Braxton steps up for a joyous hour of progressive textures….
Pockets of electronic music, characterized by deep, blissful breakbeats, are once again permeating the scene. Dabbling in this new wave is British DJ and producer Braxton. After joining Anjunadeep in 2019, he quickly gained recognition for a sound that blends blissful atmosphere with warm house and fractured beats. Check his latest Bedrock release alongside Steve Weston: ‘Lanes‘ features bold drums, soaring melodies, and an epic scale that evoke the glory days of prog breaks. Here, Braxton continues his fine from with a soothing blend of progressive textures featuring tracks from Monkey Safari, Nox Vahn, Trilucid, and unreleased tracks from Braxton himself.
Tracklist
1. New Members – Pixel Tear {Bandcamp}
2. Nox Vahn – Don’t Go {Anjunadeep}
3. Braxton – The Summit {Unreleased}
4. Tom Glass – Welcome To The Sun {Renaissance}
5. Braxton – Taking Form (Extended Mix) {Anjunadeep}
6. Monkey Safari – Safe {Spectrum}
7. Gai Barone – Via Fermi (Braxton Remix){Unreleased}
8. Steven Weston X Braxton – Splendor {Bedrock Records}
9. Trilucid – Kasamansa (Paul Thomas Remix) {UV}
10. Ivan Aliaga – Lonely World {Replug}
11. Gareth Cole – Hypodub {Bondage Music}
12. Framewerk – Back From The Bass {Capital Heaven}
13. Braxton & Because of Art – Between The Stars {Anjunadeep}
Balance Selections Q+A
Name: Danny
Location: Brighton, UK
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Alias/Producer name: Braxton
Labels affiliated with: Anjunadeep, Bedrock Records, Colorize, SHEN
My last 3 releases
What music did you listen to as a child?
A bit of everything really, my parents played all sorts all the time. My dad started my electronic music education earlier, playing a lot of Depeche Mode and Erasure so Vince Clarke was basically my babysitter. Some of my favourite memories are of going on long drives, listening to his old tunes and daydreaming. Nothing’s changed, really, except my daydreams don’t involve as much Dennis Bergkamp these days.
As a teenager, I got into metal and played in a band. It was always stuff that had similar tones to the electronic music I was also listening to, so a lot of Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, TOOL etc. Atmospheric and progressive stuff, as well as hardcore bands like Botch and Converge.
When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?
The day Adamski released Killer. If your music video hasn’t got Seal’s severed head spinning around in it, I’m not interested. After that, it was all about Essential Mixes and Global Underground compilations. I used to record Essential Mixes off BBC Radio 1 all the time and somewhere I’ve got a massive bag of cassettes with very low-quality rips of Sasha, Digweed, Parks & Wilson, Carl Cox, Nick Warren, etc etc.
From there, it all went a bit squiffy getting into Warp Records and labels like that…but those years of my life are all a bit of a blank, to be honest.
When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?
My parents don’t know this, but I saw Armand Van Helden and Fatboy Slim B2B up the road in Stoke when I was WAY too young to be allowed in there. It wasn’t strictly a club, it was somewhere they used to show boxing matches. They played in the ring and both came out in boxing outfits with a ring announcer and everything, it was a lot of fun.
Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?
It changes depending on the time of year, time of the day, what I’ve eaten, where I’ve been, and how stroppy I’m feeling, Arsenal results etc. I guess some that have always stuck are Sasha, Boards of Canada, Bjork, Tim Hecker, James Holden.
The first time I heard Sasha’s GU 013 compilation it completely changed my life, that’s honestly why I’m here now, writing these words. I think that was the main inspiration for me to get into DJing and then into production. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of terrible 90s pop, too. I don’t know why, maybe I’m having a breakdown. It was stuff that I hated at the time but for some reason I’m finding solace in it now.
What was the last album that you downloaded/purchased?
I bought Cocteau Twins ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ on vinyl. I’m slowly going through all the music that shaped me as a human being and getting hold of it on vinyl. The night I discovered this album, I stayed up playing Football Manager and listened to it on loop until I went to school at 9am. Top 5 best nights of my life.
What is your current production and DJ setup like?
My production setup is a bit of a mess. I still use Logic 9, on a 2010 Mac Pro. I love it. And I can’t stand the new Apple OS and software so I’m just staying on a super old DAW. It’s all hacked together with a flashed Thunderbolt card so I can use my UAD interface, but that’s all nerd stuff I’ll save for a different Q&A.
I should probably start using Ableton but I’m too scared and lazy to learn it. I use a few outboard bits and my go-to synths are my Prophet 6, Moog Sub 37 and a couple of rack bits like my JD990. As for plugins, I use a lot of uHE stuff, Plugin Alliance bits here and there, mainly stuff from about 10 years ago, nothing new will run on my system so I don’t even bother to keep an eye out really. Standard DJ setup, just Pioneer CDJs and DJM etc. I learnt on vinyl but don’t play it out at all.
What releases do you have on the horizon?
It’s been busy with releases recently, I just released on Bedrock for the first time, followed by a new double single on Anjunadeep (Between the Stars / Taking Form) this week. After that, I’ve got some interesting ambient pieces coming out and then some super fun remixes that I’m not allowed to talk about yet.
Where can we hear you perform?
My next gig is this weekend with Joseph Ray in Bournemouth, then the following weekend in London with Nora En Pure, Shindig Festival the weekend after that, and then back to tan my ass at Anjunadeep Explorations in June.
