Montreal-Based Turbine’s New Single “Reality” Invents a New Universe Through Turntablism and Bass
“Reality,” the newest single from Montreal-based trio Turbine, alters the perception of the tangible human dimension as we know it.
“When we started working on the ‘Reality’ track, we were looking for a track that would close our show and reach a sort of climax with a peak of intensity,” the trio reflected.
Through advanced scratching techniques and fueled bass builds, the trio invents a new liquid reality, complete with a vocalist interspersing “reality” throughout the two-and-a-half-minute run time. Turbine’s passion lies within the scope of turntablism and saturated beats. While they don’t categorize themselves as DJs, instead a band that thrives during live performances, they do acknowledge their innate ability to create a new world through scratching and spinning.
All group members – Benjamin Bongert, Tony Ragon, and Nicolas Rame – are from France but now live in Montreal, where they meet and master their world-building sound. Turbine strives to achieve a peak experience beyond bass music through each live track they play. Yet, even without experiencing “Reality” live, the hard drum and bass track teleports listeners to a third dimension awash in Ben, Tony, and Nico’s talents.
According to Turbine, each track undergoes extensive pre-production questioning. “Every time we produce a song, we ask ourselves a lot of questions about how we’re going to play it as a turntablist, where it’s going to fit in the set? Which sound will have the most impact? Which one will give the most scenic dimension?” they said.
For “Reality,” the group claimed, “We chose crunchy, Neurofunk-inspired tracks with fast attacks for more dynamism and short but catchy vocals.” Drum and bass rhythms with a split snare underlay the track, calling attention to original drum and bass enthusiasts.
“Once the track is over, we reverse engineer. We explode the track in tens of micro samples that we dispatch between us to play it with the turntables,” Turbine continues.
From the opening sequence, the listener transports into an extraordinary universe only achieved with Turbine’s help. “Reality isn’t real. What you see is what you get,” they said.
The turntable crescendos and fizzles into an explosive bass beat drop that explodes into a powerful drum and bass loop with scratching and synth percussion techniques that melt the brain and make any newcomer yearn to attend a Turbine show. Throughout the track, the same vocals introducing the listener to the universe mutter reality, assuring the listener they realize the greatness they’re witnessing.
Listen to “Reality” below and learn more about Turbine via our mini-interview.
Care to introduce yourself?
We are Turbine, a turntablism-based band from Montreal.
The three of us were born and raised in France & subsequently met in Montreal. We all share the passion of turntablism and saturated beats, so we naturally decided to unite what we love in a common project. Our tracks vary from basshouse to Drum&bass, but our influences come from many other genres. Obviously, hip-hop was a huge influence and that’s how we bonded. We had some scratch sessions in Montreal & then decided to make a musical project that goes beyond traditional hip-hop and focuses on live performance.
Nico has a pretty solid scenic background as a DJ, he is also a former label owner, amongst other endeavors.
Ben and Tony are sound designers and also produced Bass Music in a former project called We are Leopard.
Basically, we produce Bass Music oriented tracks. For the moment, some can be listened to via traditional music platforms. Another goal is to create a live set made of homemade production, turntables manipulation, and hard-banging beats. We truly want to bring a scenic dimension to scratch and electronic music.
Tell us about the process of writing “Reality?”
After releasing our previous title “MindControl”, Ben started a new composition in his home studio. The first time we heard the idea, he had already introduced the catchy vocals at the beginning. It really made sense at the time, because the song already seemed like a continuation of the previous one. That older one felt like an AI controlling the dancefloor while giving instructions to the listeners, as though “it” could manipulate them like puppets. What we needed was an intense track that had to reach a climax in our live set.
So, early in the process, we had a very precise vision of what the song should sound like. This first sentence already pushed the idea of “re-grounding” the listeners, meaning you want to bring them back from a form of unconsciousness, a sort of nightmare. We created a song that brings you back to the real world, one which sounds like life is always going too fast, hard to catch up, and could sometimes be a little harsh.
Then we spent a few sessions in the studio to create the structure, tweak synths and knobs, program heavy basses that sounded like barking dogs, and sound-design the whole project. And voilà! So that concludes the first part when we produce a track, pretty much like every other producer.
Then we enter into the second part of the process. We have a very specific workflow, as the goal is to be able to play the song using turntables. During this part we need to reverse-engineer the whole song: select specific parts or samples, edit, export, map audio on the turntables, and practice for hours. It has to flow perfectly and needs to be synchronized like choreography. It is quite tricky and challenging but also very important in the process.
What’s it like being musicians and DJs in Montreal?
The Montreal music scene is spontaneous, creative, and dynamic. The city is very cosmopolitan, which brings a rich musical diversity.
Most people heard of Montreal’s mainstream music festivals, but the core of the music scene is in its underground aspect.
The Montreal hip-hop scene is also very different from anywhere in the world. With the ability to mix English and French Canadian lyrics in the same songs, rappers around here have a whole lot of possibilities, and they use them perfectly. Add Montreal’s slang to the mix and you get a pretty wide range of vocabulary to play with.
The electronic scene is constantly evolving. The Drum and bass scene is a very good example of this, with the Drum & Bass Collider events, Source Montréal… There are also more and more underground festivals that host a good amount of artists and creative performances.
Even a “division” as small and nerdy as scratch music has its own scene, the Montreal Scratch Scene. Once a month, DJs come together accompanied by live musicians to jam together and discuss.
It is a great place to develop our musical project, which sits in between two musical worlds. This allows us to keep our minds very open, talk with very different types of artists and learn from hip-hop enthusiasts as well as electronic music lovers at the same time.
Who was the first Canadian artist to blow you away?
Nico: Probably A-Trak. I remember watching his DMC world champion routine, he was the youngest world champion at this time. Even if he’s not a battle DJ anymore, he still puts some scratch in his electro set.
The Montreal Ninja Tune’s era was also a milestone. Amon Tobin (even if he’s Brazilian) and Kid Koala were around and it puts Montreal on the map.
Tony: I agree. I don’t remember in which order it happened, but it must be Kid Koala or A-Trak.
You’ve been making music for a while now, what’s one piece of advice you can offer to those starting out?
Experiment, try stuff! It’s way easier to find what you want to create once you find out what you don’t. It narrows the whole process. The past years of knob tweaking really helped us to find our sound quicker.
Most importantly, if we had to choose one piece of advice, it’s most probably “never give up and be patient”. We had a lot of musical projects in the past, and the most creative and challenging is this one. Turbine is a new page in our book, and it’s only the beginning of the story.
Connect with Turbine:
Bandcamp