Hot off the back of a contribution to A-Sides Vol.9, Victor Ruiz returns for his second EP on Drumcode.
The Brazilian artist has been an industrious contributor to DC over the past 12 months, beginning with his excellent debut EP ‘Nimbus’ last May. Since then, he’s played Drumcode Festival, was part of the iconic Warehouse Project party in November and also featured in the first Drumcode Indoors session in March. His production prowess will be fresh in the minds of DC faithful after ‘Intuit’, his collaboration with Thomas Schumacher, was a standout of the recent A-Sides Vol.9 compilation.
Enjoy the exclusive premiere of “Senses” below and read on as Victor takes us through the entire EP, track by track.
“We must never forget that today, no matter your life circumstances, we are free to create.” With this quote, came the idea for the main track of the EP. This release symbolised many stages of my life coming together in one piece.
‘Freedom’ expresses a personal journey, and a moment in my life when I felt free because I finally discovered who I am. I was starting to live my own life. So, the song came out quite powerful, just like this moment. Even though it’s the main title track, it was the last one I finished. With ‘Freedom’ I wanted to dive into some of my old productions and give a more modern approach to it. The bass stabs are very ‘Victor Ruiz’ but the rest is quite contemporary techno.
‘Illusions’ is an old one that I updated recently and it became a very strong techno track. With my own sounds, it’s hypnotic yet aggressive, featuring mythical voices and a monstrous bassline. It started as a jam on my old drum machine, and I was really digging it, so I recorded the sounds and tweaked them a bit. After that I remember finding some cool vocals, but they were not cool enough, so I just reversed them and added some good delays and reverbs and the hook was there.
If the first two tracks are very traditional Victor Ruiz style, ‘Senses’ isn’t. The 1990s inspired me to work on this tune, with some Detroit touches and high energy, it’s perfect for clubs (or home raving). Quoting Adam Beyer, it’s a “rave antidote”. I was going through some old records of mine to get inspired, so I started the 303 bassline on Logic Pro – which is the very first thing you hear in the beginning of the track. Then I added a 909 kick and started to record hi-hats and percussion. Then like a perfect cake recipe, I added a layer of chords, very Detroit-like, and the cheery on top, some cool vocals to become more dreamy. It was fun and quite fast to produce ‘Senses’.
‘Existence’ came after a deep conversation with my friend Stephan Bodzin. He told me to pay more attention to my melodic side and advised me that by focusing there, I would thrive even more. That really made me think, because I was writing heavy techno tracks and I didn’t wanna make easy-going tracks, so it was during a meditation that I realised – why not combine these things? ‘Existence’ was born and it’s the perfect example of what I’ve been doing since then.” – Victor Ruiz
Tracklist
1. Victor Ruiz – Freedom
2. Victor Ruiz – Illusions
3. Victor Ruiz – Senses
4. Victor Ruiz – Existence
Victor Ruiz Freedom EP is out Monday 18th on Drumcode and available HERE
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Connect with Victor Ruiz: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | SoundCloud
