Alex Tronic

Last updated

Alex Tronic
Origin Edinburgh, Scotland
Genres Electronica
Years active2000 to present
Labels Alex Tronic Records
MembersPaul Croan
Website Alex Tronic Homepage

Alex Tronic is Scottish electronic musician, award winning DJ, producer and label owner Paul Croan, who is based in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Croan works from his private recording studio also based in Edinburgh. MusicTech magazine describe the studio as a "Vintage Synth treasure trove. His debut album To Infinity was championed by Radio 1 and the track "Chiller" made iTunes top 20. The track "Smoke a Kipper" made number 17 in the top 100 Scottish songs of 2023 published by the Scottish Herald newspaper.The single "The Strangest Times" was championed by Guy Monnington on Amazing Radio who included the track in his `Against the grain playlist` The video for the track was shortlisted for video of the year by The Weekender magazine.

Contents

Alex Tronic's single "A Voice for the Silent" features the words of Australian philanthropist and animal rights activist Philip Wollen. Tronic has also had success with "Feels Like Falling", his second collaboration with Scots chanteuse Shuna Lovelle. The EP peaked at number 1 in iTunes Lounge charts in February 2018. The single has been heavily rotated on the influential radio station Chill FM. The previous single "Brave About It" released in July 2017 also made number 1 on the iTunes lounge charts.

This EP was a follow-up to the critically acclaimed CD Nature Flow which was presented as Alex Tronic V Leith Bass Team. Nature Flow has received millions of hits on the streaming service Spotify. Alex Tronic debuted on vinyl with a record entitled Mind Matters/Obsessional, which was released by Peyote Records. According to Is this music? magazine, he has mastered the "rare trick of blending familiarity with innovation" [1] within his unique style of electronica and dance music.

Alex Tronic's debut album To Infinity was released on his own eponymous label Alex Tronic Records in 2009. The "Back in the Room EP" release followed in 2010, and Shifting Sands album was released in 2011.

Electricals EP by Alex Tronic (2012) features vocalist Kirsty Brown and also includes remixes by ATR artist Snakestyle. The ideas and recordings for the EP began during Summer 2011, when Croan relocated to Ibiza to DJ and record. The EP was completed in Edinburgh during winter 2011/12.

Alex Tronic and Becki Bardot's Balearica sessions EP features vocals from Sally Stapleton and was also released in 2012. In March 2014, Alex Tronic introduced a new project for more chilled work called Leith Bass Team which debuts a track "Magical Float". This work appears in March 2014 on Goa Beach Vol. 23. Here Alex Tronic collaborates with YSE Records on Goa Beach Vol. 23 a powerful, double CD edition packed with the finest Goa Trance and 12 finest Lounge Music Productions. The Double CD is compiled by DJ Bim and Alex Tronic (Alex Tronic Records).

Recent projects include compiling Goa Beach volumes 25/27 for Yellow Sunshine explosion Records with DJ Bim (Germany) Double CDs one side trance, one side chill, formats. They were released in April 2015.

In March 2016, Alex Tronic contributed two tracks, "Lubdub" and "Sunshine Lover" (Slow Groove edit) to Goa Beach Volume 28, distributed by Edel Kontor.

Live performances

Alex Tronic's live set-up includes the use of keyboards, samplers, effects, and a laptop. Members of ÅsA, Keser and Metaltech have occasionally performed live alongside Croan as Alex Tronic Band.

Festival appearances

Radio sessions

02/10/2012

Discography

Singles

Studio albums

Compilation Albums

Music industry work

Croan occasionally speaks at Music Industry seminars and has been involved as an industry expert on panels for PRS for Music. The event "Make it Happen" in Inverness featured a wide and knowledgeable variety of speakers, including Mercury Records A&R David O'Hagan, PRS for Music’s Jules Parker and Stuart Fleming, and solicitor Helen Searle. [2]

He has also been a panelist at the Edinburgh-based Music Industry night Born To be Wide which is held monthly at Electric Circus. Here he spoke alongside Owen Morris, (Oasis, The Verve), John McLaughlin and Francis Macdonald. The seminar entitled "The Producers" was aimed at giving insight into what it takes to be a music producer in an ever-changing industry. [3]

Recording studio and label

Croan's own Recording studio Alex Tronic Records Recording studio and Alex Tronic Records label are based at Hillside Crescent in Edinburgh. He relocated temporarily to run the label, record and perform live in Ibiza in summer 2011.

Related Research Articles

Psychedelic trance, psytrance, or psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, darkpsy, forest, minimal (Zenonesque), hitech psy, progressive, suomi, psy-chill, psycore, psybient, psybreaks, or "adapted" tracks from other music genres. Goa trance preceded psytrance; when digital media became more commonly used psytrance evolved. Goa continues to develop alongside the other genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Proclaimers</span> Scottish musical group

The Proclaimers are a Scottish rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid. They came to attention with their 1987 single "Letter from America", which reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and the 1988 single "I'm Gonna Be ", which topped charts in Australia, Iceland and New Zealand. The duo's biggest album, Sunshine on Leith (1988) has been certified multi-Platinum in Australia and Canada, selling over 2 million copies worldwide, including around 700,000 in the United States. The Proclaimers have sold over 5 million albums worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth (musician)</span> English record producer and musician

Martin Glover, better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Paul McCartney.

Koxbox is a Danish musical group formed in 1990 that produced psychedelic trance. It consisted of Peter Candy and Frank É Madsen. Ian Ion, their studio producer, is also sometimes mentioned as part of the group.

Spirit Zone Recordings was an independent record label releasing Goa trance, psychedelic trance, progressive trance and ambient music. Founded in 1994 by Wolfgang Ahrens, the label has been defunct since July 2005.

Martin Freeland is a British psytrance artist, record producer and DJ, who has performed under the pseudonym of Man With No Name since 1990. He is best known for the singles "Teleport" and "Floor-Essence", both of which appeared in the UK Singles Chart.

<i>The Goa Mix</i> 1994 remix album (DJ mix) by Paul Oakenfold

The Goa Mix is a two-hour DJ mix by British musician and DJ Paul Oakenfold. It was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 1 as an Essential Mix on 18 December 1994 after the producer of the show, Eddie Gordon, chose Oakenfold to produce an eclectic DJ mix for the show which featured a burgeoning variation of electronic styles, having begun the previous year. Oakenfold had, at this point, developed his own unique Goa trance sound, influenced by his time at hippy gatherings on beaches in Goa, and employed it heavily into the mix, which also made pioneering use of film score samples. Oakenfold used the mix as an experiment in which he tried to fuse electronic music, especially trance music, with film score music, and then to overlay the result with vocal parts, samples and additional production. The mix was split into two parts, later referred to as the Silver Mix and the Gold Mix respectively. Reflecting the Goa influence, the album title did not evolve beyond its simplistic working name.

Nicholas Barber, better known by the stage name Doof, is best known as a British, London-based psychedelic trance musician.

<i>Perfecto Presents: Another World</i> 2000 remix album by Paul Oakenfold

Perfecto Presents: Another World is the twelfth DJ mix album by British electronic music producer Paul Oakenfold, released in 2000. It is the second instalment in his Perfecto Presents series, a series of DJ mix albums themed around Oakenfold's label Perfecto Records. The album employs Oakenfold's progressive trance sound and sees a return to the Goa trance sound he had helped popularise with Goa Mix (1994) and Perfecto Fluoro (1996). Similar to those albums, it also features a more eclectic array of music genres, featuring music from film soundtracks, the ethereal wave band Dead Can Dance and a remix of a Led Zeppelin song. Although the album received mixed reviews from critics, at the time of release, it became the biggest-selling DJ mix album in the United States, where it reached the Top 50 of the Top Electronic Albums chart.

<i>Sunshine on Leith</i> (album) 1988 studio album by The Proclaimers

Sunshine on Leith is the second studio album by Scottish folk rock duo The Proclaimers, released in August 1988 through Chrysalis Records. The record spawned four singles: "I'm Gonna Be ", which topped charts in Australia, New Zealand and Iceland; "Sunshine on Leith", a ballad that has become an anthem for Scottish football club Hibernian F.C.; the No. 3 Australian hit "I'm on My Way"; and the Australian-exclusive "Then I Met You". The non-single "Cap in Hand" also came to prominence in 2014 with the Scottish Independence referendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keser</span> Musical artist

Keser are a Scottish band from Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland. Keser are signed to UK indie label Alex Tronic Records, and have released three albums to date, Esoteric Escape, Robo Ghost and Audeamus. The first two albums were recorded at the Alex Tronic Records studio, with label manager and record producer Paul Croan, who also releases music as artist Alex Tronic. Audeamus was recorded at Keser's studio in Glasgow, Hidden Channel.

Alex Tronic Records (ATR) is a record label based in Scotland who primarily release electronic music. Their current artists include Alex Tronic, ÅsA, Becki Bardot, Keser, Pockets of Resistance, Binary Zero, Iain Carnegie, Marvin Wilson, Matthew Leigh Embleton, Minnie Rogers, Neu Gestalt, The Psychedelic Manifesto, Roys Iron DNA, 30K, Integra TV, Forward Play, Metaltech, Pixlface, Melvitronica and Fiolent V.

<i>Esoteric Escape</i> 2006 studio album by Keser

Esoteric Escape is the debut studio album by Scottish rock and Electronic music band Keser.

Roys Iron DNA are a Scottish indie electronic music band, based in the Scottish Borders, North Northumberland and Edinburgh. The band's name, Roys Iron DNA, is a tribute to lead songwriter Ian Thompson's grandfather, Roy S. Thompson, former Sheriff of Berwick upon Tweed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATMA (electronic musician)</span> Musical artist

Andrei Oliver Braşovean aka ATMA is a Romanian composer, performer and electronic music producer.

<i>Robo Ghost</i> 2009 studio album by Keser

Robo Ghost is the second studio album by Scottish rock and electronic music band Keser.

SynSUN is a Ukrainian psytrance group consisting of Andrey Vakhnenko and Vitaly Samolyga, known as Andi Vax and Willy, respectively. Since their inception in 1998, SynSUN has released 5 albums, 5 EPs, and 30 miscellaneous tracks, including remixes and collaborations with Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Skazi, Yahel, Talamasca, Eskimo and Vibe Tribe, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaltech (band)</span> Scottish band

Metaltech are a three piece Scottish metal/techno/rock/industrial dance music band from Edinburgh. They consist of Erik Tricity performing vocals, rhythm guitar, programming and production, Lord Thrapston Flagellator, pronounced fla-jella-tor playing bass guitar and the Insidious Doktor Mayhem providing lead guitar and pyrotechnics.

Perfect Stranger is the stage name of Yuli Fershtat, an Israeli musician, producer and DJ, born in 1970 in Moscow, Russia, moving to Israel at the age of 11.

The following is the discography of DJ Umek, including albums and singles.

References

  1. ↑ "Is This Music? Magazine, Alex Tronic - To Infinity Review".
  2. ↑ "Music Week info on PRS for Music Inverness event".
  3. ↑ "Music Week info on Born to be Wide "The Producers" event".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.