Eagles & Butterflies dives into the rave head first with his latest EP, ‘Dopamine Vol. 02’. It continues the Dopamine series, a run of no-frills club-focused releases on his label, Art Imitating Life, a sonic story straight from his synth bunker in Lisbon.
Throughout Vol. 02, Chris serves up everything from synth pop, beaks to rave and beyond. It’s the second in his DIY Dopamine series, a place for the English-born, Lisbon-based producer to put out “music he loves” with no “fancy gimmicks”, delivering it directly “from his synths to our ears” in carefree fashion.
“Dopamine is a series on my label ‘Art Imitating Life’ that’s a channel for me to release anything I want,” says Eagles & Butterflies, “With the emphasis on ‘not everything needs to be a hit’ and ‘No fancy gimmicks or marketing, just music I love,’ this release is a bundle of vintage sonics featuring my favorite studio toys like the Korg M1, Roland TB-303, Roland RE-201 Space Echo, and the E-mu Orbit 9090, to name but a few.
The EP’s euphoric opener, ‘Higher’ is a 90s-esque trance-infused rave slammer. It sits in the same vein as the EP’s penultimate track, ‘Up All Night’, which doesn’t hold back, and is crammed with glistening atmospheric synths, breaks and a distorted vocal refrain, topped off with a flurry of hand-in-the-air piano stabs.
Chris, a hit-maker who creates “pop music for the dancefloor”, revisits June’s poppy single ‘Runaway’ with a punchier, breakbeat-infused ‘club mix’, while ‘Miss U’ adopts a percussive techno groove that descends deliciously into acid bassline chaos.
‘Portomento’ is a vintage Italo disco synth fest, similarly to ‘Lullaby 02’, a deep cut flexing a dreamy synth melody and a brooding vintage Italo disco drum machine-made beat. ‘Soul’ wades deep into warehouse rave territory, flashing a stunning arpeggiating synth melody, thrown together with bruising drum breaks.
Asides from the release of his hit track, ‘Runaway’, ‘Dopamine Vol. 02’ is the first Eagles & Butterflies release since April’s huge ‘I Need U’. Prior, fans were gifted with his dramatic remix of Isaie’s ‘Vice II’ and, of course, ‘Dopamine Vol. 01’, which features seven similarly raw, club-ready vintage jams.
Eagles & Butterflies’ Dopamine series is shaping up to be a game changing run of releases for the producer. The eight carefree tracks on ‘Dopamine Vol. 02’ are the sign of a prolific and varied producer that cannot be pigeonholed. Constantly evolving, this humble but exquisite talent is busy making memorable moments on and off dancefloors.
Listen to the tracks below.
