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Five Track Chaser: Lung’s Top Current Inspirations

Having worked with the Med School label releasing his own brand on drum & bass music for a while now, Welsh producer, Lung (who we introduced properly last year) is currently working hard to finish his debut album (which is due out later this year). With an upcoming appearance in the Med School hosted Room Three on the 5th July he picked five of his most current inspirations, which is aptly appropriate considering he’s currently holed up in a studio creating his own breadth of work… 1. The Lotus Eaters - The First Picture Of You It's hard to pin down exactly why I love this track so much. It's a very simple song from the 80s. I remember hearing it when I was younger when my parents would play it in the car or in the house. It's very nostalgic. I just love the song - it's structure, the way it builds, the big, hooky chorus and the swelling guitars soaking in chorus and compression - that classic 80s guitar sound. There's not much more to it than that, in all honesty. I just really love this song. 2. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again A lot of people hate Morrissey, understandably - he can come across as a bit of a self-righteous prick. That being said, I still believe he's one of the greatest lyricists to come out of the UK. His poetic cynicism is ever present on ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ and is certainly something that resonates with me on a personal level as a listener - you've definitely got to have a sense of humour! Couple that with the undeniably iconic guitar playing of Johnny Marr and a fantastic rhythm section to boot and you've got one hell of a combo. One of my all time favourite bands. I could listen to their riffs and melodies for hours and never get bored. 3. Candiria - Blood I used to play in a hardcore band with some friends in school. We played a few gigs and had a good time - but we never really got far with it. During that time I used to listen to a lot of "heavier" music - bands like Throwdown, Machinehead, etc. But this track by Candiria in particular really struck a chord with me, so to speak. The track opens with this epic drum fill before dropping into this syncopated groove. The band is actually comprised of trained jazz musicians and each tune always has interesting rhythms and time signatures - they made it sound so effortless and smooth and certainly inspired me to start thinking outside of the 4/4 "box". 4. Energy 52 - Café del Mar (Michael Woods Remix) One of the first pieces of "electronic music" I'd ever heard. My mum had one of these MoS chillout compilations and this was one of the tracks. Everyone knows this tune (or at least the original), even if they don't know that they know it. It's a perfect example of how to absolutely nail a chord progression. It puts you in a state of instant euphoria. Again, a very simple idea to begin with, but it develops and develops until its climatic peak before dropping out to virtually nothing but space. There are no drums or beats in this version and, frankly, it doesn't need any at all - just pure melody and atmosphere. It was one of the biggest inspirations to me as a producer when I started getting interested in creating "space" within my tracks - a sense of place and atmosphere. Whether I can ever write something as powerful as this, however, is a different story! We shall see… 5. Bachelors of Science - Spanish Sun (Bungle Remix) This is probably my favourite drum & bass tune of all time. And that's no easy feat. I took a long time debating with myself about what my favourite drum & bass tune was, but this one kept coming back to me. It's such an incredibly moving and uplifting piece of music. From the layers upon layers of guitars that seemingly appear from nowhere to the forefront of the main hook-line, the huge euphoric pads - It's a great example of just how musical drum & bass can be. Bungle has often recorded his own guitar work into his tunes, and it's something that I took note of and have tried to do a lot more of myself. It's important to not get lost in the computer when producing, adding in some real recordings makes me feel a bit more like I'm actually doing something, as weird as that may sound. I just like things to be hands on, playing instruments and recording things live really makes a difference to the way I feel about making music. It feels totally your own, you know it's not some sample you took from a library that 20,000 other producers have access to. You wrote it, you recorded it, it's yours. Bungle is king of this, and certainly I producer I've always looked up to and respected, for being a musician first and foremost.
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