Updated 2 years ago
meets Santos of
Deviant Species
2004
by Ari Davidov
DEVIANT SPECIES is now made up of Santos De Castro with collaborations with ex-DEVIANT SPECIES member Paul Konrad Wright (now of N.R.S. fame) and ground-breaking producer Ady Connor from SCORB. They recently released their third album, “In the Hands of the Randomiser,” on Ambivalent Records.
CD Review:
From the Warlock Studios comes the long-awaited album by DEVIANT SPECIES. No need for introductions, once more you will be treated to nine quality-consistent cuts of dark and minimal psychedelia for the blackest hours of the night. In this third album installment, the atmosphere prevailing here is hard, with tinges of Industrial and Ambient intros and outros that cross-over giving the album a continuous flow. It all kicks off with “Voice of Thard,” a chugging and spatial number that builds up to a ripping chorus. “Pincushion Man” continues with galloping intensity where “…Thard” left off moving relentlessly to a climatic final before “Shellless” ebbs in soothingly with an overture of peerless Gothic beauty.
The tight pulse is quickly restored leading to a frantic groove that allows you to breathe with its interspersed waves of noise. On a slightly softer tip “Thermal Boundaries” follows with an infectious beat that gradually gathers momentum to trancing-out effect. In a similar rolling yet relaxed vein enters “The Retinal Circus,” which has been doing the bootleg rounds in an earlier unfinished version titled “The Abyss.”
To follow, “In the Hands of the Randomiser” is the first collaboration between DEVIANT SPECIES and SCORB, a powerful track that starts with an Industrial soundscape and steamrolls forward into a roaring pay-off. For the darkest hour “A Night to Dismember” brings the proceedings to total mayhem before the forces of light emerge. “Portal to Balojax” is a 3-minute-plus unwinding ambient piece and serves as a prologue to “The Entrapment of John Dory,” the only morning track in the album and the second DEVIANT SPECIES vs. SCORB outing, a delicate cut destined to be a classic.
Santos, you recently released the highly anticipated Deviant Species “In The Hands Of The Randomiser” album. What kind of feedback are you getting so far?
pretty good, no distressed calls so far so i’m chuffed.
Some tracks on this album were produced in collaboration with Paul Konrad Wright from N.R.S. and Ady Connor from Scorb. How do you like working in collaboration with these artists and do you also play live together sometimes?
I worked with Paul since the beginning of the Psy scene, we had a similar musical taste and outlook, he can come up with truly inspiring stuff. itwas hard for me to keep up with the smoke though, he’s a seasoned bongraider, there wasn’t much logic or formula in our writing which was good although slow. Ady is an excellent all-round producer, a nice balance of method and creativity flow. Our styles are more different so our collaborations touch a broader spectrum.
How does each of you contribute when you’re working on new tracks?
In no particular way. We start with a jam in the studio and then work individually in our laptops before meeting again for a mixdown
If you would, describe for us your creative approach in the studio. What gets your “creative juices” flowing and how do you conclude that a track is finally finished?
Usual stuff, getting a solid groove going, browsing through sound libraries to bring some atmospherics into the proceedings. if i fail to get excited then it’s time to skin up
Have you gotten any new & exciting studio gear lately? Or do you rely mostly on the PC, like many of today’s artists?
The latter. i used to own a good ten square feet of stacked hardware but sedentariness is not the name of the game
Do you play a lot of unreleased material during your live sets, any tracks you are feeling out for possible future release?
That’s always the intention, right now i’m working on a new set but haven’t got an awful lot of new tracks yet cuz of i had to focus on my release
Looking back, how have your skills as a producer and performer evolved since you first began years ago?
I came into music as a drummer and in my first few gigs as deviant species i used to trigger sounds from a sampler, not that anyone cared though. i wish people valued this more as i’m by nature a performer. These days everything comes from my laptop with tweaks and sounds triggered from an external controller.
Do you have any kind of background in music that seriously influenced you as a producer?
Playing drums and co-writing songs in pop, rock and industrial bands
Can you name any all-time classics that could define your musical influences?
Tracks from the first x-dream and delta albums, also cat-on-mushroom ‘the fly’ among others. other than trance bands like nin & young gods, also film music
Was forming Ambivalent Records a positive move for you as an artist, or is it too much of a headache dealing with all the biz?
The latter
What other artists are going to be releasing music on your label?
The usual suspects: NRS, Scorb, Rinkadink and then Yallop and Calpas, Fizz Tabs, Floor Assignment and others with ambivalent tendencies
What are your top five tracks you like to play when you DJ?
Broken Toy ‘Manipulation’
Ram ‘Nice but Dimm’
Rinkadink ‘Jughead Remix’
Scorb vs Deviant Species ‘Death by Mispronunciation’
NRS ‘Tecnophobiac Remix’
What else are you into besides the music?
i’d love to establish a gerbil breeding farm