Paige Julia's Debut EP Mechanisms, on Totally Roasted Digital - Mixed by Paige Julia and Mastered by DnB legend Fanu.
Paige was born into a musical generation defined by the rise of digital technology. She is motivated by a love of D.I.Y She has come from performing late night events in once thriving venues that have all closed down. Moving to the outskirts of the city in warehouses and townhouses running a string of underground parties, testing grounds for a sound that wasn't here yet. Paige Julia created her own futuristic sound and her sets are tributes to landscapes of undiscovered music, underlined with a love for Bass!
This release starts off with atmospheric sounds, background bass, an eccentric ambient oriental stringed instrument and xylophone percussion. A huge bass riser comes in and boom! The sub bass drops with flickering flange arpeggios and a very catchy beat. It would sound awesome on a big festival sound system or even in a car with subs. Interesting sounds held together by the halftime DnB beat and bass on Oppress.
Boy, put quite simply is the track name and vocal sample that fades in throughout the song. The kick drum holds the intro together and spine to the song, I love the snare drum used on this track and the old school DnB/jungle break that comes in every 16 - 32 bars. Theres a mysterious grinding sample which I can't pinpoint what it is but it adds a blanket of midrange dimension which is very cool. The sub bass is groovy, the hihat and the beat all gel together really well.
Mechanisms has more interesting and captivating samples which are very rich and of a high quality. Strange voices and atmospheric sounds, the sub bass drops and all hell breaks loose, a cool sounding gritty reese synth fades in and out... very different and unique with loads of bass!
The final track Addict is my favourite with nice lush liquid keys on the intro and throughout the track. The gritty tubed sub bass on this track is master with the perfect rimshot! I could imagine a girl twerking to the sub bass of this track but I think I'm just addicted to the bass in this song!
The artwork on this production looks nice and colorful with a girl, a cat, a tree, mushrooms and planets all on the same picture. An excellent debut EP with huge bass and strong experimental high quality sounds that are not of this earth.
Whilst a well-known force in Aotearoa’s underground bass music scene for some time, Paige Julia is now being embraced by the global music community as one of the very profound artists emanating from Aotearoa. She has released music with 1985 Music (UK), Deep Dark & Dangerous (US/NZ), Drum&BassArena (UK), Unchained Recordings (HK), Samsara Beats (US), MalLabel Music (US), Forest Biz (UK), Uncomfortable Beats (AU) and Totally Roasted (NZ) as well as a self released album titled Morphling that received 'Best Electronic Artist' at the 2021 Aotearoa Music Awards. Her music is inspired by the many shades of underground bass culture, navigating the grey area between breakbeat, dubstep, techno, jungle and hip-hop.