Bongomann is easily one of Singapore’s most prolific DJs. As a member of Ice Cream Sundays, a co-founder of Super Enjoy, and representative of Offtrack - he’s graced the stages of prestigious venues and festivals in the country and around the world. From the Philippines’ Nokal to Indonesia’s Klymax Discotheque, to Thailand’s Wonderfruit and Hong Kong’s Shi Fu Miz, to a Boiler Room showcase, Bongomann has been there and done that.
Yet, his prominence as a selector may cause people to overlook his significant talent as a producer. Past releases such as Wake Up / Kick On on BOTANIC RECORDS and Lounge Zero on Darker Than Wax have been exceptionally tasteful - ranging from cerebral chillout seshes to experimental forward-thinking cuts. His latest EP, released on his own Super Enjoy imprint, is called Fogworx, and it features some of his best work thus far.
Going from Melbourne-inspired psy, to ambient and dub leanings, to emotive house and breaks - this four-track wonder showcases Bongomann’s versatility and exploratory sensibilities. Inspired by “the magic that high density smoke machine liquid can bring to a night”, “where no one can see and everyone is fully in the sound”, Fogworx is locked into delivering hazy bliss. We spoke to the (lightly) seasoned producer to learn more about his latest effort.
'Unconcerned'
This track was actually kinda inspired by Dexter Colt’s productions! Man’s found a solid groove in recent years and has developed a sound that’s distinctly his. I wanted to have a go at making a track that gave me that driving feeling too. This one turned out to be a real hazy, head down kinda track that works in the early hours of a club night. Lots of dubby echoes from the percussions and chords that swim around the stereo field thanks to LFOs modulating reverb & echo sends, and Ableton’s auto panner on the echo return channel. Spent a bit of time mixing this one, using dub techniques like sending the echo into itself and what not. Fun to work on and listen to with headphones and on monitors when you get that balance right. Was a pretty recent finish so I suppose it’s a nice way to start this EP!
'High Density'
This one was born earlier this year. There was a short bit from my live set that kinda stuck out to me and I wanted to flesh it out into a full track. (You can listen to that live set in the second half of this radio show.) This track’s kinda minimal but I’ve been testing it out, playing it at different gigs throughout the year, mixing it with different kinds of tracks and taking mental notes each time. I never felt that it was fully done until I embraced the tooly nature of this track. It mixes quite easily with a range of tunes and plays quite well at different tempos, so I’m pretty happy with how DJ friendly it is and finally decided to stop messing with it. Mix it with breakbeat, 4-to-the floor, steppy bass stuff, whatever you like!
'Fogworx'
Title track is clearly dedicated to the fog. For a DJ who plays a lot of house music, I haven’t really made that much straight up house so this was an attempt at that. I actually started this track ages ago but never finished it. It had a completely different groove and bassline but I got rid of those and started reworking those chords and added some noise to them so they remind u a bit of smoke machines. This one was more Ableton than my Elektron gear, but I'm kinda happy with how DJ friendly this one ended up being. I think I’m learning a lot more about arrangement by DJing so much and listening to tracks differently.
'No Worry'
So this track was the only one that I set out making specifically with this EP in mind. I was already done with the other three, but I needed a closer for the EP. The intention here was to lean a bit more ambient since the rest are so dance floor focused. Still very DJ friendly but definitely also good for a headphones listen or solo enjoy. Made this one pretty quickly, kinda late at night when my housemates were either winding down or going to bed, so it’s got a quieter, more assured mood I guess. You can hear my Space Echo pedal on this one (it lived at Offtrack for a long while but I’m sorry DJs, I had to take it back cause I missed it). There’s also a sample on this track that I recorded with my phone with the "uwu bird" sound, that also was in my Lounge Zero EP for Darker Than Wax on the starting track ‘Enter’, and also some vocal chops I used on that EP, as well on the track ‘Settle’. Fun Easter eggs? Or just lazy? I don't know, but I think they worked for this track too. (Laughs)
