Wednesday October 27, 2021
Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Mac Summer’s eclectic production style— ranging from soothing late-night trance to liquid drum and bass—has attracted worldwide interest.
With extensive production experience, including—as Malcolm Welsford— recording and producing three Shihad albums, fans and critics have compared Mac Summer’s art to The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Netsky and many other celebrated artists.
Big names indeed. Summer is certainly operating in a similar realm to those artists, using an array of electronic-based sub-styles to create a dark pop coated form of alternative dance. Despite producing for many artists, Web of Life is Mac Summer’s second single release following his 2020 offering Hands in Our Tills.
The new track combines a wealth of atmospherics with melancholic hooks and a self-assured vocal performance, as well as a heady conglomerate of rhythmic attributes. The track’s seductive intro teases with allusions to a guitar-like slash piano sound, but all is not what it might seem.
The mood is quickly redefined with the drum and bass core, confirming the song’s pulse. But there are many more surprises, not the least of which is a series of those soaring melodic lines but also synths, pads, and string additions—all creating a sophisticated yet quite stirring mix. The backdrop of multi-layered sound is a palette bursting with colour yet also with a sense of vitality, allowing the track to veer from a complex music amalgam of effective and sustained programming and multifaceted performance to developing into an electronica-based showcase of astute pop sensibilities.
The music seems to spur on the vocal and vice versa. But it is essentially the vocal that anchors these elements, providing a mostly seamless transition from one section to another, particularly after the second chorus, where a series of bridge sections takes the track to more exploratory moments. Web of Life will undoubtedly attract plays and streams, not only for its genre-bending style but for its ability to transpose these styles into a coherent, accessible slice of spirited electronica.
