The Best of Attack: 2014

As the year draws to a close, it’s only natural to look back at the last 12 months and take stock. Forgive us a little self indulgence as we shine the spotlight on our highlights of 2014.

Interviews & Features

One of the obvious highlights of the year was meeting a man without whom dance music would be very different. The couple of hours we spent talking to Kevin Saunderson flew past all too quickly, but in that time we covered the globalisation of music, Kevin’s thoughts on how techno has played a part in desegregating American clubland, and the secret to living with Derrick May. For a man who played such a major role in shaping house and techno, the biggest surprise of all was how humble Kevin remains about his contribution.. When asked how many records he sold with his Inner City project, Kevin modestly revealed that ‘Good Life’ and ‘Big Fun’ sold over two million copies each, but “only if you include CDs and cassettes as well as vinyl”.

Kevin Saunderson modestly revealed that 'Good Life' and 'Big Fun' sold over two million copies each, but 'only if you include CDs and cassettes as well as vinyl'.

Of this year’s studio interviews, perhaps the most revealing was our visit to Huxley’s house in October to discuss the making of his debut album. In an incredibly frank discussion, he spoke about his regrets in allowing himself to be pigeonholed and release music that he found “a bit too obvious” before challenging himself once more with the making of Blurred.

Our regular columnist Thomas Cox proffered his characteristically forthright opinions on a number of subjects this year, but perhaps the biggest response of all came from his analysis of live streaming sessions such as Boiler Room back in May. Having emerged as such a powerful force in dance music culture, the question of whether platforms such as Boiler Room could use their influence to benefit club culture generated a heated discussion.

Our visit to Perc’s studio back in February was also a fascinating insight from one of the most uncompromising artists around. Ali Wells clarified the political motivation behind his music and discussed his production process. He later told us that he’d received irate comments from readers who refused to believe that he makes his brutal, bone-crushing techno in a bedroom studio with a laptop and just a small selection of (relatively) cheap hardware.

Finally, Juan Maclean deserves credit for giving us what must go down as our favourite email interview of the year, offering his hugely interesting take on the making of The Juan Maclean’s latest album, why he’s confused by people labelling his music as disco and the “terrible black hole of despair and self-criticism” that motivates his creative process.

Technique

In the technique section, we were particularly pleased to see such a great response to our first FM synthesis tutorials. Our introduction to the basics and walkthrough on creating a classic FM electric piano sound were particularly well received. We’ll be bringing more on FM synthesis along with other sound design tips in 2015.

The Beat Dissected series remained as popular as ever, with our own particular highlights including a slow, soulful deep house beat and a shamelessly retro take on mid-90s French house, while in the Passing Notes dance music theory series, our ‘Bored Of 4/4’ article on alternative time signatures was a clear favourite, examining some of the ways artists including Actress, Flying Lotus and Venetian Snares create complex rhythms without while still remaining dancefloor-friendly.

My Studio

Finally, we can’t resist giving a mention to the My Studio series, which went from strength to strength this year thanks to incredible tours by some of our favourite artists. The biggest highlights for us this year were Sebastian Mullaert’s beautiful woodland cabin and Ambivalent’s incredibly detailed feature on his tiny Berlin space (Kevin also gave us a fascinating discussion of the reasons for his departure from Richie Hawtin’s Minus label and Clonk booking agency back in January).

We sometimes get accused of encouraging gear fetishisation in My Studio, which is probably an unavoidable side-effect of any article focusing on equipment, but Sebastian and Kevin’s studio tours demonstrate exactly why we run the feature, offering huge insight into both artists’ creative processes, explaining how they achieved certain key sounds on their tracks and, of course, giving us the chance to gawk at a few enviable pieces of gear at the same time.