Recently, we premiered DALO’s latest track GUM, via Tresor’s new vinyl series. Now, DALO is back to walk us through the track’s creation for another installment of How It Was Made.
Words and photos by DALO.
GUM is mostly the outcome of my Live Set that I worked on in early 2022, except Woodpecker from 2019. So my intention was clearly to make Tracks for the dance floor with the central theme of a certain kind of tension and simple basslines to move bodies. Here are some insights of the production process, the things I can still recollect.
Wavehall started with a 15 Minute Recording of an 808 Bass Drum sent through my echo (Dynacord) and into the Soundcraft mixer.
It was fun playing only with the EQ of the mixer to hear the full frequency range and to make it dynamic. The Bass Drum is the main core of this song and for a short period of time, I didn’t even want to add anything else because I was absolutely satisfied.
As for Gum it was all about the tension, I wanted something simple but heavy that carries you a bit. The gated staccato vocals were something I always liked in tracks, a way of using the Voice as a rhythmic instrument.
The Approach on Pilot was different as I played around with a housey beat and field recordings. It was fun from the first second on and at that moment in time I needed a „party“ track. Something you can pogo with your friends to. So I was really happy that it was a highlight during my live set.
Backlash is the only Track that I made exclusively for the release on Tresor and it happened to be more political or carrying a specific topic. It was influenced by the events of the Iranian women fighting against political oppression.
I already had the 808 Beat and acid line when I wanted to involve spoken word. The feeling of a possibility to fight back against a regime to gain back control.
This is when I played around with the simple words „backlash“, and „crisis crash response“ followed by the „downfall of the regime“.
It really is the Track that releases the tension and a slight breeze of optimism for change and control.
