Disfreq are fast-rising duo Joe and Cahir, two brothers living in Donegal, Ireland who are garnering fans across the house and techno spectrum with their analogue-driven productions. Charlotte De Witte described them as “Daft Punk meets 303”, while Solomun release a 6-track mini album on his mighty Diynamic imprint.
Photo Credit: DISFREQ – Official
Following releases on labels including Trick, Kneaded Pains and Armada, Disfreq have landed on Adam Beyer’s Truesoul imprint with an inspiring four-track EP ‘909303’, that takes inspiration from everything from indie to Baile Funk and electro. The duo shares a breakdown of the EP from top to tail.
1. 909303
This track was inspired by our heavy use of hardware and our love for the classic sounds of the Roland 909 and 303. And what better way for us to express it than bringing them together and combining them with that original Disfreq Sound and writing style. To be honest, when making this record, we wanted to create something which would connect with the people, which is always the first priority. But furthermore, we were aiming at a crossover between melodic and peak time techno.
Bass: The bass in this track came straight from the Korg – MicroKorg, most of its “processing” was done in the box before we recorded it. We like to work hard on individual sounds before recording so they don’t feel over-processed or ‘diluted’ in the mix, we just give it a simple side-chain and controlled the volume by standing the bass hole of the studio until it was sitting in that desired ‘sweet spot’.
Beats: The beats in this track are fairly traditional in a techno sense and in some ways predictable. Truth be told we used the 909 for everything apart from the kick as we really needed this one to cut through the mix and the 909 didn’t suffice this time around (after multiple tries) so we used a kick we call ‘The Como Kick’. It has loads of body but also that sharp high end which can split a bass line like a knife, but at the same time glue well with the lower frequencies. We used a snare this time around, but are always torn between a snare or a clap. In this instance, because we wanted to track to have a peak-time feel but also have a melodic edge, the snare was the correct option to go with.
Synths: The main lead in this track came from our beloved Behringer – Pro 1 which we re-wired in a particular way (we like to take things apart!). We have two of these which we combined in this track; one is in its original state and the other one we rewire/adjust/change up and replace components which has its challenges, but also its own rewards. Of course, we used the 303 for the break in this track and just added some basic delay, nothing complicated about it really. We feel that a lot of the time when working with Acid, less is usually more. We never delve into any huge distortion or over-processing, we never use sequencers on any of our tracks; everything is always drawn from scratch on midi. This way we won’t have the paranoia that we’ve copied an existing track of someone else’s, which is of course us overthinking it.
Vocoder: The vocal was written and recorded by us, we felt that a staunch Accent had to be used so we processed my voice through the Zoom V3 and then again added it to the mixer with a strut forward Vocoder, it remains pretty mono until the second time it repeats itself in the first break, then changes a key just before the ‘build up’. We liked its robotic feel – almost like a machine was talking to the dance floor. For us, especially with the current rise of AI, it felt relevant.
2. Batida
Meaning “Beat” in Portuguese, we had been sitting on the idea for quite a while, we really enjoy up-tempo tracks and we treated this as a follow-up from our record “Como” which came out in January on our ‘Picture Series’ album on Solomun’s imprint Diynamic. For some reason, Baile funk connects with us both and to use it in techno is unique, but also quite fitting to our “jacking” rhythms and overall style.
Bass: We used the Behringer Model – D for this which is essentially a remake of the legendary Minimoog, we have never used an original so not really sure if there are any major differences. We just kept the midi for the bass in the same pattern/keys as the main lead sound. There’s no magic involved here, to be honest, just a tight-sounding bass and a side chain at 50%. We felt 100% made it too “bouncy”.
Beats: Again, a driving, repetitive beat with a heavy emphasis on the kick drum. We used High hats, snares, and claps to create a high-energy, danceable rhythm that hopefully keeps the listener moving and Interested. Of course, the chuck sound within the vocal is to bring some of the Baile into the equation to complement the vocal and the nature of the track.
Synths: The main sound in this track is the “Wasp”. The Wasp is a monophonic synthesizer with a unique sound with two oscillators, a resonant filter, and a built-in arpeggiator and sequencer (which we’ve never used, to be honest). It gives a real retro, analog feel so it’s one of our favourites. For this track, we used one oscillator and turned the decay down to we got a jacking rhythm. We didn’t side-chain it because we felt it sat better on top of the mix this way. We Eq’d the low frequencies and added reverb in places throughout the track. The other higher sound came from the Behringer Crave and we drew up a simple melody which we felt glued the track together.
Vocals: The vocals are 2 separate vocals which we used as Part A and Part B, both from a Baile funk library of ours and we just fitted them to the tempo of the track and they held a lot of energy which kept the track interesting sound and layout wise.
3. Amento
“Amento” comes from the term “portamento” as in this record it’s pretty apparent that we change the sound waves quite regularly to try and create a unique piece of art/sound engineering, this track really feels special to us as it’s club-ready but at the same time can be for easy listening in some sense. We like to try and expand on our style as often as possible and this is a testament to that with its gliding feel throughout.
Bass: We actually used Sylenth VST for the bass in this track as we started it on the road and of course didn’t bring any hardware, and in the end, it glued very well so we just left it as it was. If it’s not broken don’t fix it! The bassline fluctuates in key quite regularly so when we had it sitting in a nice place, we reduced the cutoff and adjusted the volume pretty gently.
Beats: Overall we wanted to give this record a tribal feel regarding drums, most of them we just ripped off splice and keyed those which needed a tweak. We spent a long time selecting the drums here and we wanted them to be somewhat harsh, but also still allow the track to flow in a linear motion.
Synths: Every time we make a new record we take pictures of the patches we use on our synthesizers and add them to a WhatsApp group we have called “patches for dummies” In this case, we reverted to a patch we call “Moville” where the decay, filter, and glide line up in a way where it gives a euphoric analog feeling, which we have never heard anywhere before. It’s a sound we are continuing to develop with the Pro 1, which we have re-wired in a unique way. You will be hearing a lot more of it from us in the future.
4. Deep Dive
We made this track some time ago and it always works in our sets, it’s a hybrid between techno and indie (in our opinion). Where it feels like it’s driving but the snare clap gives it a stuttering effect allowing the track to be played in any room, big or small.
Bass: The bass on this one comes from our Roland – JDXI. It’s just a simple preset on the synth which we felt sounded good, it comes across as a little louder than normal but we wanted it to rumble eyelids, not speakers.
Beats: The beats are straightforward we wanted to keep it simple and let the track flow, I suppose the only real “strange” thing about the drums is the snare is combined with a clap to give it a stuttering effect, the drums are a mix between indie and peak time, which our aim when structuring them. We used the 909 with a bit of extra processing than we would usually do.
Synths: The main lead here also comes from the Roland JDXI, and the acid of course comes from our 303. We used strange keys for the acid, not ones on which acid is traditionally used, but we’re happy with the outcome and how it determined the vibe of the track.
Vocal: The vocal we took from a spoken word sample library. We EQ’d the low end and boosted the high, added reverb, and timed it to the tempo. It’s not really a unique vocal but it’s functional and suited the nature of this record.
Disfreq’s ‘909303′ is out now via Truesoul. Stream and buy here.
Follow Disfreq: Instagram | Facebook | Soundcloud | Spotify | Twitter
