Middle Child – Remember

With an awesome mixture of synthetic and handmade elements, Dan Larson aka “Middle Child” allows you to set sails, flowing on a river of sound to find all of the things you maybe forgot over time. Just close your eyes and listen.

https://soundcloud.com/middlechildmusica/remember

Once again, the 27 year-old american producer proves that it doesn’t take a ton of unique signature elements to create an outstanding track, but it takes the right amount, done in the right fashion. With several synth tracks alongside a defensive drum setting, the song uses a unique blend of these processed synths along several guitar tracks. You gotta admire the idea of even trying to merge those sounds, folks. Somehow, Middle Child manages to create a unique flow with those warm, reverbed guitar tracks alongside the deep, sometimes harsh synth tracks. The melodies invite you to feel what’s going on, and even when kicking in with those louder arpeggiated synths, the track doesn’t “pull you out” of the state you’re in. One important aspect of producing in my opinion is to stay true to what’s going on throughout the track, and the artist does exactly that. One scenery, one feel provides an awesome atmosphere. That’s it. And believe me, implementing this concept is harder than it sounds.

What grabbed my attention in the first place was Larsons latest track “Memories” which he did with the producer duo Damon Dokhani and Troy Skinner, better known as “waitwhat“. This track also contains what I’d like to call the signature style elements of Larson. He often merges elements that weren’t necessarily meant to be mixed, but he’s just doing it, probably with a “watch and learn, dude”-smile on his face. Somehow, this general idea works for him almost every time, resulting in outstanding, laid back chill tunes.
Listening to “Remember”, the thing that maybe works best for me as a listener are the intelligent designed effect chains being used in there. These are not presets we’re talking about here, this is a handcrafted thing of beauty.

The mix of this track is really great. It’s clean, crisp, uses a great deal of bandwidth and has no glitches or peaks anywhere. It takes time and effort to process a track in this fashion, so for me it just needs to be pointed out. When analogue and synthetic tracks are merged together, often times its hard to make the eq nurture all of the tracks, but Larson made this look like it was an easy thing to do.
With a listener base of some 40k and a calendar stacked with live events he plays, there is no doubt that Larson has already begun his journey to make it big out there. I’m excited for what’s next to come.

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