With a new alias for the more melodic side of his electronic interests, Huxley’s Martinet project debuts via Sasha’s Last Night on Earth imprint.
After debuting the title track off the forthcoming EP ‘Terra’ via his own channels, we exclusively premiere its other monster ‘Unravel’. Both tracks come off the package that also features Last Night on Earth regular Thermalbear on remix duties.
Here, Martinet aka Huxley dishes on the EP, his inspirations, and the existential concerns of adopting many an alias!
“Terra” is available 24 February on Last Night on Earth
When did you first know that you would start producing tracks under this new alias?
it was all really natural, really. I just starting making a bunch of tracks I felt didn’t fit with the Huxley sound, but I was still really into, so I sat down and thought about it for about a second and decided that a new project could be a really fun way of getting this stuff out there. It was probably about this time last year that I started writing music in this vibe that I was happy with, and it was nice to get Sasha onboard so early for the release on Last Night on Earth.
Describe Martinet? why this name? what is the approach?
Martinet is all about synthy, melodic techno. It’s a style I’ve been into for a long time, but never felt that confident making under my original pseudonym, Huxley. The approach when making a track is to be as bold as I want and to include as many music parts as I want too. in the past my music has been about stripped back parts that work directly for the dancefloor, and while this will still be aimed at the dancefloor I want to experiment more with melodies and sounds bouncing off one another. The reason I chose the name Martinet was simple really, I heard someone use it in an audiobook I was listening to, found out the meaning and liked it, so used it.
On this latest EP for Sasha’s Last Night on Earth, why was this label the right place for the debut Martinet release?
Well, this was for a few reasons really. It was actually the label that, even before the whole EP was finished, I wanted to release it on. Someone like Sasha’s music is very in line with where I started researching this project and obviously, I’ve always been a huge fan, and for him to actually co-sign the debut release for this project has been amazing! I can’t really see this particular EP anywhere else but LNOE, and Thermalbear has done a cracking remix too.
What was the very first element of this EP that occurred to you…was it a track name, bassline, theme, approach?
If you want to get really simplistic, then the very first part of this ep was the synths on ‘Terra’. I was jamming around on Omnisphere and starting playing around with different progressions and then stumbled across the outcome by accident. I think though, like I said, before that I’ve been toying with the idea of working on music like this for a long time.
Now with all these alias’ do you ever have an existential crisis and ask yourself “Who Am I”? (like that scene in Zoolander when he looks in the puddle after losing the walk off to Hansel)
Nah, i’m pretty simple really. When I sit down I just do whatever comes out, and hopefully it fits one of the alias’, if not who cares. Although I do do a cracking, Blue Steel.
