You can access Adam Graham’s blog here http://blog.adamgraham.co.uk

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Finally got “Deep Inside” nailed and am over the moon with the end result. Both mixes are below. By all means comment on them here or on Soundcloud.

The mixes have been sent off to Ibiza today. They will go to the
resident djs at most of the big clubs. Hopefully they will be rinsing the tracks and getting good crowd reactions. We expect to get some feedback in a couple of weeks time. Once I have this I will send on to the specialist radio stations and A&R men. This track deserves to be placed with a decent label. So, that’s what I’m holding out for. Any buzz that’s created in the meantime will only help the cause.

So, by all means pass on to your friends, if you’re feeling it.

Watch this space for further updates…

Altus House

Create Your Badge

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The vocalist this time round is Marcella Woods, probably best known for being half of “Out of Office“. She’s a really cool girl and a great singer. We will definitely be working together again.

I probably shouldn’t do this, but here is a sneek peek of how it’s coming along. It’s totally unfinished, lots more to do, but already it is sounding really nice. I recon this one is my best track so far.

I’m hoping to get the main mix nailed in the next week. I have given the parts to a couple of producers already to get going on the remixes and I’ll do at least one other mix myself. I’m hoping we can all move quickly and get this out before the Summer’s over.

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A few weeks ago i was talking on a music production forum and i got a message from someone called Darren asking if i was the Altus who did “Change your Cover” (there’s another, impostor, Altus who came along after me, but that’s another story).

So, i said “yeah, why?”
and he said” “for fuck’s sake man! do you know how long i have been trying to find you?! I wanna license your tune for an album.”

Apparently he had asked Slip n Slide, who had included it on one of their Albums, but they didn’t give him any details for me.

He’s been rinsing the track for ages now but he never got the single on Vinyl, so the poor bloke has been playing out at clubs etc using the MIXED CD of the Slip n Slide album! That shows some commitment to the track! I would have to really like a tune to consider going through that bother every time i wanted to play it!

I have now furnished him with a complete version of both mixes for him to play with instead.

I got the tracks remastered at Abbey Road Studios to give them a little freshen up for inclusion on the album.

Here’s a link to the Beatport page: Baldeelox 2008 the tour album part 1

This means that you can now purchase Change your Cover – tuff mix on MP3, which is nice. It was available before via those dodgey Russian websites who basically steal tracks then sell them on without giving any money to the artists. But hopefully noone uses them. I would rather someone downloaded my tunes for free on bit torrents than line the pockets of those guys.

Anyway, i went to the album launch party last weekend and met Darren face to face. He’s a lovely chap and the party was cool (although i drunk too much rum, but nothing new there).

I’m happy that good quality soulful house still has a market. I thought that everything had gone electro now. Don’t get me wrong, i love electro but sometimes it can be a bit cold and soul-less. There’s something timeless and beautiful about a proper soulful deep house tune. Something that touches you deep inside rather than just something to dance to. I think that’s how house is supposed to sound, still very reminiscent of the early Chicago stuff just with more polished production. Fads and trends come and go but quality and style last forever.

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Released – 2nd May 2008

I’m really pleased with this tune. It’s less commercial than the others and has already received good support from a number of respected DJs. There are 2 mixes:-

Do it – Acid Mix
Do it – Bump Mix

The Acid mix is my favourite. Once again, i used the ‘bassline‘ plug from audiorealism to create the 303 sounds. Also, the microkorg extensively, to create a lot of the synth sounds as well as the vocoder. The beats are deliberately trashy in places, such as the snare fills, but also pretty tuff and as minimal as i could manage!

The following reactions have come in already:

ALTUS – Do It

Daniele ‘Black Box’ Davoli – 10/10 “been testing this tune for a while, and i can assure you it works the business, whatever remix you pick!”

Ian David Pickering – 9/10 “This rocks man I am sure this will have everybody rocking too.”

Jon Mancini – 8/10 good solid house track”

Jerry Bouthier – 7/10 “groovin & rollin thank u for sending”

Mike Pickering – 7/10 “like this will play it”

Russ Holborough – 7/10 “great groove”

Alan Tomlinson – 7/10 “Gonna work really well on the floor…”

Trent Cantrelle – 6/10 “i always love acid.. will give it a spin..”

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This tune came out on the 25th April 2008.

you can listen to it (and buy it!) here:

I wrote the vocals but this time handed the singing to a talented girl called Taneta This is a more commercial track but, hopefully, still credible. It sounds pretty fresh and has a classic house style piano hook on the original mix. The electro mix is more edgy with some rasping synth sounds created using Native Instruments – Massive. Definitely the plug of the moment for many dance tunes.

There’s 4 mixes:-
Original mix
Electro mix
Dub mix
Radio edit

It’s available through iTunes too. Just search for Altus and it will come up.

i also created an instrumental version of the original mix – this came too late to be included in the release, so I’m giving it away as a DJ promo. You can download it for free below:
Dreamin’ is reality – Instrumental

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The remix was much more banging. A couple of BPM faster and with much tuffer beats, this was aimed squarely at the dancefloor. I found a sample of some crazy voodoo type guy chanting some incomprehensible nonsense, so chopped it up and laid it over the beats – giving a slightly tribal and haunting quality to the intro. Then the big bassline comes in with the stab and sets up a nice rolling groove. A small section of my vocal from the original was used and filtered in from afar. Gradually coming into focus until the breakdown, where we get a little bit more of the vocal before we build up and drop back into the groove. A spacey, meandering keyboard solo on the Nord takes us along to the end of the track.

To go with the Vocal mix, i also made the Tuff 303 Dub. This one has absolutely no vocals in it and instead has a 303 part that I made using AudioRealism Bassline and chopped up and filtered to give it more feeling. I think that it works really well and keeps a nice acid vibe running through so you don’t miss the vocal at all.

These mixes were played out quite a bit by some credible DJs but we didn’t sell that
many records. However it was signed to two compilation albums:-

Ministry of Sound – Housexy Vol 2

Klubb House 2: Slip ‘n’ Slide Presents

Altus on Klubb House 2

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The two mixes:
Original Soulful mix
Funked up mix

both went down with DJs in the, then, very trendy soulful house scene.

Due to a lack of promotion and backing, this record seemed bound for obscurity, despite copious airplay on credible London pirates such as House FM.

A label in South Africa, called “What’s Phat” licensed the funked mix for inclusion on the album “Another down tempo – mixed by Glenn Lewis”. For someone used to listening to their records at the intended speed, this was an odd album, but i went with it as i thought it couldn’t hurt. “If they like it at the wrong speed, then great!”, i thought.

Boyd by this unexpected interest, i decided to get back into the studio and remix the track…

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Here, I will put up my tracks for review and discussion, as well as things like production tips, influences and anything related to house music.

Please be honest and let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Altus

Altus MySpace

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