Enock Salo (or ΣnΘ☪К SΔ£Ø) has spontaneously emerged from deep space onto the scene with a single “Melt” released on 710Records (Bleep Bloop‘s up and coming label for the furthest edge of futurebass). Merging ethnic percussion, supreme sub-bass, and rolling melodic soundscapes reminiscent of Thriftworks, this New Mexico native has crafted a remarkably unique sound; what I like to call “sub-bass fueled tribal melodic flow.” If this 23 year old producer continues at this rate, we are sure to witness some truly magical music. With an extensive roster of future and sub-bass masters, including the likes of G Jones, Bleep Bloop, +verb, sAuce, and many others, look forward to some seriously explosive sounds from the 710Records crew as well.
(LIS) What brought you into the world of production?
(Enock Salo) A lot of my family is involved in music one way or another. From playing different instruments to just being generally interested in, and sometimes obsessed with, different records and songs, styles of music, and different artists. My first instrument was my uncle’s drumset. I remember chilling in the garage where they were set up in the summertime, sweating my ass off, maybe 7 or 8 years old, getting busy for hours in there. There was a little analog 4 track in there too so I guess thats where I got my start in audio production and recording: just jamming for a couple of minutes and then playing back the tape to see what it sounded like. I never got very good at drums but I’ll still jam every now and again if a set is nearby.
High School is when I started to get serious about making music. I was in various bands and different music projects with friends. I also studied jazz guitar for 4 years, where I learned standard notation amongst a ton of other musical knowledge. I still play every now and again and I’m thinking about getting a decent condenser mic to incorporate guitar and other recordings into the beat side of things. It’s also really cool to just record things to edit and work with in a digital medium: making drum kits out of random noises. I think some of the coolest shit out today is the blending of live instrumentation with the editing and synthesis capabilities of a DAW.
(LIS) How did you get your name “ΣnΘ☪К SΔ£Ø?” Why do you choose to display it in symbols rather than letters?
(Enock Salo) It’s a combination of things actually. Enock is a reference to the book of Enoch, to which the first part is the biblical interpretation of the angels descent to earth, followed by the descriptions of Enoch’s travels back into the heavens (which is the part I like). The primary subject is the origin of man from coming space, creation descended from distant bodies. And Salo is a character in the book Sirens of Titian by Kurt Vonnegut which is probably my favorite book ever.
With the ASCII, I’ve just always enjoyed icon designs and symbols, that weird level of seeing something and knowing it contains messages, but not understanding the code at all: hidden knowledge lost in encryption of the ages.
(LIS) What motivates you to make music? Do you have a message/dream you are trying to communicate?
(Enock Salo) I have always felt that music is something important in and to the world: something crucial to the process of being alive really. It’s hard to really explain what it does: it’s a combination of mental and spiritual energies, but at the same time its wave is something very tangible and concrete. Go to any place on this earth and you will find someone, somewhere, who is just jamming the fuck out of something: music just makes sense.
(LIS) How would you describe your sound?
(Enock Salo) Deep Space West Coast Lowrider Spaceship Boner-Jams… or something like that. Moving melodies that evolve into a lot of sine bass, a lot of 808 kits, melodic trap, a little bit of juke, glittery arpeggios, and mid 90’s gangsta’ leads. I’m gonna try and get out of the generic 4/4 timing for a bit and see what happens.
I tend to pull a lot of techniques from glitch hop, crunk, broken-beat, and rap. Grit based ancient textures, a lot of ethnic percussion. I’ll take a clap over a snare, a shaker over a hat 90% of the time. I went through the midrange lazer bass phase but don’t really listen to or make too much of that these days. I like to try and keep a driving structure to my music; but I also like the drifty, reverb-soaked atmospheric sounds. I’m obsessed with the stars and planets and try to incorporate that essence of space and distance into my tracks. When I finish something I’ll ask myself, “Would this sound dope in a spaceship?”
(LIS) What artists motivate you? Who do you jam to?
(Enock Salo) I tend to like a lot of different stuff EDM-wise. I def have what I consider to be a list of consistently solid favorite producers: Tipper, Flying Lotus, Lazor Sword, Lunice, MachineDrum, Oizo Mr 3000, Shlohmo, Shigeto, Tokimonsta, Morris, +Verb, Bleep Bloop, B. Bravo, Thriftworks, Dibiase, Robot Koch, Benito, and NastyNasty. I have been listening to most of these artists for some time and they rarely release things I don’t like.
Some of the newer (to me anyway) people I’m enjoying at the moment are Jaw Jam, heRobust, DjembaDjemba, Yheti, G Jones, Dank, Subp Yao, †RiLL Murr∆¥, Cloud-d, ✞ENNI$R✡DM∆N, Comma, Sleepyhead, and Lil Texas.
(LIS) How do go about producing? What’s your process?
(Enock Salo) I find that, for myself at least, mornings are what’s up: just feeling refreshed and alert makes a big difference. A nice mug of coffee, some trees and a newport will help get me in the zone to write for hours. I use headphones at the moment, so sitting outside is a nice break from chilling in smoky dark rooms all the time.
As far as actually composing tracks goes, I will start from a lot of different things. It’s easy to get in the habit of starting out your tracks with drums every time, so it’s nice to keep the options open and kind of force yourself to come up with different ideas about song structure. But the biggest thing about my process is just experimenting to no end. The DAW’s out today go deeper than the sea: so many possibilities to just immerse yourself in. My biggest tip to people is to try things out with no intention of making a song: just fuck around with everything, see what kind of sounds you can come up with.
(LIS) What’s your setup (equipment/programs/packs/etc.)?
(Enock Salo) I use Ableton on a MacBook. I just got an Akai MPK25 a couple of weeks ago. VST-wise, I use Absynth5, Albino, and BLUE for a lot of the synthesis; CamelPhat and a few other effect VSTs. With Ableton, I use Operator and Analogue for a lot of my baselines. I have developed quite the Simpler/Sampler obsession lately: a lot of possibilities with that.
(LIS) What can we look forward to from you?
(Enock Salo) I have an EP on the way with 710Records, “Cryptic Distances,” and a forthcoming track featuring Black Mic; I’m not sure if it will be an official release, but I’m really looking forward to having him lace a beat. I love his flow to things. On the show tip, I am going to start mixing soon so I can start playing out at events.
Enock Salo – FLOΔTING INKS – LiS Exclusive
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