Past Decloak Masterclass Client, Tom Healey Continues His Campaign With Another Top-Shelf Techno Release
It’s becoming quite common within the techno scene to see our past clients smashing out tracks having completing a course with us, and each time we can’t help but feeling a strong sense of pride in them.
Manchester’s Tom Healey is absolutely no different.
Having come to us for a Masterclass in Ableton Live production just prior to a certain pandemic, his determination was immediately evident. Undeterred by the craziness of the world around us at that time, he was the first one to jump at the chance to continue with his learning following our hasty scramble to take things online with our classes, something we are incredibly grateful for to this day.
With a solid focus on techno as the style he wanted to create, his commitment to the craft was clear from the start. Like many who came through our doors before him Tom was already DJing in and around Manchester and he came to us to take the next step in learning how to produce within Ableton Live.
Since completing his course towards the end of 2022, Tom has been on quite the journey. Moving down to London for a short while he fine tuned and crafted his sound and continued master his skills, culminating in a combination of groovy and rolling percussive rich techno which is so popular on the underground dance floors across Europe currently.
Tom had his first release picked up by Berlin’s SYXT, joining a roster of underground names such as Temudo, no.name and RONY Group on a label which has been making waves in the city since their first release back in 2018. A full EP consisting of 4 original tracks, this would be the first of many productions to reach the release phase for the up and coming artist.
Following this his second EP, Nebula was picked up by the formidable Canticle Records run by Berlin’s very own Assumption. Released in Febuary of 2023, with the mastering done by the man himself Rene Wise, this subsequent EP was to cement Tom in a groove that set the tone for what would be a productive year to come.
His next release was picked up by Influenced Records for their second VA, which featured a total of 13 tracks.
Influenced Records, a London based techno label has been pushing out up and coming Underground producers for the past few years.
Following this, Tom’s next release came in the form of a remix with Japan’s established techno producer and fellow Ableton tutor Toru Ikemotu on his Chimera series of releases which can be found on Toru’s Bandcamp page below.
In this past month Tom has seen the release of his third full EP, featuring 4 original tracks and a remix by Toru Ikemotu. Released on Dublin’s Syncopated Records, the whole release is a complete banger from start to finish. With his sound now fully established in the popularised grooves that are dominating the underground dancefloors of Europe, this EP is a must have for any techno producer in 2023.
Check out the full EP below and show your support by getting your copy on Bandcamp.
Keep your eyes peeled for more upcoming gigs and releases from Tom Healey over on his Instagram page.
Decloak Masterclass Student Gets First Track Played on BBC Introducing.
Kevin Taylor has been mixing tracks up and down the country for the best part of four decades and is part of the Underground Kollektiv - a global collective of house and techno DJs delivering regular radio shows and events.
It was his love of deep and progressive house music that brought him to us back in summer of this year as he wanted to apply his years of experience in listening and playing the music into learning music production.
With little to no knowledge in music production or Ableton Live he began on our Online Ableton Live Masterclass back in June. Delivering the sessions around his preferred tastes in dance music, Kevin soon showed why a passion for the music and a solid amount of experience listening to and DJing this music can fast-track the learning experience.
Quickly taking to the theory and practical sides to the course, within 16 weeks Kevin had created his first track from scrach completely on his own and this month had a track picked up by BBC Introducing and played on air on 3rd December.
An upbeat, french house inspired banger with a beautiful vocal it was only an experiment by Kevin as he continues to explore his artistic direction. However, since sharing it with some of his network it has received some nice critiques from various DJs such as RobinVP and radio show hosts prompting him to send it out under the alias DJ Kevski.
BBC Music Introducing is BBC Radio's platform supporting unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar UK music talent since 2007. It has given a springboard opportunity to acts such as London Grammar, JME & Skepta and Alt-J to name a few. In 2017 BBC Music Introducing was present at Creamfields and the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), focusing solely on DJs and electronic acts for the first time.
The full show can be found at the link below and Kevins track can be found by forwarding to 1:39:30.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dg2xv2
Follow Kevins socials here for regular DJ mixes.
You can also see what Kevin thought about his time with us via his review on Facebook. Check it out :)
Josh Reeves Releases New EP With A Tip of the Hat to Ourselves
Josh Reeves has continued his on his release journey with a banger of an EP on the excellent Diffuse Reality Records.
As a talented techno DJ within Manchester’s thriving techno scene, Josh came to us back in 2017 to get to grips with Ableton and music production. Learning quickly he began releasing a few years later and has now mastered his sound. Groovy, stripped back techno. Functional and to the point, his music is beginning to catch the ears of some big names as his technical ability goes from strength to strength
In his latest release, Josh tips his proverbial hat to his early days with us, which I absolutely love.
Check out his EP here and show some support.
Manchester Based Promoter and DJ ‘Renwick' Releases First of a String of Techno belters.
Once again we are celebrating a release from those involved with Decloak Music Studio.
Manchester based, Honduras born Renwick has been getting entirely stuck in to both the Manchester techno scene with his co-run club night, One Night Collective, and his mastering of the techno craft since he arrived in the city a few years back.
He started the club night One Night - Manchester Techno Sessions with fellow resident DJ Carlos Sousa and it has been building up support and respect amongst the locals, having played host to the likes of Manchester born, Berlin dwelling techno producer Setaoc Mass among others dedicated to playing the darker, heavier sides of techno.
One Night - Manchester Techno Sessions
In 2018 Renwick came to us at Decloak to get a helping hand on the production and Ableton Live front and it’s beginning to pay off with several of his new tracks being picked up over the past few months, with others bubbling away on his hard drive waiting to be unleashed.
The most recent is a collaboration with Decloak Music’s Jack Barton and is part of a large VA celebrating 4 years of Solemn Records.
Their track titled ’String Theory’ is a trippy, rolling number and is the first of a series of collaborations by the two.
You can check the track out below, along with the other tracks on the VA.
Further releases coming for the pair include a VA on Illegal Alien Records which will be announced soon. In the meantime you can check out the live jam for Decloak Jams they did a few months back!
Mark Broom Remixes Josh Reeves’ Track then Ben Sims and Mark Broom Play Said Track…
Josh
Reeves
So yeah, Josh Reeves has been getting a lot of air time from us this past 12 month and as a past Masterclass student we can’t ignore some of the achievements he’s been making as of late.
A few months back we mentioned how he remixed techno legend Mark Brooms ‘M19’ track and it looks like the favour has been returned to Josh by Broom, with Broom (currently) unofficially remixing ‘XTC’, Josh’s first release on Manchester based GUI Records.
And it gets better. Last week Ben Sims posted a video of himself going b2b with Broom in Belgium and they were playing the remix of XTC!
Check out the video posted by Ben Sims below!
When two techno top-shelvers like Mark Broom and Ben Sims play anything with your name associated to it, you clearly have reason to be proud!
Eyes on Josh.