My friend Cryptochronica has just released his most mature exhibition, Deconstruct, a four-track EP which explores separating parts of bass music into their raw essences. You may only know him through his music but Cryptochronica is also an accomplished mastering engineer and an excellent teacher. I’m really grateful for the lessons we’ve had over the past few years and so I’m excited to hear another release coming out from him. When I listen to Cryptochronica’s music, I feel that his style incorporates groove-centric percussion and complex sound design so I’m really curious whether that holds true for this release.
Support Cryptochronica via his resources shared in link tree.
Deconstruct EP
The Deconstruct EP opens with Get Down. This track starts off with thick bass accents contrasting to an Arp melody and builds with a subtle vocal pattern. The drop alters the rhythm that is established in the intro and plays with the build vocal in chops. The turn around incorporates a crunchy bit reduction effect and builds back into a heavier version of the drop with more sounds filling the spectral space of the track. Some big chords transition to the closing drop that has a sparkly bass rhythm. I really like the sharp snare that cuts through the track in the outro.
Kill the Beat starts right off with a subtle chop / percussion pattern that builds with a harmonic riser into complex snare sixteenth hits. There’s some space from the build into the drop that creates more tension before the drop hits with some checkering of bass stabs with arpeggiated samples. The second half of the drop introduces a distinct third sound that is syncopated over the drop pattern. Vocal chops are used minimally to keep the track moving forward as elements from the drop are peeled away from the space. The stereo information in this track really grabbed my attention.
Watch the way I is a vocal forward track with a really massive mid-bass that dominates the spectral space of the drop. The “watch the way I” vocal is moved from the foreground to the background while the track develops from the build to the first drop and placing the vocal further backwards helps to transition out of the drop to the breakdown in the middle of the song. The track builds up in energy again into a second drop with the vocal used again in a different way through an echo or a delay. The vocal and snare chops build into a big crescendo with the vocal brought right to the front of the mix and with some contrast brought about by panning the characteristic mid-bass and adding some stutter effects. A bit reduction effect transitions out of the second drop into the outro which concludes with an ear-catching bass note.
Bones is characterized by its catchy trap kick snare groove with saw wave basses that make for a big tension build. The first drop makes use of pitch dives and syncopated percussion to create a tension / release effect with a square arpeggiated plucky sound that I really like. An alternation with bass stabs breaks down the track in the middle and then there’s a massive build into the second drop with an arpeggiated bass that has some pitch bends to really sauce up this section. The track concludes with some liquid / wet sounding parts that work really well with the arpeggiated and phase dispersed bass.
To my ear, Deconstruct is a great EP that expresses an abundance of character and complexity while still maintaining danceability and stretching the rules of melodic bass music. Make sure to give it a listen and explre Cryptochronica’s music through his link tree.
Q&A With Cryptochronica
This album is about the deconstruction of bass music. As a teacher, mastering engineer, as well as a producer you’ve got to have a great list of the elements that separates bass music from other genres. Can you tell us the elements that you were dissecting in this EP?
This is a great question! Absolutely. Bass music is defined by centering bass as the feature of the tune, and using vocals, rhythms, beat structure and composition to support the bass, as opposed to having the bass be a supporting element for those other features. The elements I was interested in deconstructing in this EP were all those supportive aspects I just mentioned: vocals, groove and composition. So I wanted to see how few vocals I could get away with using to still communicate a vibe. For example, in the second track of the EP, “Kill the Beat”, I used only one simple, single lyric (kill the beat) to drive the tune forward, and I explored different ways of chopping it together, altering and sampling it to get many derivatives of that one sample. I think of it as a squeezing a lemon of all it’s possible juice; to get the most out of an idea, how many ways can you articulate it or express it differently? Personally, I think the best music is where a few simple ideas are recycled in lots of interesting ways, rather than having tons of ideas only happen one way.
Who are your artistic and creative inspirations for this release or for your music at this time?
I’m not doing anything new here. The techniques used in the making of this EP have all been pioneered by artists such as EPROM, G Jones, IMANU, CHEE, Mr. Bill and many others. So they all – and the techniques they figured out – were big inspirations for me. Vibe wise however, I’m eternally influenced by the big, energetic, festival Bass/festival Trap producers like RL Grime, Jantsen, Rated R, Macntaj, Joyryde, SuperAve. etc.
I’ve been in music programs with you for several years now and it’s been exciting seeing you grow as an artist. What do you think has been the biggest developmental change you’ve experienced recently in your artist’s journey?
Thanks for saying that! I’d say the biggest developments in my production lately that makes me the most excited is my comfort with sound design and my new-found familiarity with “deconstructive composition” techniques. Maybe there are other names for this style of production, but essentially, the way I think of it, “deconstructive composition” goes like this: make 2 simple, short, 16, 24, or 32 bar ideas each deriving from the same source sample/ idea, or “seed”. I usually use a chord progression, so that all the musical ideas (like bass lines, arps, little riffs, atmospheres, etc.) all share musical prosody with one another. Once I have 2 distinct ideas I like from the same source material, same idea seed, I mix them so they sound good, then STEM those ideas out into their parts (kick, snare, tops, fills, percs, bass, music, lead, FX) and pull them into a new project.
As a teacher, you must encounter a lot of the same stumbling blocks for freshman producers. Do you have any favorite pieces of advice that aspiring producers should focus on to develop and hone their craft?
Yes! Another great question. These are all great.
The most common mistakes I see producers make is always, always, always doing too much. Either having TOO many different ideas that don’t share prosody, doing too much processing, too many layers, too much distortion, too much reverb. It’s always one of those things. Music is better when 1 idea is expressed in many ways, rather than having lots of ideas express themselves in 1 way. See how many articulations you can make 1 bass make. Don’t just have it come in and blast us once – see if it can be stuttered, swelled, wobbled, pitched, glided, detuned, distorted in lots of ways, then start to make your drop from those articulations before you pull in another bass sound. Two basses with 15 articulations each is going to give you a way more nuanced and mature drop rather than 30 basses each with one articulation. And I try to do that for each element – the beat, the leads and arps, the chops, the basses, FX etc etc. So my advice to freshman producers is have fun, keep it simple, don’t overthink shit, and FINISH. You’ll get good through the act of finishing.
I’ve always wondered what other people try and focus on when they’re taking music production lessons. If you were taking a lesson from your favorite producer, how would you approach the lesson plan?
I would quietly watch them go through their workflow and only interrupt if they did something I didn’t understand. And I’d never argue with their feedback – I may ignore it at the end of the day, but for the sake of time, I’d take it in and only say “thank you”. I like to focus on how other producers sequence their parts, and how they build tension. The sounds themselves are almost superfluous – you could give G Jones an airhorn and a cat meow and he’d be able to turn those two things into a 4 minute song through intelligent sequencing. Seeing how my favorite producers structure their sequences would be the thing I’m most into.
What’s your favorite event that you’ve performed so far and do you have any upcoming performances or events that you’re especially excited about?
Awesome, yea! Each event is special in it’s way, but honestly, I played a show in Detroit a few months ago that was really special because it was the first time I played an all Ableton Live set. I love DJing, it’s so fun, but I got into production to learn how to thread elements though Ableton as my mixer, and playing with an APC through a DJM is just the coolest shit ever. So that first time playing that way was really inspiring because it was new, and immersive.