(BostonGlobe) You’ll hear plenty of DJs dropping dubstep into their sets around the city (more still complaining about the ones who do), but not quite as many producing it themselves of late. Which is why “Promise Me,” the standout among a series of singles released this year by the Boston-area production duo and DJ team Butlertron is such a welcome change of pace. Mostly because it’s not awful — no easy feat these days.
The track, produced by Mike Short of Stoneham and Mike Bell of Melrose, isn’t quite so simple to classify, however. While it throbs and surges with peaks and valleys of bass static, it veers off into chippy synth runs that sound pulled from a frantically side-scrolling 8-bit adventure game before exploding with ascending house chords. The package is rounded off with a sultry but minimal vocal track that places it squarely on the popular side of the line drawn between snooty chin-strokers and those aiming for the throb of packed dance floor.
Likewise, “Straight Energy” gurgles on a squiggly bass line and upstroke beat while guest vocalist Sarah Lachambre adds a soulful, romantic vocal that makes it well suited for falling in love in the zero-G suspension of the bass drop.
The duo, who perform at The Good Life on...
Aug. 23 (on a bill that includes other exciting Boston up-and-comers L.E.D.FUT and Daniel Harder), say that aiming for the middle of two extremes is where they’re most comfortable. “We try to straddle the edge between more aggressive bass music style and more melodic pop sensibility,” Bell explains. “It’s a fine line.”BUTLERTRON
That approach finds them moving across the EDM genre map, from the aforementioned dubstep terrain to tracks like the aptly titled “Journey,” which runs the gamut from electro to progressive house with a big room feel. “We wanted it to be a pretty wide-ranging and upbeat tune,” Short says.
“We’re thrilled to see the progression they’ve made with each new release,” says Maxwell Kaplan, founder of the comprehensive EDMBoston.com website. “Each one is more creative and dynamic, showing their progression as producers. . . . It’s just a matter of time before a Steve Angello or Diplo lends them and their tracks a hand.”
Bell and Short started writing music together in the late ’90s after attending high school together in Medfield. “It was all crap since we had very basic equipment,” Short says. “We had been listening to a lot of different genres like rock, hip-hop, trance, garage, jungle.” They tried their hand at most of them too, working their way through learning various instruments and performing in live bands.
“It’s been a constant evolution,” Short says. "We started out doing trip-hop and house and all kinds of crazy stuff, indie rock, obviously a lot of dubstep and electro-house.” Lately they’ve branched out into the remix territory, working on a track by the shouty local art-punk scenesters Streight Angular, whom they hooked after they both performed at a house party. “Butlertron are fantastic DJs and always bring a party,” says Streight Angular’s Al Polk. “They are true artists and pushing music into the future.”
Playing with the components of Streight Angular’s romantic indie-pop track “Hotties” presents a different set of challenges for Butlertron than writing themselves, Bell says. “You come at it with a different mind-set. Instead of a blank slate you have vocals, a bass line, all the different elements you’re trying to incorporate into the song, but you still want to make something completely different. We hope it’s going to turn people’s heads.”
Bell and Short hope that working with musicians outside of their immediate scene will help in exposing the duo to an audience that might not have found them otherwise. Although they’ve been going at it on and off since 2000, it wasn’t until recently that they started to make another push for it in earnest. It’s their third go-round, in fact, after various comings and goings across the country for careers pulled them apart.
“I think it just takes a long time,” Short says of getting noticed. “Sending e-mails out, trying to meet everyone. It’s a lot of DIY, you’ve really got to put on your boots.”
.png)
.png)
