::BLUE:: [OMD115] by Danny Daze

Twenty-four years in the making, ::BLUE:: is an ambitious collision of hyper-focused sound design and twitchy Miami sonic influences that bring together all of Danny Daze’s sprawling interests for the first time. The 90-minute album is intentionally driven by sound itself, intended to be absorbed in one uninterrupted sitting (preferably blindfolded) to coax the listener into creating their own visual accompaniment. A concept piece, ::BLUE:: draws its inspiration from a wide, open world of messages and music, positioning itself just above the stratosphere and zooming in periodically to reveal microscopic details. Curls of rhythm bend around Daze’s sonic landscape like rivers and streams, framing island clusters of abstraction and turning washy ambience into booming bass music or horizontally-skewed experimental IDM. It’s a culmination of Daze’s experiences, spanning his early days as a cross-genre DJ and soundsystem fanatic, through his life as a globetrotting techno & electro producer, to his latter-day role as a cornerstone of Miami’s diverse cultural melting-pot.

Daze cut his teeth DJing and beat juggling when he was still a teenager, learning from the Florida scene’s voracious musical hybridization and paying little attention to genre boundaries. He came up at a time when the area was boundlessly creative but painfully under-documented, listening to bass-heavy electro sounds in one club and then hearing those elements flipped seamlessly by local artists like Phoenecia, Dino Felipe, and Otto von Schirach in another. This ingenuity was put into the spotlight on Homecore! Miami All-Stars, a lengthy showcase Daze presented last year on his own Omnidisc imprint, placing veterans such as Murk and Gosub next to an influential newer generation of artists like MJ Nebreda, INVT, Sister System, and Coffintexts. With ::BLUE::, Daze makes those connections even clearer, submerging glitchy, Schematic-style psychedelia in hypnotic, meditational reflecting pools and curving futuristic, bass-heavy grooves into lavish, experimental atmospheres. A love-letter to Miami that fully takes in the city’s broad outlook, ::BLUE:: examines how its sounds have been absorbed into the DNA of global electronic music, often without due credit.

It’s hard to believe that ::BLUE:: is Daze’s debut full-length, and it almost wasn’t. He finished an album back in 2013 but scrapped it when he began to realize it didn’t fully encapsulate his musical and artistic scope. Daze wanted to develop a record that highlighted the physicality he remembers from club music: the hands on turntables, the frequencies that practically rearrange your insides, the mass of voices, the energy of breakdancing cyphers. He produced 100 tracks for ::BLUE::, whittling them down to a tight 19 that he blended together, applying his experience as a DJ to create a seamless listening experience. The record, released via his own Omnidisc label, also highlights his ongoing relationship with the local scene, with guest appearances from Push Button Objects, Nick León, Jonny From Space, and Deroboter. And it’s not just an album; Daze has evolved the record into a live, audio-visual journey to be presented at planetarium (full dome) environments, using sonic elements from ::BLUE:: while directing eye-popping visuals created alongside Sensory Works, Joseph Nickson, and Konx Om Pax. The show made its debut during Art Basel Miami at The Frost Museum Planetarium and is preparing to be shown in various cities around the world. The show is currently being turned into an app, using Dolby Atmos and VR technology to enhance the message. Lie back, and let your mind and body do the rest.

CREDITS:
Stereo Version
Mixed: Danny Daze
Mastered: Joshua Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv)

Dolby Atmos Version
Mixed: Danny Daze
Mastered: Danny Daze