Berlin-based producer Anil Chawla on how he wrings bass and percussion from his TR-09 and his less-is-more approach to arrangement
Using drum machines to create bass and melody parts is a classic case of creative gear misuse. Through tuning and creative processing, it’s possible to push the harmonically rich kicks, toms and percussion from machines like Roland’s 808s and 909s to create patterns that tick the box of being both percussive and melodic. It’s a technique that’s a key element for British-born, Berlin-based producer Anil Chawla, aka Amotik. Since moving to Germany in 2014, he’s built a reputation for creating hard-hitting but evocative techno. Aside from his creative drum machine work – making use of a modern TR-09, as opposed to an original 909 – his tracks are characterised by a bold sense of minimalism and subtlety. Rather than lean into the epic builds and synth drops of big room techno, Chawla’s tracks tend to make use of just a small handful of elements with only minor changes used to keep the listener hooked.
“When I was trying to find my feet to produce on my own, I was listening to a lot of DVS1’s music,” he explains. “That was massively influential. There’s one track I always reference back to, Running, which has just a kick drum, a very wonky riff, and a hi-hat. There’s probably some minimal stuff happening in the background, but that track specifically got me very excited with so few ingredients in the mix. I really took a lot of inspiration from that.”
It’s a style of production that sounds easy on paper but can be hard to pull off in practice. An adventurous ability to restrict an arrangement to just the bare minimum of elements. We caught up with Chawla from his Berlin studio to talk about how he wrings the maximum out of his gear, why he chooses to release many of his tracks on his own Amotik label, and why less always means more.
THE ROLAND TR-09 IS CENTRAL TO YOUR PRODUCTION APPROACH…
“I was looking at it today. It’s very worn out on the bass drum, the low, mid and high toms. The bass drum is very functional. It needs a lot of processing, but I believe that’s the case with a real 909 as well. It doesn’t exactly sound amazing, straight out of the unit – afew of my friends have 909s, and it’s the same for them too. For me, [the TR-09] does exactly what I want. Pretty much every single bassline of mine comes from the toms. I’m just rolling off the highs and peaking up about 100Hz. I find that gives it this warmth. That resonance, it really perked my ear up.
“Also, when I was doing live shows a couple of years back, the TR-09 was a nice unit to take with me, for the hats as well. I do also use the hats in production, but there’s only
