On his second excursion for Oath, Manchester-based producer Loz Goddard continues to nurture the clubby side of his sound with a razor-sharp and bombastic EP that contains all you could ever wish for when it comes to breaks, euphoria, and sonic depth….
As a producer, Loz has operated under a number of guises, but one thing has always remained – his elegant and inspired application of melody. His early career was marked by a number of superb releases on labels such as Church, Tusk Wax, Apparel and many more, all of which highlighted a deep affection for groove, tone and atmosphere. The music largely operated within the realms of Deep House – at times spilling over into Nu-Disco – but there was always a little bit of shine on each EP that pointed to other spheres of influence, and it was these references points that made Loz Goddard’s music feel broad, considered and introspective. The music appealed on many levels and provided plenty of worlds and spaces in which listeners could get deeply involved within, and this journey is filled with beautifully polished gems that can be held and admired in your hands time and time again.
A two-year break from releases resulted in the release of ‘Ballon Tree Road’, his debut LP and first release on Oath, and to say the record was a step forward would be an enormous understatement. Here Loz Goddard set down a marker of things to come, as he drew from the melodic outlays that were a cornerstone of his discography to date and permeated these through a spectrum of styles and rhythms that represent everything good about a dance music record. You had the quiet moments, the heart-felt moments, the pure and powerful moments, with Loz exploring everything from Breaks to Ambient, Broken Beat to House, and even some D’n’B thrown in for good measure. This was a marker if there ever was one, and it firmly established Loz’s second-era phase, one where his abilities were given space to shine on a much broader scale.
‘Are We Ever Leaving Here’ builds upon the energies found within his debut LP, providing a bitesize experience that aims itself directly at the dance floor – but listening at home provides a lot of scope for inward escapism. The EP presents three original cuts, of which the title track gets things going – a deep set, resonating chord gets things going, which fans out to include additions to the sequence, and before long the breaks come into play, achieving lift-off and welcoming you firmly into the experience. ‘Parallaxing’ really evokes that firm set 90s Techno sound, with a hard as nails rhythm section (with hats aplenty) providing a basis for acid lines, swelling backroom chords and gorgeous interplays between synth lines – the way in which this song peaks is utterly glorious. ‘Space Nugz’ takes things down a notch, but keeps things heavy yet delicate. The beat here is cavernous, diving deep down within the strata along with the bass line that keeps proceedings ticking over. The melodic top layer is spacey, drifting between the ethereal and the real, enticing the listener to leave this plane and pursue a new life in another galaxy.
To round off the experience, there are two remixes from Casa Voyager head OCB, and Bristol-based producer Boulderhead, and they do not disappoint. OCB puts his spin on the title track, and the BPM gets pushed to its max, with the vibe pulled apart and rebuilt as a heads-down, floor-smashing proggy roller. Boulderhead focuses on ‘Space Nugz’, and here the groove is once again flipped on its head, with the remix pushing into the realms of dreamy chuggy techno, with the melodies filling up the spaces so beautifully.
Loz Goddard started something beautiful with his debut LP, and saw his sonics reach new heights and touch new depths. This EP keeps the flames burning bright, with expertly crafted dynamics and his signature melodic abilities on full display, with the two remixes adding much to the experience. As a mini-experience, it’s hard to beat, and it only sets the heart racing for what might come next – for the meanwhile, Oath are incredibly proud to facilitate this beautiful new experience from Loz Goddard, and its one hopefully to be enjoyed at a few spots this summer…
WWD: Hey, Loz Goddard. This is your second release on Oath. What attracts you to Oath and how do you think your sound fits with the label?
Hey WWD, nice to chat again and thanks for the interest in my latest offering! For me, Oath has established itself over the last few years as one of the best labels for deep, atmospheric music. Their artist roster is really solid, as is their artwork and it’s ran professionally which is a massive plus.
My sound has changed a fair bit over the past few years, but Oath have been releasing varied styles from ambient, deep and soulful house, right through to more club-oriented stuff. The fit is perfect right now as my style has been flitting between ambient, deep house, electro and breaks.
WWD: Where was the EP made? Can you expand on some of the notable gear/plugins you used on this?
I made this EP in my studio using my Roland TR-8, Roland TD-30k Drum Kit, Omnisphere 2 & my Juno 106 (partially broken, but makes for some interesting sounds). All of this run into Ableton on my studio PC.
This time around the majority of the EP was actually made sat at the PC rather than live jamming ideas, which is a different approach to my last 3 records. I find that the more I make music for the club, the less time I’m spending jamming live ideas and the more time I’m spending looking at a screen. The live jamming approach lends itself perfectly to more ‘home listening’.
It’s been nice to have a change of approach for this record though, it’s reminded me that I can still make tracks with just a PC or Laptop and a few plugins – something I started out doing, but haven’t done for a while.
WWD: What’s your favourite piece of gear that you generally use? Why is that?
It’s gotta be the Roland TD-30k Drums. As I’m a drummer, there’s something really nice about hitting play on a nearly finished idea and jamming along to it, inserting a few extra parts and essentially ‘filling in the blanks’. Often if I’m thinking a track is lacking something, the drumkit always helps me in realizing the missing pieces.
WWD: ‘Space Nugz’ has a naughty bassline. How did you make it?
That was a result of messing around with Omnisphere 2 synths, playing with the cutoff and resonance of some electro and trance style sounds. Often there’s not a clear aim to the bassline I want, it just has to fit nicely with the pads and synths. The pads and synths are always my starting point of a track, so basslines are a lot of trial and error for me.
WWD: There are a few break samples featured on this EP. How do you source your breaks and what do you do to them to make them sound so tasty?
I have a huge sample collection that has built up over the years which started life on my old Laptop and has since been transferred across hard drives and now on to my studio PC, so exactly where the breaks sample came from I do not know. I do know that that particular sample lives in a folder with some other proper nice ones, which you’ll undoubtedly hear in some future productions!
When using a drum sample though, I always add my own parts to them too. That usually means adding the sample to the track, then playing some extra parts over it on my drum kit. Whether it be extra toms, hats, snares or kick layers, a few extra touches tends to beef out the samples just enough.
WWD: What was the message to OCB when they were recruited to remix the track ‘Are We Ever Leaving Here’? How do you think they’ve taken your sounds and recontextualized them, while paying respect to the original?
So with that one I reached out on email to say that I had some breaky & deep bits set for release and needed a remixer that would lend themselves to that kinda sound. As you probably know, the OCB stuff can go really deep and breaky at times, but often is a bit more geared to the club than my originals. I thought Driss (OCB) would be a perfect fit for the record to strike the balance right between some early-hours deepness and faster-paced peak time tackle.
The OCB remix retains one of the main original elements in the filtered stabs, and he flipped it into a proper uptempo slice of funky, breaky madness. The bassline gives it some funk for sure, which overall is something I purposely avoided on the originals this time, so yeah.. the fact we have some injected in via the remix is nice!
WWD: Give us some Manchester-based producers we should be listening to right now.
A few producers who I am playing out a lot lately from Manchester… Aiden Francis, Kalani & Tom Jarmey. All throwing out mega releases on the more Techy, Breaks, Prog & Trance side.
Shouts to Contours too, I saw his live show earlier this year and that was really fucking good!
Loz Goddard: Facebook / SoundCloud