIP: Your R.A.D.E catalog is still in the early stages with two mini-albums on Bandcamp - when did you start producing and what was the inspiration to begin R.A.D.E?R.A.D.E: I’ve been making music for quite a while and put out a couple of releases under a different name on labels in the UK. This would have been mid 2000’s and I would say at that point I hadn’t really found “my sound” so there was a lot of exploration and experimentation but also a lot of procrastination which meant that not much got finished. When I moved to California in 2015 it felt like a new start and I had more of a creative urge than I had for a while, so I spent some time reflecting on the music that had shaped my taste over the years and tried to distill the common elements...The atmospheric nature of ambient music, the low end of dub and drum n bass, recycled breakbeats - these all seemed to be recurring motifs in a lot of the music that I loved, so I tried to weave them together with R.A.D.E into something that sounded contemporary and coherent.Was it a surprise to be picked out and featured in the Bandcamp article?Absolutely! Especially given the other artists that were featured - Illuvia, Special Request, Zed Bias, Distance - these are people whose music I really admire. I was very conscious of the fact that R.A.D.E is a new, self-released project and that I didn’t have any kind of profile or label support, so to find myself in that kind of company with my first release gave me a huge confidence boost and motivated me to get back in the studio. I should also shout out Joe Muggs at this point, who wrote the article for Bandcamp and introduced the two of us. His book “Bass, Mids, Tops” is a great window into the influence of UK soundsystem culture. Highly recommended. Pacific EP by R.A.D.EYour music takes many sources of inspiration, can you tell us in your own words what influences your output? In terms of musical genre, I already mentioned some of the reference points... I’m drawn to the more electronic end of the ambient spectrum, but breakbeats and bass have also been a constant musical thread for me whether via hip hop, breaks or D&B. A lot of the music that I love fuses those two things - the atmospheric, immersive aspects of ambient and the physicality of Soundsystem music. I used to DJ chillout rooms and post-rave spaces and so R.A.D.E was partly inspired by that - I want

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Ambient, chill, IDM, shoegaze, drone, techno and electronica mixes from www.astrangelyisolatedplace.com. Featuring the exclusive isolatedmix series and DJ mixes from ASIP. For all previous mixes please see the website.