the next in the occasional e-zine series - aromatiq revisited - chillstep - marketing content, artwork, music video stills, branding, graphic design,

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In this issue I will show you something continuous - not a series of different
bits and pieces worked on recently - but a single piece of work with different
areas of interest and importance, different elements of value ... The music - DJ mixes, DJ producers
As you may know I still have a serious love of music and try to involve
myself in all sorts of music and related projects. Even though I am a little
older than the general club going and gig going public, I still DJ, still VJ,
still look to create audio, visuals, music videos, audio-visual art, motion
graphics and so on.
In pottering around various music sites I came across a genre I had not
encountered before
- chillstep.
I was instantly drawn.
I had been around and DJing seriously at the time of dubstep’s birth. I
played out all sorts of stuff called variously - breakstep, sublow, 8 bar,
grime and, of course, dubstep. At the same time I had a love, generally, of
the chillout room at parties. Combine all of this with a night we used to
run called Aromatiq
- variously broken beat, wine bar 2 step, jazzy hip hop, nujazz, nusoul,
intelligent dnb, deep house, and anything around all of such
- you can see the attraction.
The result was and is - Aromatiq revisited. Basically a series of chillstep
mixes, with odd bits an pieces of intelligent dnb, broken beat, ambient,
chillout, 2 step, psydub/cuberdub/chilleddubstep thrown in.
As I investigated there were names I knew from the past
- dBridge, Synkro, DFRNT.
There were names I had heard
mentioned in passing
- Submotion Orchestra.
There were new discoveries
- Intelligent Manners, Jack Dixon, Phaelah, Volor Flex, Liquid Stranger.

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Chillstep takes threads from so many genres - dubstep, of course, giving it a
chilled and ambient electronica flavour at times. It becomes less the
raucous dancefloor, bass ridden music of the present,
and moves into a seriously thoughtful and emotive area of audio. If you add
to that hints of soulful and jazzy vocals, a range of different beats from
liquid and intelligent dnb, 2 step reminiscent of the ‘wine bar’ garage of the
original Aromatiq,occasional broken beats and deep house style 4x4. Giving
thoughtful chillout a resonant bass
and interesting beats
- interest renewed ...
2 step Atlantic soul derived from an old West African rhythm. Dance
music producers take up the soul rhythm to produce 2 step garage
which gradually morphs through a whole series of forms acquiring
elements of breaks instrumentation and arrangement during the pe-
riod of the height of breaks as a serious club genre (see Urban Gorilla,
Spannered et al). Breakstep has a short life and gradually morphs
again becoming darker and herder with the addition of a slower
beat and darker harder basslines. Grime ultimately becomes a more
hiphop flavoured genre, sublow and 8 bar become unkowns, dubstep
reigns as a genre title and developes gradually into what it is today. A
chilled form begins to grow.
The entire area of the new genre - chillstep takes on all sorts of other musical
forms:
- 2 step beats
- female vocals, in addition to male vocals, of course
- intelligent dnb
- ambient soundscapes
- electronica in its downtempo and chilled forms
- hints of nujazz, world music, fashion pop.
It’s chilled, it’s wide, it’s urban, it’s mellow, it’s thoughtful and
it’s not just for listening to alongside ‘other chemical additions’.

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The design
Where to start with the design for anything such as this is nothing more than
that question itself - where to start?
For me I begin with the usual and ordinary questions:
- what keywords can you put to the project?
- what does this evoke, what is conjured up?
- what springs to mind immeiately?
- what is said directly?
- where can you place this?
- where does it want to be?
- so then, what are the design references that are, first of all, obvious, and
those not so obvious?
Some of the answers involve:
dreams, countryside, foliage, autumn, spring, early morning, quiet, space,
night, bars, the edge of town centre, breath, flow, geometrics, the shore,
water, beach, dance, rest ...
a variety of ideas are shown.

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How would you present all of that visually - to add to the
experience and to suitably brand it?
It would not just be a case of decorating the product.
It would be a case of giving it a suitable scenery which adds to
the whole and gives a reinforcement of everything alluded to
within the music.
What we have is something both of the night
- the chillout room at a party,
- a particular bar or small venue,
- an event outside of a rammed club.
It is also something that points towards the gentleness and
quiet of the rural, the countryside, towards early morning and
rest, to friends and still intimacy, to a slow dance and also a
walk with fresh smells, to a look upwards at the stars and a
comfortable room and rest.
Here is something that can display pastels, distressed
textures, fine lines, geometrics as well as the fractured and
the fractal.
The Art and Design

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The branding
... and here, a series of mockups of cd covers and
general artwork associated with the projected brand
including stills from short music videos on both vimeo
and youtube
- there are other examples of all of this work on dropr
and behance

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The examples shown are stills from music videos, possible cd covers and
general promo designs.
mixcloud
futurhood av
check out the playlist - aromatiq chillstep

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Brendon Tyree - Photographer
http://www.brendontyree.com/