The Best of Attack 2015

2015 was a big year for Attack. We’ve been as busy as ever with our editorial coverage, and we’ve also launched the world’s first dedicated sample subscription service. Forgive us the self-indulgence as we take a look back at our highlights of the last year…

Features

We spoke to a lot of our favourite artists in 2015, but a few interviews stand out as highlights. An obvious example is our chat with Danny Daze in November. Here’s a man with (completely justified) issues about the way he’s been pigeonholed following a breakout hit on Hot Creations, but who remains stoic and incredibly humble nevertheless. Being pigeonholed is “part of the process,” Danny told us, “and it’s also motivation and fuel in order to prove people wrong.”

At the other end of the spectrum, there are people whose contributions to dance music don’t get the recognition they deserve. New York disco icon Nicky Siano deserves to be held in the same high esteem as his proteges Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles. When we spoke to him back in March he schooled us on the intricacies of custom-built sound systems and how drug addictions plagued the 1970s dance scene.

For sheer eccentricity, it’s hard to beat our chat with Legowelt back in January, in which we discussed his “professional ambient” project Occult Orientated Crime, his martial arts training and his dream synth: “A lot of nature sounds, like noise waves made out of sea sounds, rain, waterfalls. But also storms, thunder and stuff like that. And lots of animal sounds…”

Despite the fact it was only published a couple of weeks ago, it would seem remiss not to mention our conversation with Kenny Dope earlier this month. For a man approaching his fourth decade in the dance music industry, Kenny’s passion for music is infectious. Whether reminiscing about his favourite hardware from the past or discussing his collaborations with up-and-coming artists, he proved that he’s still hugely enthusiastic about every aspect of dance music.

Our columnists, Thomas Cox and Gregory Scott, delivered their usual blend of insight this year. Two columns that stood out in particular were Thomas’s analysis of influences in dance music and Gregory’s article demolishing the myths of compression. Gregory’s column was essential reading for anyone with an interest in production, while Thomas’s raised timely issues about inspiration, sampling and plagiarism.

In our long reads section, highlights this year included our feature on how clubs were reacting to the vinyl resurgence, and a revealing debate on the issue of technology defining dance music.

Technique

In our technique section, we introduced two new feature formats: in the Synth Secrets series we went back to basics with synth programming, explaining how to create a range of sounds from classics to the cutting edge. Meanwhile, in Deconstructed, we broke down the arrangements and mixes of some of the year’s biggest tracks, plus a few old favourites.

Of course, our eternally popular Beat Dissected series of drum tutorials continued, covering everything from banging techno to 70s-inspired disco.

Expect all the same and much more in 2016.