New Artist Profile: Discover the Surprising Techno Style of Walter Wayne

NelsonG · June 1, 2020

Croatian techno artist Walter Wayne has just released Twisted, the EP follow-up to his breakout debut album Synchronize. Extraordinarily, the two releases were pretty much back-to-back, with Twisted dropping just a month after its LP forebear. With another single on the way this Friday, it’s fair to say Wayne stands to be one of those prodigal artists who are able to release tracks at a dizzying pace while keeping the quality extremely high. With techno like this, however, no one will be complaining about keeping up.

While his Synchronize LP was concentrated on melody and ambient sound design, almost bordering on progressive house, Wayne has decided to take Twisted, well, twisted. Taking his style in an altogether different, dark techno direction, Wayne uses a number of techniques to get the sound he wants. Taking cues from legends like Kraftwerk, modern deep techno artists like Monq and even artists from other genres like Camo & Krooked and Misanthrop, Twisted uses various synths and programs to create lots of unique sounds.

Case in point: EP opener “Crows” starts out with a classic techno melody before launching into and combining with some of Wayne’s now characteristic progressive sounds found on Synchronize but it also uses some very ravey dark synths layered over top of a rather minimal, snare-heavy beat. The same track also incorporates some subtle vapor wave synths that subtly tie the more techno-style melodies together. “Crows” is a great example of the layering and composition that takes a fun, ravey EDM track to another, more complex level.

Listening to such complicated composition, one might think Wayne has classical training but in fact his background is in engineering. Just as good for techno, really, and it also explains the layering and sound design that went into Twisted. Another highlight where we can see this sound engineering is in the EP’s penultimate track, “Line 172.” Here, the synths border on experimental as Wayne plays with sinewaves in almost every bit of the track.

He also does this soundwave play in “Through the Night,” which, on the high registers, seems like a literal experiment where Wayne tried to see how high he could pitch the oscillator before it became intolerable. It seems he his just the right level, as the track is still highly danceable, deep and fun all at the same time.

With his upcoming single “Robot Dreams” due out this Friday, Wayne seems to be going even deeper and darker, with heavy bass throughout the track and a sick and “twisted” break that should make most heavy D&B and bass music producers shake in their collective boots. If Walter Wayne has anything to say about it, deep and dark techno will be making a comeback shortly if not now, bringing both a depth and skill level that rivals some of the best sound designers in the game.

The Synchronize LP and Twisted EP are available to stream of purchase on Beatport, Spotify, Apple Music and GooglePlay. “Robot Dreams” drops Friday, June 5 on Wayne’s SuperPosition label and can be pre-ordered on Beatport.