My "remix" of Digital Breaks Foundation - Going Back, out now on VIM records
Mastered by Re:Creation (Adam Goodlet)

Digital Breaks Foundation - Going Back (Quextal remix) [excerpt]

An old k:creature track started in 2000, this version circa 2002. As with all my tracks back then, this is a single recording (no multitrack, no audio editing) and there is a substantial amount of live performance - pretty much everything that would nowadays be drawn in as automation is being done with live knob twiddling (hampered by only being able to affect one MIDI channel at a time). Hence it's a bit rough around the edges. Also, there was meant to be a patch change for the final breakdown which didn't go through, and I panicked and did it manually, which was a mistake... 
Sounds: Yamaha CS1x, Yamaha DJX-IIB
Seq: Notator-SL on Atari STe

http://music.qolc.net/

Apoplex 73s.1

This track is unfinished, but I'm almost certainly never going to finish it, so decided to put it up for free download. 

This track has a history... 

The very first proper electronic music I wrote was a track called Acclimatize in 1993. It wasn't much more than a single riff over some polyrhythmic percussion, written on a borrowed synth. About 7 years later when I started putting together my own cheap home studio, I went back to that track and started writing more to it... and more, and more, over months and years, until it became a 21-minute symphonic epic, yet still unfinished, called Xa.

Xa is a very quirky track, some great bits, some awful, far too much going on, and it's questionable whether it really holds together as a single item... but because it sucked up so many ideas over the years, it has in turn become a source of inspiration and riffs in several subsequent tunes. 

There's an arp-and-pad breakdown in Xa that I always found particularly en-trancing and emotional, and so I decided to build a new tune around it - hence Xia was born. If it sounds retro, that's the reason... 

Yes, that's me singing (badly) in the breakdown. I'd intended to re-do that, and there was a lot else I never quite got around to doing. I was never happy with the bassline(s) - I'm not sure the whole syncopated bass thing really works. Basically, I've sat on this tune for nearly 3 years without doing a damn thing to it, so I think it's obvious it's not going any further. Plus, it was done in Logic, and I realised I don't like Logic. I may start again with it in Ableton, one day.

Xia [029x Unmastered]

An old track from about 2002, when I went by the name of k:creature. It was made on my cheap hardware setup:
Synth: Yamaha CS1x
Drums: Yamaha DJX-IIB
Sequencer: Atari STe + Notator-SL
Monitor speakers: Terrible
As always with my tracks from back then, I recorded only the basic MIDI patterns in Notator, and then the arrangement and all parameter/effect tweaks were done live. 

Pilot: Viper 15.1e


Rough cut of my first proper attempt at remixing on Logic. 

In the olden days of my cheap hardware studio, I had no sampler, so when I remixed a track I couldn't use any of the original parts directly. Instead I would just listen to the original tune a few times, and then write a new tune in which some elements of the original may or may not be discernible. This is the first time I've done a remix where I've had the ability to plug in some of the original parts (albeit in a, well, Altered State :)

I wasn't expecting much: I had barely a few hours experience of Logic, and I only asked LuQas for the parts (in return for having given him some suggestions about the original while it was a WIP) because I wanted to experiment with altering the timing on the acid line, but I got into it and came up with a track I'm actually quite proud of, given that its my first go. 

In fact a lot of people seem to like it, but Ian @ Dead Famous doesn't, so it's not likely to come out... hence I'm probably not going to take it any further or master it or anything. Just thought I'd let you have a gander at where I'm at so far. This is just the beginning...


LuQas - Altered States (Quextal remix) unmastered 2010-06-09

The original version of Acclimatize (1993) was one of the first tunes I ever wrote, using a borrowed Roland D-70 and Atari ST running Notator. It was little more than a riff and a beat, but there was something about it. In 2000 when I got my own ST with Notator and a Yamaha CS1x, I fished it out, and started expanding it. A lot. 

Over the years, a DJX-IIb and a Behringer Virtualizer Pro were added to the mix. Somewhere along the line it got renamed to Xa. I felt it was eventually "meant" to be 31'25" long, but it never quite got there. Still, for several years, on and off, it hoovered up ideas and inspirations from every diverse source that I was exposed to, from hard house to rock to classical, lending it a symphonic yet schizoid character. It's a bit odd. But I will always love it more deeply than any other tune I ever wrote - it was the first of my own music that made me cry on listening back to it - and, flaws and all, it carries my soul within it.

All my tracks from that era were forever works in progress. I liked to keep the pre-programming (of both arrangement and automation) to a bare minimum and do as much live performance as possible during every take. So there was plenty of scope for me to never quite be happy with any take, and never regard any tune as "finished". Hence I never released anything, though I did a handful of live gigs.

This is one of the last recorded versions, from about 2005, and I doubt I will work on it anymore. Instead, I'm mining it for parts - the arp part from the middle has been repurposed into Xia.

Acclimatize/Xa 83.1

My "remix" of Helskanki's Nikata, released in 2012. This one has a bit more in common with the original version than my DBF "remix" did, but it's still basically a Quextal original taking some inspiration from the Helskanki version. But I did actually use some of the samples this time...

I've had an excerpt of this track on soundcloud for years but can now provide you with the full version.

Helskanki - Nikata (Quextal Rx) FULL

I love many kinds of music but my main passion is for progressive, evolving, epic and psychedelic sounds. Although I'm probably best known for my enthusiastic advocacy of Progressive Psybreaks over the past few years, ultimately whether a tune is classified as breaks, techno, trance, house, dnb or chill, is less important than the shapes, textures and feelings it evokes. If you like journeys, take a trip with me...

I've been DJing properly since 2007 on CDJs (after many years spinning vinyl as a hobby), very quickly becoming established on net radio stations and in the South's club scene. I had my first festival gig, ad-hoc on a small stage at Waveform 2009. 2010 saw my London debut in May, and I was booked for Glade Festival until its cancellation at the hands of the anti-fun brigade; by way of compensation I played a 3-hour set at Waveform 2010. In 2011 I finally got to play at Glade and also Bearded Theory festivals, and in 2012 I had my busiest ever year with bookings for various festivals and my debuts in Liverpool and Manchester. 

I also produce my own tunes - so far I've had two very well-received tracks released on VIM, and there is more in the pipeline.

Twice a month I host "Quexotic Adventures" on NSB Radio (http://www.nsbradio.co.uk), playing the best new promos and releases, with a particular focus on psybreaks and occasional forays into glitch-hop and dnb. It's usually the first and third Saturdays of the month, from 19:00 UK time.

To keep up to date with my latest radio shows, mixes, gig news etc, just do a Facebook Search for "Quextal" - as well as Liking the Quextal page, it's a good idea to  Subscribe to "Ben Quextal"'s updates as well, as page updates are now rarely seen in your news feed. You can also follow me on Twitter and Google Plus.

Full archives and tracklists of all my radio shows, along with occasional promo mixes, are available on http://quextal.com (which has RSS feeds that you can follow).
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