Better take out your contact lens’ for this one…

Sydney producer Blake.08 (real name Blake Gilray) has had a whirlwind couple of years. From starting a new solo project to being signed by dance royalty, Anjuna Deep, the rising deckslinger has quickly become one of Sydney’s worst kept secrets. Subsequent shows around the nation have included the likes of Anjuna Deep’s Open Air dance, numerous Lost Sundays appearances and one super rowdy DJ set in a church crypt (check out the gallery we did for it here). He’s clearly a man in demand right now, and fittingly, he’s got an EP out for all his adherents to dig into.

Titled Eyes Ablaze, the new record from the ‘Hypnodisc’ producer is a cauldron of delicate sonics perfect for the later parts of the night, where all you’re craving is a bunch of emotive synths and intricate drum lines to guide you into the morning. In accordance with its predecessor, High Fidelity, there’s a plethora of different musical elements interwoven throughout, with various plug ins, compositional tricks and nods to the dance genre put to use that curate an eclectic soundscape worthy of immersing yourself in.

It’s a creation that shows off the breadth of Blake’s producer chops, and unsurprisingly, is totally in line with Blake’s vision, with the dance floor titan explaining, “It’s been nice to do something from the ground up that’s entirely my vision. After some time away from my previous projects, I had time to think about my approach to music. With the COVID lockdowns and nothing to do, I started taking my car down to the local racetrack and racing most weekends between long weeks of working, the car only had a tape deck, so I started making tunes for the drives – and that’s sort of how this project started.”

To celebrate the new EP, we caught up with the producer to get the drop on its ins-and-outs, the influences behind it and more. Check it below.

‘Eyes Ablaze’

‘Eyes Ablaze’ was written through a tornado of moods, from 2019 to 2023, a wild time for me churning with fear, anger and sadness. With the mood compass I found courage, caution and compassion and the mood tornado somehow, someway, transformed into celebration, and finally into the unity of contentment. To me, the whole EP represents the hypnotic and captivating power of music to transform moods, instil hope and inspire love for life. This mood and music odyssey has set my eyes, and with hope, your ears ABLAZE!!!

The lead single ‘Eyes Ablaze’ is quite clearly inspired by the beautiful track by Blue Foundation ‘Eyes on Fire’. Being such a wonderful song, I had to have a stab at reproducing the original at a tempo and style more relevant to the Sydney dance floors. The track is a ‘slow breakbeat’ at 128 bpm. We originally had it at 126 but with the swing and space of the arrangement, we had to bump it up to the magic BPM we all know that is 128. Staying tight to the original, the cover uses the original arrangement of the Blue Foundation track, but with some added 08 flare.

‘Low Vision’

‘Low Vision’ has more of a deeper and melancholic feel. I’d like to give thanks to Emko Blue (Ema), a commendable person and a talented music composer, for playing the analogue lead live. A good friend who loves the slower side of electronic music, think Guy J, Volan Sentir vibes. As a friend I used to love listening to his sets whilst we were playing free shows around Sydney, partying and having good times.

‘Low Vision’ is extremely melancholic through the underlying chords and tones to me, but something about the lead and synth work that flows into a crescendo really helps the listener to be taken on a journey. The drums and percussion once again were running through the 16’ths (a recurring pattern that I’m sure you have noticed, lol). This time, it’s 4/4 and has the classic Anjuna sound, being inspired through artists such as Volan Sentir, I love to put triple kicks in, and add variation in the drum grooves.

‘Dance With Me’

‘Dance With Me’ was written to be a set introduction track with the same hard hitting breakbeat flavour of the lead track, ‘Eyes Ablaze’. This however, does not have vocals and is entirely instrumental. I like the use of silence in my tracks to add impact to the main chorus / drops. The intro is almost two minutes of arpeggiator bliss. I think I used Lennar digital’s Sylenth or XFer’s Serum to pull that off, with a lot of synth tweaking, once again, flowing off the 16t’hs as the main rhythm. Once we get past the long intro, there’s a relaxing and inspiring break before the main drop. I love to put what I call ‘Easter Eggs’ in tracks I write and fill the post intro breakdown with fireworks. Suddenly, I hit the drop hard with a crunchy saw bass, a steady and heavy break groove that rolls on and on.

I progress the track with drums over time and add some natural instruments in the background as an atmosphere, one being a guitar lead line playing a tonic, flowing through the main drop. I like to add a crescendo with my second drops and use all the elements progressed from the first drop into the second.