Track: Off the Shoulder of Orion
Yes. Questions. Being as big a fan of cult sci-fi flicks as I am, it’s impossible to put together an album like this without referencing them here and there. I told myself I’d indulge so long as it’s kept classy and on the down-low. So we have this nod towards Blade Runner with the title “Off the Shoulder of Orion” – taken from Roy Batty’s speech at the end of the film.
This track is one of the hardest-hitting I’ve ever done, and subsequently a bonafide highlight of the album. It snaps you awake like a thundercrack and instantly gives you that wakeup call that could only be attained by pairing it with a slower mood piece like “Adrift” which preceded it. Putting those two tracks anywhere else on the album but together would have been a big mistake.
Sidechaining was used extensively throughout this track. The kick drum really cuts through as a result, dampening that lo-fi crunchy lead at the beginning (made with Massive incidentally) and later on being used while ducking the other leads in this track. Sidechaining is a great effect to get pumping, relentless beats through the mud of other frequencies, but it has to be used with moderation. If I sidechained everything in this album you’d get pretty sick of it trust me. But used in 3-4 tracks it is much more effective.