Throbbing Therapy

Alex Campbell and Reece Walker have been making music together as Emerald Cabal & Reece Walker (EC & RW) for four months now. In that short amount of time the production duo have performed at Boiler Room Perth, in support of Oneohtrix Point Never/Actress and Andres, not to mention more than a few local nights and parties, where they've become firm favourites amongst Perth's more discerning dance music community. 

We're glad these two found their way to each other, because the results so far have been standout. Jump on EC & RW's Soundcloud and hit Tower Of Silence: with its throbbing bass, rhythm-switching, intermittent high-pitched zaps and a foreboding offbeat drum sample, it's the kind of wild, dark and amazing production you hear the likes of coming from international labels like Long Island Electrical Systems, Werkdiscs, Workshop, etc – which doesn't bode too badly at all for these boys, who list the above as well as Modern Love, Clone, Swamp 81, All Caps, Idle Hands, Hemlock and 3024 as labels whose output they follow keenly.

Campbell says making weird, unpredictable, dance music comes with its own set of challenges. “One thing I find the hardest when making music is sticking to one sound, or thinking that we have to, anyway. It's definitely hard to keep a theme going when all you wanna do is make these tracks that span a bunch of genres. Like one day we'll make a tune that'll turn out to be pretty house-y, with a vocal hook or something, then the next we'll turn out something pretty bruising and dark. 'Finding your sound' is definitely a big part of making music and something Reece and I are concentrating a lot on lately.”

“There's also this weird thing in dance music where the performance is almost totally eliminated. You don't go to a show to see flashy antics from the DJ; if you do I think you've missed the point somewhat,” says Walker. If modern dance music lacks the intimacy in performance that is afforded by other genres of music; it follows that the emphasis during any given club show is then not on 'watching' a producer's performance, but moreso that the producer can successfully create a 'vibe' to create an experience of significance in the space. “I like to think of being in a club environment as a sort of therapy,” says Campbell, “you can go and leave any stress or anything else you're worried about and enter this space where none of it matters, and the intention is to enjoy yourself.”

“Challenging music can be extremely rewarding,” offers Walker. “The problem with playing it, whether it be while DJing or on the radio is that it is so often getting the most out of that music requires you to be in a particular headspace. I'm not sure what makes a production 'good' – that's something that's so hard to put your finger on and something that always seems to be changing; maybe that's what makes music so great. But I do really love this question and think about it a lot.”