Back in February 2014, I wrote a review for returning progressive house artist Micah. Hailing from Canada, Micah Lukasewich is an incredibly talented underground producer. He makes the kind of progressive you can buy blind because you have complete trust in his ability to make forward thinking, future-proof music.
“Swell was a culmination of nearly a decade of clips, concepts and samples (provided by various vocalists) that I was never really able to form into a cohesive album until one day I decided to “just do it” and I began putting it all together. Originally I had planned a double album, one being chilled and relaxing, the other being dance-floor friendly. I eventually became daunted by the workload of completing, mixing and mastering around 120 plus minutes of music, so as my work progressed, I began to fall in love with the concept of the album ebbing and flowing in a relaxed and sci-fi based cinematic experience, you will notice this as you listen to Swell in its entirety.”
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“Dr.Science was the first track I completed that finally pushed me in the direction of a chill-out album, though it is close to being the most energetic song on the album, it’s science fiction undertones immediately gave me a direction to take with the rest of the material and the rest just fell into place. Much of this album’s beauty is lent to me by the insanely talented Katty Heath, who has recently sung with many popular trance artists and is seeing incredible success because of that, but if you were around in the mid 2000’s you would know her from Bent’s album “Ariels”, their song “As You Fall” in particular, which I also remixed for Chris Fortier’s Balance release.” – Micah
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FREE DOWNLOAD- Nic Fanciulli & Andrea Oliva - Transition (Tim Cullen Remix)No stranger to production, Micah has over 70 releases from 2003 to today which range from brutal bass heavy behemoths to delightful progressive trance. Micah embodies everything a good producer should be and this his debut album, rather than just containing a series of his best tracks over the years, is all new material. The results are cinematic and otherworldly.
From the opening tracks’ fractured and deftly manipulated astronaut radio messages through the delightful vocals and broken beats, Micah brings us a wonderfully rich audio tapestry. Opting to swerve the usual four to the floor tracks and concentrate his efforts on creating delicate soundscapes and organic masterpieces has been invigorating and inspiring for this artist and is a testament to his incredible talents and open minded approach to sound design.
Each track has been crafted from a place of love with delicate details in the percussion and synth arrangements. It’s a staggeringly good album that similarly to Sasha’s 2002 Airdrawndagger shows that dance music producers are equally capable of making music for home listening as well as for the club.
Due to some complications with the label it was released on, Micah has decided to make it free for download. Intrigued, I wanted to find out more. Over Skype I ask him about the decision to make the album a free download, Micah mood becomes a little sombre,
“Though I have had quite a few releases in the last 7-8 years, I definitely have not had the presence in the scene that I used to have, and that was due to my decision to step back and rebuild myself both as an artist and a person. Nearing the end of my push (about 2008), though I was travelling the globe as a DJ, I was not happy. I found myself fighting with labels, being quite pessimistic on very public message boards, and overall being quite sour. I needed to rebuild!”
“Over the past 8 years, I’ve made a lot of promises to my fans to re-launch both my radio show and record label. But due to life getting in the way and my own doubts, I’ve never been able to follow through. Therefore, my decision to release “Swell” as a free download is a mix of apology to my fans-in-waiting and my desire for the huge body of work to reach it’s intended audience.”
Speaking about the future, Micah tells me, “I’m always searching for inspiration to begin a new song, and if you have heard my recent release Icarus on Darin Epsilon’s label Perspectives Digital, you’ll know where my heart is in terms of sound and vibe, however, due to my busy life outside of the music, when I begin new projects comes few and far between.”
“I’m currently working on a collaborative project with Australia’s Rich Curtis, it’s heading in the direction of a sci-fi fueled dancefloor killer, with a chilled out version in the works. I’ve also begun the steps to start as a freelance sound designer for Native instruments Maschine, that will probably start sometime this year. I’ve also received a possible proposal to do a soundtrack to a new film, but nothing is concrete, so I cannot post to many details on that at this point.“
