Bensley talks the sonic shift that his ‘Cascade’ EP embodies [Interview] – Dancing Astronaut
by: Ariel King
Aug 2, 2021
In 2011, dubstep was within the throes of its golden period, and a 16-year-old Peter Bennett—now higher identified by his Bensley stage identify—attended his first music pageant. Whereas initially there to listen to some dubstep, he discovered himself drawn extra to the drum ‘n’ bass acts, standing within the crowd as greats resembling Noisia and Pendulum took the stage.
The pageant marked a turning level for Bennett, who initially tried his hand at producing dubstep however afterward, started to develop his drum ‘n’ bass skills. The Bensley moniker was born, and shortly thereafter, the Canadian producer spent 5 years solely signed to RAM Data, via which he would launch two albums.
Reverting again to free agent standing in early 2020, Bensley started to develop his sonic horizons. Zeds Useless had lengthy been supporters of Bensley, enjoying his tracks on their Deadbeats Radio present. Along with his Cascade EP, disseminated through Deadbeats, Bensley steps away from drum ‘n’ bass to lean into a brand new type of sound. In an interview on Cascade with Dancing Astronaut, Bensley mentioned,
“I’m making an attempt to grow to be a bit extra of a multi-genre artist I suppose. Like, drum ‘n’ bass continues to be my real love, however I don’t need to be generally known as somebody who solely releases drum ‘n’ bass, and Zeds Useless are among the most profitable multi-genre artists there are within the digital scene, so I actually admire having their assist on this.”
Cascade options lo-fi sounds, pulling from dubstep breakbeat downtempo, home, and trance. The EP, which incorporates one purely drum ‘n’ bass lower, “In My Head,” first got here to fruition shortly after he left RAM, Bensley mentioned. He sat all the way down to create the tracks in a virtually trance-like state:
“I used to be simply tremendous impressed to make one thing bizarre and funky. Some tracks simply write themselves and I really feel like these ones have been an ideal instance of that.”
The Cascade EP was led by its title observe, which featured deeper melodies that spearheaded Bensley’s new inventive course. Falling away from his drum ‘n’ bass roots, the observe encompasses his experimentation whereas sustaining components of the model he’s labored to curate over time.
“Me and Deadbeats each agreed that that was the one which stood out as being totally different in all the nice methods. Prefer it nonetheless has the qualities of one thing that sounds actually massive and grand, particularly within the second half. The opposite tunes on the EP are a bit extra understated and chill. However this one, I consider the second drop is admittedly essentially the most highly effective a part of the EP,” Bensley mentioned of “Cascade.”
The next three inclusions embody Bensley’s goal to grow to be extra genre-fluid. Bensley admits that this concluding triplet, which melds collectively varied genres, might be laborious to outline, however components of breakbeat downtempo, home, and trance might be heard all through them.
“I’m not making an attempt to disregard my roots on this EP or something, so it was undoubtedly essential to get the drum ‘n’ bass tune early on as properly,” Bensley mentioned. “However the third and the final one, ‘Dream On,’ is like actually lo-fi and sonically it’s tremendous totally different from the remainder of the tracks on the EP. So I assumed having that as extra of an outro can be the perfect place to have it quite than like breaking apart the move of the EP.”
Together with the discharge of the EP, Bensley and different members of the Deadbeats crew headed off to Niagra Falls to shoot a music video for “Cascade.” Impressed by a go to a number of years again the place the carousels and retailers have been empty and practically deserted, the music video works to focus on the eerie distinction of bustling crowds and visiting households with shuttered storefronts and lonely carousels.
“The desolate nature of it clearly got here again in an enormous approach when the pandemic got here by, and the companies couldn’t even be open, so we determined to make a music video form of exhibiting the distinction,” Bensley mentioned.
Bensley hopes to proceed sharing drum ‘n’ bass with North America as he expands his sound within the digital area, rising his sound whereas testing the waters of various labels.
Featured picture: Paul Ignatio
Classes: Options, Music