Nu Era Electric Illusion

• 1. Somewhere In The Middle
• 2. Soul Drumatix
• 3. Illusion Of Time
• 4. Inferno
• 5. Global Disillusion
• 6. I Saw Them

Nu Era (Marc Mac) explores the world of Roland Boutique Synthesis.

Roland Drumatix TR-606; my first machine. I bought it from The Exchange Shop in Notting Hill London around 1986, well actually I made an exchange with a busted Selmer valve amplifier a straight swap.I think this was me subconsciously moving away from sound system gear to music production gear.

The 606 is still one of my favorite machines, battery operated, I loved that portability factor. While most of my friends on the college bus would be listening to Walkman’s I’d have my headphones plugged into the 606; programming Mantronix styled double time hi-hat beats on the way in.

Mantronix was the inspiration and link between electro hip hop and techno, he was the first cat i realized was using the 606 and 303 because at that point in time i wasn’t overly concerned with house and techno, It was about the tech more than a style of music that excited me. Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra were a big deal for me, it was Juan Atkins/Cybertron, Detroit tech producers in general that brought my attention to deeper techological music form. Crazy, back then i never would have thought both Juan and Mad Mike would one day visit the studio and become lifetime influences.

Dollis Hill Studio; By 1993 we built up the gear and Roland would play a big part, the Juno-106, Super Jupiter, JX-3P, SH01 and 09, Paraphonic 505, JD-800, TR-909, 808, 727, 626, and loads of other MK modules and even Roland effects like the Stereo Flanger SBF-325, Roland was a big feature.

In this modern era where space is tight and maintaining all the vintage gear is a thing I became fascinated by the Boutique range, Roland started dropping them around 2016, I mean after all I knew what the OG synths sounded like so lets see what these boxes could do.

I gradually picked up a boutique synth here and there over the years, started using them like toys at first, fair to say these boxes are not quite like the real synths they attempt to replicate but I understand the limitations with battery operated micro synths; however they are great when used in combination, each unit playing its part with every bleep and squeak making up the final composition.

I kinda set myself a task, link up the 10 boutique modules I have and make the record, introducing more analogue kit I used an old 16 track Roland mixer, the boutique synths have great modern connectivity and means of recording digital data but i wanted to go more old school.

The gear; TR-06, TR-08, TR-09, TB-03, JD-08, SE-02, JP-08, JU-06A, JX-08, SH-01A and the CR-80 for a little extra juice.

Thinking back to how we did things in Dollis Hill during the 90’s I decided to dig out my Atari ST 1040 running Creator for some of the sequencing, good old Kenton midi box to handle midi info and mixing with the Roland M-16E.

So here it is; the “Roland Boutique Sessions” captured the way it went down.