Life can surprise you. It takes all kinds of weird twists and turns, sending you in directions that you never would have guessed. One day you might be an aspiring Olympic figure skater, for instance; the next, you’re an ascendant star in the world of brand-name producers and DJs. Caroline Cecil’s story is a bit more complicated than that, and the transition from the ice to prime festival slots took her a bit longer than a day, but that’s the U-turn that her life has taken since suffering a serious skating accident while a senior in high school. When life hands you lemons, make music — and after a period of wondering what’s next, then learning her Ableton chops by studying YouTube videos, she hit the ground running as WHIPPED CREAM and hasn’t looked back. Though download services tend to categorize her sound as bass music, Cecil’s hugely emotive productions tend to transcend category – and her new EP on the Monstercat label, ‘Someone You Can Count On’ is perhaps her most accomplished work yet. DJ Mag spoke with the North Vancouver–based artist to find out more about Cecil’s past, present and future.
Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, working together as Orbital, have been among the UK’s greatest electronic-music exports ever since the ’80s slid into the ’90s, with tunes like ‘Belfast,’ ‘Halcyon’ and ‘Chime,’ songs as awe-inspiring today as they were three decades ago. But the Hartnolls have rarely relied on Orbital nostalgia to keep them going, and as if to prove the point, their 10th album, the ‘Optical Delusion,’ comes out swinging later this month. The path from ‘Chime’ to the new LP hasn’t always been easy, as Joe Roberts discovered when he spoke with the siblings.
It’s another packed issue this month, with more features on the Detroit turntable terror DJ Psycho, the hugely vibrant deep house scene of South Africa, the mythos-minded electro-techno unit Drexciya’s classic ‘The Quest,’ and a chat with Jersey club veteran R3LL, along with our usual full slate of tech news, reviews and a whole lot more.
Bruce Tantum
Editor