“There definitely wasn’t any master plan,” he says. “I mean, I wouldn’t have even released a record were it not for Jimmy at Lobster Theremin pushing through with it. Every EP so far has involved me deciding not to release it at some stage in its production and if it weren’t for other people charging ahead regardless I’d still have no records to my name.
“Anyway, I’d just moved to Berlin and was trying to settle in here so that was my main focus, and it’s taken a good two years to get to a point where I’m back in the habit of making music regularly. I did want to DJ out, but that wasn’t the motivation to release music or anything. I guess a couple of extra years to buy some decent monitors and learn how to program some good congas wouldn’t have hurt, but everyone starts out somewhere, right?”
In Gold is an exploration through deeper strains of dance music, with its origins in the ‘80s/’90s Chicago house and Detroit techno movements. That said, it’d be unfair to describe the EP as nostalgic – it definitely sounds like something that was made in 2015. This nimble balance results from the merging of Donaldson’s studio process and influences.
“It’s not something I’m conscious of whilst I’m producing, I just know how I want certain things to sound and I don’t stop ‘til I get there,” he says. “For instance, I could never make one of those New Jersey house knock-offs that have been doing the rounds for the past couple of years. Probably just comes from listening to so much Omar S a couple years ago, and those Psyche records by Carl Craig, but then making it on a laptop and dealing with all the bad habits that come with that.”
So far, critical feedback on Palms Trax has tended to make reference to the two aforementioned movements, which evidently form the foundation of his productions. When Donaldson starting working as Palms Trax, however, he wasn’t trying to pay homage to anything in particular.
“I was just listening to a load of house and techno, which was all new to me at the time, and got really excited by it,” he says. “So when I was making anything, that was what I was taking inspiration from. Before that I was making new wave at my kitchen table so it’s all ticked along fairly naturally.”
House music has never really faded from view, but there’s been resurgent interest in recent years. In terms of the mainstream, there are popular house acts like Disclosure and Julio Bashmore, and even Four Tet’s recent material has more obviously embraced elements of house. The mainstream exposure has led curious listeners to seek out underground releases, giving life back to a genre that was somewhat languishing a decade ago.
“Five years ago you had everyone like Joy Orbison and Ben UFO beginning to play more house records, so I think it’d be fair to say it’s been pretty dominant for at least half a decade,” Donaldson says. “I can’t really comment on anything before that because I wasn’t listening to much dance music back then, but I know Ron Trent and a few others have spoken about how their bookings dried up for a bit so it must have had an effect to some extent.
“I suppose the line between underground and mainstream is a bit blurred now, because some artists who are commonly thought of as representing the underground command enormous fees and may have a team of people working behind them, and bigger acts see emerging artists as a way to boost their credibility so try and leech off the back of that without having to adjust their own output. I guess that’s bad for the homogenisation of music or whatever, but that’s always been the case and you can see groups of friends emerging all the time doing cool stuff, whether its Acting Press and Mood Hut or Endless and Janus at the other end of the spectrum.”
Palms Trax releases are distinguished by Donaldson’s affection for paddy synth sounds and a robust bottom end, which makes them well suited to clubs and festivals. He’s due to appear at the Strawberry Fields festival this November, but don’t expect to hear the songs you’re familiar with.
“I never play songs I’ve released live. It’s all just jams and ideas I might have had leading up to it. I do have all the patches I’ve made accessible to me, so I could end up using a lot of the same sounds. But I like the live set to flow more like a DJ set, with the exception of Sonar [Barcelona] – that felt more like a concert. It does all depend on the setting though, so a 5pm festival set will be different to 4am in Panorama Bar.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
