Club Furies

Actress is Hd Substance‘s second album for Hxagrm Records. It is the follow-up to their previously released Actors album on the label. The inspiration for this work comes from classic film actresses: their elegant look, their inner beauty, and the translation of that classic feel into classic electronic music creation methods and genres. This means that all the music on this release was created using only hardware tools, no computers involved: analogue synthesizers, old drum machines, cheap effects units, and hardware step sequencers.

Everything was mixed on an old analogue console, and recorded directly onto a vintage tape recorder, preserving the production methods of the eighties and nineties of the last century. Using his studio as a musical instrument, Hd Substance offers eight cuts ranging from electro to techno, using his weapons deftly, with an emphasis on sound design, using only his own palette of sounds.

One such inspiration is Joan Crawford, the alter ego of Lucille Fay Le Sueur, the Academy Award-winning American film and television actress, recognized as the tenth greatest female film star of all time. One of her famous quotes is: «I love playing bitches. There’s a lot of bitch in every woman – a lot in every man». Well, that’s Lucille as a historical character, but who is in the sound of Luis Rozalén?

At first, the sound is a strata set with layers of expectation and nostalgic flashes of the past, around which the percussion remains constant and pulsating. These elements are integrated quickly but subtly. So the integration is sophisticated and thoughtful. Transversal to these elements runs a track of electricity and energy that serves as an enabler of everything else and as a framework of the possible. Since we are talking about energy, everything is possible, as long as we know how to transform it.

Don’t worry! The machines of Hd Substance make it possible. On this track, only a certain energy is at play, interconnected with all the devices at hand. Throughout seven more tracks, the machines become autopoietic, non-trivial, i.e. controlled by the Spanish artist, they get out of his control, becoming themselves. In the end, the machines generate exceptional sounds, whose cables and connectors are handled to perfection by the Hd Substance creative, who once again shines on Hxagrm Records.

Artist: Hd Substance
Title: Actress (LP)
Label: Hxagrm Records
Catalog: HXAGRM051
Release Date: January 8, 2024

Tracklist
01. Katharine Hepburn
02. Marlene Dietrich
03. Lauren Bacall
04. Joan Crawford
05. Vivien Leigh
06. Greta Garbo
07. Rita Hayworth
08. Bette Davis

Here is a list of the electronic band members taking part in this work:
Drums: Roland Tr 808, Roland Tr 909, Behringer Rd 6
Synthesizers: Roland Sh 101, Roland Tb 303, Behringer Td 3 MO, Novation Peak, Arturia Minibrute, Polyend Medusa, Sequential Circuits Pro One, Behringer 2600, Behringer Odyssey, Roland Jv 2080, Roland Juno 6, Arturia Micro Freak, Behringer Modular Systems 55, Behringer Model d, Behringer Wasp, Behringer Crave, Dave Smith As 1, Behringer Monopoly, Korg Ms 20, Korg Wavestation, Korg Volca Fm, Korg Monopoly
Sampler: Elektron Digitakt
Sequencing: Electron Digitakt, Arturia Beatstep Pro, Korg Sq 1
Fx: Zoom Ms 50g, Zoom Ms 70 CDR, Yamaha EMP 100, Dod 512
Mixing: Mackie 24 8 bus
Recording: Pioneer d05 DAT, TC Electronics Finalizer Express

Recorded, Processed, and Mixed by Luis Rozalen, Madrid (ES).
Mastered by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studio, London (UK).
Artwork by Cosmic Alchemist, Valencia (ES).

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Hxagrm Records
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