LAYERS: Sahy Uhns Dismantles The Sounds Of "Ice Plant / Newly Destitute"

Sahy Uhns (pronounced “Science”) and his colleagues are products of two musical phenomena—one local to their hometown beat scene in Los Angeles, and one global, the growing tendency of kids who grew up listening to hip hop and electronica to merge the two styles and create within the hybrid on wares both hard and soft.

In this style of music, LA is the seminal scene. After Flying Lotus became the poster child for modern production, the city was revealed as a hotbed for amazing music that everyone everywhere else was missing out on. It was during this upswing that Uhns established a label, Proximal Records, and enlisted the talents of his friends and fellow producers Wake, Benedek, Lawrence Grey, and BearClaw to put forth their own contribution to the beat explosion. Each member produces a different amalgamation of the style, all of it true to hip hop rhythms as well as electronically manipulated melodies.

Since the label’s inception, the crew has received nods from the likes of Dam Funk, Tokimonsta, Teebs, Strangeloop, Daedelus, and others who recognize the raw talent that the Proximal guys possess. It starts with messing around with beats and loops, and ends with inventing new genres of music altogether.

Sahy Uhns dropped his debut album An Intolerant Disdain Of Underlings last fall, and it displays a level of technicality previously unheard from him. The Creators Project asked Sahy Uhns to deconstruct his track “Ice Plant / Newly Destitute” and give us a little background info for this edition of LAYERS.

Before we delve into the parts of the track, a quick note from Sahy Uhns about what inspired it.

“Ice plant” was a plant brought in to reinforce and stabilize the soil around the railroads in California. Then the ice plant took over everything and it became a huge problem because they essentially soak up all of the nutrients and water form the soil so the native plants can’t survive. “Newly Destitute” came from a guy I saw while driving to the studio. He was dressed in his Sunday best with suspenders on and holding a sign that said “Newly Destitute”—it was pretty tragic.

The overarching idea I guess is just a parasitic relationship. I tried to imagine how that guy ended up there and what decision led him to that destitution. The “Newly Destitute” half of the track was created using a custom Reaktor patch I built that utilizes generative synthesis. Finishing that track felt like a big achievement to me because it was one of the most successful synthesis compositions I had and I really liked the sound of it.

Claps
The claps are pretty simple. I just recorded them in my room and cut them up and pitched them around for different parts.

Hi Drums
All the the drums were synthesized using a drum machine I made in Reaktor. Then I did some chopping and editing in Ableton.

Low Drums
The low drums were actually partly created using a sinebank physical model that I made in Reaktor. I had it mixed in so you can hear both the original drum sounds I synthesized and physical model recreation of them. That is what gives them that kind of resonant sound.

Noise
The noise track was created using my Doepfer, along with some field recordings of rain. At the end of the noise track there is a part were you hear the song but it sounds muted or muffled. That was a recording of me playing the track in my room while my needle was down on the record next to my speakers and so it was picking up the track.

Voice
The voices are all of me singing and then they were pitched and edited in Ableton.

Synths
The synths were made using my Doepfer Dark Energy. I just sequenced the different parts and then recorded many different takes of it with different sounds from the Doepfer and then cut them all together in Ableton.

For more from Sahy Uhns and the Proximal crew, check out their bandcamp page, and look out for the next Beat Stew compilation, dropping soon.

Previously: LAYERS: Deconstructing The Beat of “El Salvador” With Spills