Machinedrum announces forthcoming EP, 4#TRAX

His first solo Machinedrum output since 2021’s Psyconia EP, 4#TRAX collates four excursions exploring the spaces between R&B, UK garage, and drum & bass. He calls on alt pop maestro KUČKA (Flume collaborator and signed to LuckyMe); New York-based, Japanese artist rei brown; and future pop/electronic singer songwriter LIZ (signed to Diplo’s Mad Decent label) on vocal duties.

“Collaboration is a big part of my process these days, and it’s no different on this EP,” Stewart says. “I had a blast working with KUČKA, LIZ and rei brown on these songs. They each brought their own unique individual characters to the songs and I’m really proud of what we created together!”

“4#TRAX is a tribute to #trax, a channel on IRC [Internet Relay Chat – a text-based chat system for instant messaging] that I spent much of my teens in,” explains Travis whose introduction to music-making was via “music trackers” – a type of music sequencer software in the 90s.

“#trax was a community of tracker musicians that would share their tracks, throw competitions, start labels, trade samples and give feedback and I figured there was no better way to pay respect to #trax than to make new songs using a tracker. On this EP, I decided to make songs that were created using a hybrid of Impulse Tracker and Ableton Live. This gave the songs a nostalgic feel while at the same time keeping it firmly in the present by utilizing my current strengths in production, composition, sound design, editing and mixing in Ableton Live as well as using newer plugins to modernize the sound a bit”.

Tracklist:

1. CAPONE
2. VIOLET (feat. KUČKA)
3. BTHE1 (feat. LIZ)
4. DEJAVU (feat. rei brown)