Two hours of intergalactic space grooves.
While his music often sounds like the work of a funky otherworldly being, Ewan Smith (aka Youandewan) – originally from Yorkshire – now makes his hazy, futuristic house and techno from his adopted home of Berlin. Recently dazzling us with his latest stroke of genius known simply as The Brane 001 – the debut release on his new label of the same name is seemingly the first of many glimpses into his unique twist on uptempo Detroit influenced club tracks stacked with sci-fi appeal the likes of early Juan Atkins material. We caught up with the easy going producer, who’s also become one of the Voyage Recordings family after his brilliantly dubbed out release for Andy Hart’s label last year, and he’s mixed up a stellar two hour session of his signature stripped back space grooves and dubby atmospherics.
Hey Ewan, how’ve you been mate? Had a nice summer in Berlin?
Yeo! I’m great, thank you! Yea, it’s been niice. Did a lotta zoning, bike riding and travelling to nice new places. Life is good.
Your first release through your newest label/project The Brane sounds as though it has been received really well so far… What can you tell us about the project and what inspired it? Have you always wanted a separate outlet for releasing your faster, spacier club tracks?
The project is to simply put out some club tracks that are a little more in tune with my DJ sets. The reaction thus far has exceeded my expectations, so I’m very encouraged to make more of ‘em!
Your Luna Via EP for Voyage was one of our favourite house records of last year.. tell us how you got connected with Andy and the label, and are you guys planning on working more together in future?
Ah, thanks! Well, me and Hartmann met playing 5-a-side footy in Berlin a couple years ago and have been mates ever since. He’s an absolute legend, so it was a pleasure to work together on Voyage. I’m sure there will be more to come in the future.
2016 was a pretty fruitful year for you, also releasing your debut album via Aus Music spanning a number of different styles and tempos, which one Discogs user pretty accurately described as “home listening electronic music”.. Tell us about that experience as a whole, and do you plan to release more in the longer format going forward?
Those kinda comments make me happy, because that was the plan. If I do another LP it’ll probably be on a similar, personal, home listening tip – because that’s how I personally like an album to be. It was slog at times, but when I receive the odd nice comment from a stranger somewhere across the world, it makes doing the whole thing very much worthwhile.
I’d like to think about doing a second, but in the meantime I’ll be focusing on slightly less emotional affairs such as The Brane and some other, niteclub designed projects I have on the burner.
Tell us about the mix you’ve recorded for us, what goodies might we find in there?
It’s just a good representation of my sets. It contains a bunch of oldies, newbies and unreleased freshies that, imo, cruise along nicely together.