Low Entropy's Producer Diary: When The Kiss Of The Vampire becomes Your Only Friend

Almost by accident, I stumbled upon this "old" track by me again. Because I saw a clip of a DJ playing it in a club, a few days ago... but the track itself if from 2016.

Or rather, it is two tracks, but I made them "back 2 back". At least conceptually, the production itself was several days (or weeks?) apart.
This was not done at the best time in my life, I felt very depressed, isolated, doomed... in those days. And, Doomcore is of course the right music for that, and to express those emotions, too!

I think you can feel the sense of dread and "doom" in those tracks...

They were a bit unusual for me, in multiple senses.
First, there is a very straight forward structure to the track, at least at the root...
There is a "percussive" phase for several minutes, where the drums come in, and the other elements (snares, hats, and so on). Then, there is a sudden "pause", silence, until a sampled monologue plays out, that we can listen to.
Silence again, until the first synths come in... and slowly an entire melody builds into the track.
And finally, the "beats" drop again, while the synth fades in and out... and even additional notes are introduced.

Those different synth "lines" or melodies are part of a harmonic whole, and here is the catch: it's outside western tuning, or most of western music at all. The melody and harmony is based on a hexatonic scale, if i remember correctly. 6 notes per octave! So it lies inbetween the "normal", heptatonic scale with C D E F G A B (plus and minus a few flat squares...), and the pentatonic scale, which was common in ancient music I think (egypt?), or modern jazz maybe.

I was always mesmerized by the fact (or my impression?) that chord progressions in hexatonic harmony sound completely alien, otherworldly and unreal, suddenly (same could be said about pentatonic, btw).

After this, everything fades out, and fades to black again. Which is something I rarely do in other tracks. There is usually another big thing, a "big bang", after the climax(es) in the middle part, at the end of my tracks.

The themes of the tracks are linked, too, maybe like an inverted mirror to each other.
"Kiss of the Vampire" tells the tale of vampire seduction, but the roles are inverted, too. I think there is a very bittersweet feel to it, there is certainly euphoria, serenity in the promise of eternal life, even if it means life in eternal darkness... and then, in the end, the monologue is interrupted because the vampire itself seemed never interested in the deal (another unusual thing).

While "The Only Friend" has a monologue about deep, deep friendship, comradery, care and support, being "thick as thieves". This sounds very nice and moving again, but with the ominous sounds, and the whole "mood" to this monologue, we might assume that things are not quite as they seem... or are they?

So, both tracks are about a strange "conflict". There is hope, trust, but doom and gloom, too. And both seem somewhat linked, yet none of this feels... it does not feel *that bad*, more like a detached musing, on the strange and confusing circumstances of our lives, our very human lifes.
I mean, in essence, the "treacherous friend" in the second track means that things could be worse than it seems... but the "life saving vampire" of the first track also shows that things might indeed be much better than we imagine them to be...!
But for now, it seems we are stuck in the middle.

I remixed the tracks more than once, sometimes with "harder" drums, or different synth sounds.
These were released on Legs Akimbo Records (one of my fav UK labels!), Antropofagia Records from Brazil, HardSoundMusic (the label by the semi-eponymous online radio station), ENDE Records from Australia, and a few other labels.

Music:

Kiss of The Vampire ("Techno" version on a Russian label) https://doomcoreinitiative.bandcamp.com/track/kiss-of-the-vampire-special-2018-edit
The Only Friend (Techno remix) https://legsakimborecords.bandcamp.com/album/legs-net-138-resistance
The Vampire's Kiss (a more recent, Gabber / Speedcore version) https://rotjecore.bandcamp.com/track/horrortrax019-low-entropy-the-vampires-kiss-bleed-me-dry-mix