Contributing WriterDiamond Haze is an electronic music project formed in Budapest by Gábor and Milán. Gábor is a seasoned bassist with a musical journey traces back to high school bands, while Milán is a vinyl aficionado whose eclectic collection and DJ sets span a range of genres from early trance to modern disco.
Diamond Haze’s unique sound is made up of a harmonious fusion of their distinct musical backgrounds and innovative perspectives, with two releases to date on their own Tapes Sublimating label.
With their latest EP Unstable Cloud Filter out now, here they share some of their biggest inspirations.
Milán
Levon Vincent – These Games
Levon’s music released between 2008 and 2015 is such a massive inspiration. I really love how this dubby minimalist sound can be so playful. BTW the new remixes getting released from him recently are in that vein again finally!
Joy Orbison – Ellipsis
I was thinking about it for a while, but I finally decided to start buying vinyl when this was released. It seems that was 11 years ago…
Blue Hour – Moments (Repro Remix)
Amazing sound design, banging, but also sooo uplifting. Losing my mind to this.
CJ Bolland – Camargue (Live At Universe)
A friend buys collections time to time for reselling and he invited over to check the recent additions. It was the classic case of putting the needle on somewhere to the middle of the track and in 10 seconds you know there is no escaping buying this one. It’s from ’93. Maybe sound design wise the current tracks are better, but in terms of its impact on you – it does not get any better. Hoping to reach such heights with our tracks too…
Untold – Sweat
For me this track is so cinematic, a complete scene is playing in my head every time I listen to the record. Not bad for a dubstep tune!
Gábor
The Prodigy – Their Law
I saw the prodigy for the first time in my early 20s at the Sziget festival. This particular song was played and it blasted off my head. I couldn’t believe this song was produced in 1994! The heavy guitar sound with that bouncy and aggressive break beat is a good example of how I transitioned from rock music to electronic. The Prodigy was kind of a turning point in my musical taste, I’m glad I got to love their work.
Black Sun Empire – Sandbag
I always said that if someone would ask me what drum and bass is, I would show them this track. This collaboration is not something that is among the most famous Black Sun Empire & State of Mind tracks, but it’s number one for me. Hard to tell why. It just fits my taste pretty well I guess! It was very inspiring and I even worked on similar demo tracks years ago thanks to this track.
Dub FX – Made
Since I own a BOSS GT10B, I had to put my favorite song from Dub FX to this early inspiration list. He really exploited the possibilities of that bass effects pedal, so it was a good idea to follow his footsteps and experiment with this piece of hardware. It turned out to be one of my best investments so far.
Nine Inch Nails – The Four of Us Are Dying
Nine Inch Nails fandom kicked in for me when I was 17 years old. I was a fanatic at that time – literally every work of Trent Reznor. I still think I had a good reason for liking their music so much. The sound design and song structures are incredible, and they definitely shaped my taste and how I put out melodies from my head, even though I don’t really do very similar music. This particular track is kind of a B side thing in their catalog, but for some reason, it really gets me with its very deep, pulsing and disturbing sound.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Power of Equality
Let’s jump back to a time when I was 15. I picked this song that explains why we use a bass in our music. The Red Hot Chili Peppers early energetic tone was something I truly loved at that time. I was motivated to be at least just half as good on the bass as Flea is. Needless to say I never reached his level, but I can handle the instrument well enough to incorporate it in our music.