This first Adam Beyer x Eli Brown collaborative release has been feverishly anticipated by fans keeping tabs on their growing friendship and further excited by the pair’s first official B2B at Lisbon’s Brunch Electronik in September. Now ‘Overdose of Bass’ EP is here, a power-packed techno two-tracker enriched by diverse elements, on Beyer’s Drumcode.
It also marks Eli Brown’s welcome return to the label after his massive collaboration this January ‘When I Push’ with Layton Giordani and OFFAIAH following Brown’s 2022 EP ‘Deep Down.’ The EP ‘Overdose of Bass’ combines recent developments and past influences of both techno giants.
‘Overdose of Bass:’ the title track has rattling snares and a breaksy beat ushering in a spoken vocal layering different levels of processing, for a half sensual, half robotic riff – ‘there it goes/ overdose/of bass’ – with the doppler siren builds, giving a spacey, mysterious call and response. Hypnotic, disturbing, and edgy.
‘Living In The Moment:’ an urgent techno beat, a Moroder-esque bass synth, and a recurrent riff like a signal becoming ever more high and desperate, are counterpointed by an ethereal, quavering, sweet female vocal, strengthened by the melodic build in the huge central breakdown. Urgent, demanding, hyper, this is dancefloor heaven.
Adam Beyer’s revered status as a producer, DJ and leading label head of Drumcode and Truesoul is unquestionable. His outstanding contribution to electronic music, via his own releases across his pioneering 30+ year career, and his seminal electronic imprints which have launched many upcoming talents as well as spotlighting global superstars has made him a household name. With his productions, the Swedish powerhouse still consistently pushes boundaries, especially in his recent EP ‘Don’t Go,’ after solo EP ‘Ghost Kiss’ and his massive debut Vintage Culture collaboration. Experimenting with techno enhanced by melodic elements, vocal processing/vocoders and creative use of samples from world cultures, the dynamic producer keeps on evolving and surprising his legions of fans.
“I think Eli is one of the key artists to bring a fresh energy and perspective to club techno in recent years and it’s been cool collaborating with him, both in the studio and behind the decks in the B2Bs we’ve played, with the Drumcode show in Lisbon being a particular highlight,’ Adam says. ‘I think with Overdose Of Bass we’ve perfectly blended our two respective styles and sounds. I’m really pleased to be able to finally share this with the Drumcode family as it’s been a big track in many of my sets through 2024.”
Master producer and veritable phenomenon Eli Brown is a sonic force in a category of his own. Whilst boasting a career that spans over two decades, since bursting onto the scene in 2016 the techno powerhouse’s brooding sound and visceral energy have catapulted him from the UK’s underground to global icon status at meteoritic pace. This collaborative track arrives hot on the heels of a massive year for the DJ/producer/record label head, following a steady stream of chart topping releases to etching his name in history as the first techno artist to perform at the iconic Rockefeller Center, and launching his streetwear label – 92 Thing.
“Adam has always been someone I’ve massively respected as one of the pioneers of modern techno,” Eli says. “We’ve been exchanging records and I’ve been sending him music for sometime and then he signed a track called ‘Deep Down’ and then my flip on LFO’s ‘Freak’ which really helped cement me in the techno world. As we have spent more time together our friendship has really grown and after a couple of B2Bs I feel we have really clicked which can be seen when we play together. Whilst we come from different musical backgrounds – Adam from techno and me from Jungle/DnB- our musical tastes are very similar sonically and fundamentally. It felt so natural to work on some music together.”
‘Overdose of Bass’ is available here