Glaswegian producer Harvey McKay returns to Drumcode for his first solo vinyl release of 2017

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Artist: Harvey McKay
Title: Black Dolphin
Label: Drumcode
Cat No: DC182
Released: Out Now!
Genre: Techno

Glaswegian producer, Harvey McKay returns to Drumcode for his first solo vinyl release of 2017. Harvey McKay has been banging out winners on class labels like of Soma, Bedrock, Perc, Cocoon, and others for years now. He really only attracted my, and many others, attention when he dropped The Illusion of Control’ EP in 2014 and both ‘Slip’ and ‘Silk Road’ became summer anthems in their own right.

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The title track, ‘Black Dolphin’, takes its name from an infamous Russian prison, and the resemblance becomes immediately obvious. Growling bass, flat/hollow/heavy, Blawan style kick. The snap and crack percussion?! What is going on here?!! Am I listening to the right promo?! Harvey McKay doesn’t sound like this?!! Powerful techno, yet with that Chicago jackin’ house feel. A ravey synth hook blares out… it could so easily be terrible if I wasn’t trapped by that jackin’ beat, thus, it’s brilliant!

Track 2, ‘Retox’, again hits the ground running with a frantic, syncopated mess of noise that rises up out of more sharp, dark percussive work, devouring you in a hypnotic tension not too long after you’re aboard, maintaining it for the duration with clever sample and effects use, with that sharp percussion to funky effect.

‘Cover Up’, starts off where ‘Retox’ left off, but taking it a bit deeper as dark, lovely morphed voices chatter behind your back over that same reliable jackin’, sharp beat, all culminating in, what I can only describe as the soundtrack of some kind of demonic ceremony. Lovely, deep dark interplay between warped vocal samples, dark synths & pad lines work magic.


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About the Author

Growing up in Melbourne Matt’s introduction to electronic music happened during the legendary rave scene erupting in the warehouses of Melbourne’s industrial West. Matt grew up on all the classics, Carl Cox’s 'F.A.C.T', Laurent Garnier’s ‘Laboratoire’ mix, and of course all the Reactivates and early K7 mixes. During the winter of 1995, Derrick May & Stacey Pullen introduced Matt to Detroit techno, and that was that. Soon after Jeff Mills released ‘Live at The Liquid Room’ and Matt already all consuming interest in deejaying and techno exploded. Fast forward 20 plus years and Matt is still obsessed with electronic music, records and deejaying. Now a resident for the flagship Australian techno label, Nightime Drama, Matt has played alongside some of the biggest names in techno including Jeff Mills, Luke Slater, Derrick May, DJ Bone, Dasha Rush, Kangding Ray, and many more.