Off the back of a blistering performance at Ultra Europe, a tidal wave of support from dance music luminary Marshmello and gathering a quarter billion total streams across hit catalog, rising star Crankdat has landed onto Armada Music for his debut release on the Amsterdam-based record label. Widely considered one of the most talented youngsters of the dance music realm with a mere 21 years of life experience under his belt, the Ohio native shows exactly why he’s rapidly become one of the most well-respected producers of the moment with ‘Say It’, featuring L.A.-based singer-songwriter Sara Skinner.

Listen to Crankdat feat. Sara Skinner – Say It

 

A paradigm of masterstroke productions, ‘Say It’ sees Crankdat blurt out a scurrying drum and bass rhythm kicking up dust while staying impeccably pristine in surround sound. Spearheaded by a contagious electric guitar riff turned inside out and Sara Skinner’s vocals tumbling from heaven, the track is pushed to top speed by urgent strings before coming to a climactic full stop. Simply put, this one’s sure to rush onto all the playlists that matter this summer.

Crankdat: “The production process of ‘Say It’ was absolutely seamless.  I produced the beat earlier this year with no intentions of doing anything with it — sometimes I make very different styles of music for total fun, and so was the case with this, I just did it for fun. When I sent it around to my team and a few other trusted ears, everyone really liked it, and so arose the possibility of it becoming an actual release. I sent it to this vocalist I met on the Internet a few months prior, the super-talented Sara Skinner, as we had discussed working on a song in the weeks before. We never got in the studio together, never called about it, talked about it etc. She just took it and ran. The first demo Sara sent back was absolutely GOLD.  She did her thing, and she nailed it.  Afterwards, I finished processing the vocal and engineering the beat, and thus, ‘Say It’ was born!”

 

Sara Skinner: “Christian (Crankdat) sent me this track late one night, and I was so stoked on the music that I immediately set up a co-writing session with Karra (who worked with me on ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Time Warp’). I write all my music for my own project, but I’m pretty new at working on electronic music, so I hit her up because I needed to make sure this one was another really great one. We ran with our usual thought process and kept a strong focus on the melody and painting mental images with the lyrics. We recorded the vocals right there and then to capture the actual energy of the song in that moment. I’ve been really excited about this one; the track alone is epic, and I’m grateful to have worked on a song with such a well-respected guy in the scene.”

In this day and age, for any come-lately producer looking to make their mark, a debut album must swiftly be realized. Hal Stucker however is not any producer and “day and age” – as you’ll see – plays zero part in ‘Electronic Excursions’ reckoning. Hal has no hidden agendas. He doesn’t desire an extra foot up the career ladder, more gigs, better billing or ‘to blow you away’ with his music’s dancefloor-filling capabilities.

No, both his and the ambitions of his ‘Electronic Excursions’ album decidedly lie in other areas.

In the pantheon of electronic artists’ LPs, there have been some sizeable pending times. Hal though might have out-pended the lot. Since his debut production (the Telica Records-released ‘The World Is Flat’) a not inconsiderable two decades have elapsed. Indeed for sixteen of those years, Hal was in full stasis, before Ruben de Ronde’s Statement! Recordings brought it off-ice with ‘Coral’ two years ago. Since, Hal’s productions have established a new DJ audience, engaging the musically enlightened likes of Above & Beyond, Cosmic Gate, Rodg, Grum and others.

If you don’t already know, you’ve probably guessed anyway – Hal is considerably better known under another name. The ‘who’ is largely immaterial here (and possibly even unhelpful), as this album is an exercise in artistic emancipation. An opportunity to vent stylistically, after many years inside an ever-tightening perception box, it’s electronic excursions in name and nature.

“Over the last 12 months, says Hal, I’ve embarked on a little musical outing to try and create a body of work with depth & emotion that you could listen to anywhere. I know that could be a cliché, but it’s the truth. It’s been an absolute joy working on the album – my first body of work in 25 years of being in the music industry. It’s different, but I sincerely hope you all enjoy the album as much as I did writing it”.

Across 14 tracks, ‘Electronic Excursions’ is a refreshing master-class in not giving a flying one about the dancefloor. That’s not to say you wouldn’t dance to it. Only that it’s not its primary spur. The same goes for other conventions. Track runtimes regularly enjoy the luxury of 8, 9 10 or in the case of ‘Chaos Bowl’ 11+ minutes to play out their ideas, angles and sequences. Genre classifications are likewise largely redundant. Adjectives like ‘atmosphere’, ‘ether’, ‘mood’ and ‘journey’ play a far greater part in defining compositions like ‘Rubix’, Monlith’, ‘Conjour’ and ‘Chimes’. Tempos too enjoy greater-than-average bandwidth and while instrumentals are its norm, vocal interludes also exist (most notably on ‘Walking Over Fire’ sung by Emma Gillespie and Eilidh Hadden’s ‘Retrace’.

Funny How Things Stick: Mr. Stucker enlightens us to the evolution of his unusual artist name. “Many people are unaware that Hal Stucker is an alias conjured up back in 1998. The name actually came from reading an article written by the real Hal Stucker and after a few releases under this alias I got an email from the man himself. He was and still is based in Boston, has written articles for the likes of the New York Times, WIRED and other major publications in the US.

He asked me (and I quote) “did you just come up with the name or have you read one of my humble scribblings on your travels? I have been using your music as a talking point at my dinner parties over the years, it would be great to know”. I replied that I had read one of his humble scribblings’ and he was delighted!”
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So now you know the ins-and-outs, you’re prepped for ‘Electronic Excursions’ arrival, in all its unshackled glory. That happens today and you can order Hal Stucker’s exceptional album here https://pure.choons.at/electronicx, as well as checking the album’s trailer video here: https://bit.ly/2mwiN7Q

‘Electronic Excursions’ by Hal Stucker tracktlist:

1. Celeste
2. Chaos Bowl
3. Fairlights
4. Monlith
5. Conjour
6. Rubix
7. Chimes
8. Retrace
9. 123
10. Walking Over Fire
11. Colloseum
12. Disillusioned
13. Stars Bonus
14. Retrace (Sunrise Edit)

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Subculture welcomes another trance futurist to its impressive roster today, as Factor B debuts on the label. The Aussie producer hit the release gas last year, with an anthem convoy that by the year’s end included ‘Invidius’, ‘Liberator’, ‘Origins’ and ‘Something Like A Cure’

‘Into The Light’ follows this April’s ‘White Rooms’ out of the gate and we’re going to chance our arm and say with it, we reckon Brendan Blatt’s topped the lot.

‘Into The Light’ got its first airing (where else but!) ASOT850 back in February. Inside Jaarbeurs it more than proved its mettle, when Brendan closed his Road To 1000 set with it. “Armin van Buuren, Solarstone and label boss John O’Callaghan are just some of the spinners who’ve since rallied to its radio & club cause, while DJ Mag UK scored it 8/10.”

To be clear, style and energy-wise ‘Into The Light’ is not kidding around! If your set of speakers is in need of something that doesn’t stint on sonic force, mass or motion, look no further. With a tempo that’s goes straight for the primetime jugular, more rousing sub-melody flow than the Jetstream and a heart as big as an ocean, ‘Into The Light’s got you covered. Pick it up/stream here https://subculture.choons.at/intothelight

Tracklist

01: Factor B – Into The Light (Original Mix)

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