Taking shelter from the overcast nimbus in Olympia, Washington is Braxton/Palmer, fronted by DJ Sonny Thomas. His debut single for Ceremony Recordings, Creeper has placed the northwest on the map in the middle of our nation's rise of dance music undergrounds. The tags of these semi-clandestine scenes are given fad name applied adjectives that become outgrown quickly, as Sonny and fellow producers on his wavelength draw from percussion styles and sampling deck preferences pulled from around the globe. Up here in this corner of the Western Pacific, Braxton/Palmer plays the dancefloors of secret dens with offerings sought the world over where the past and present eons meet like the ends embed within an infinity symbol.
Followup cut “Creeper, Pt. 2” moves with the luxury of the sweet life where classy dance keyboard progressions rub up against the deeper bass pronounced synthesizers, as “Pt. 1” presents a more dangerous affair. Keeping the vibe tiptoeing with shoes in hand, Thomas even throws in a sampling of the sultry horn from TLC's “Creep” as other found voices drip in slowed utterance trance loops of, “baby you don't know, what you do to me, I want to please you.” From here samples are grown in synthetic cyles and sent through the chopped and cutty edges of juke rhythm configurations, dotted with perspiring breath utterances that continue to move with you.
Sonny Thomas entertained our inquiries into the makings of “Creeper” both Parts 1 & 2. Read on as Thomas explains the creative effects between different writing environments of his dance suite from a “dark, freezing cold cabin,” versus the sun-awakened warmth found in the comforts of a “fire place and a piano.”
“'Creeper' consists of two parts written side by side this last winter. Olympia has very rainy winters, and the weather often traps you, at home, a cafe, anywhere warm and dry. Often with some coffee, or alcohol, or both. While ['Creeper, Pt. 1'] was written in a dark freezing cold cabin the first half of the season, ['Creeper, Pt. 2'] was largely written next to a fire place and a piano as the sun awakened. I always end up obsessing over certain samples when I write, for creeper it was sounds from a bollywood video i found on youtube and a couple great jams I remember hearing and watching on MTV as a kid. Though I find the tracks portraying dissimilar emotions and progressions, in reflection I feel a sense of companion between them, both creepin' but in different ways. Solar Year and Prism House were gracious enough to completely dissect and transform the tracks into beasts of their own.”
The Braxton/Palmer single Creeper is available now from Ceremony Recordings.
