Features : Teenage producer Zulcan comes dancing into the house with new single “Awaken”

“Awaken” is the 10th track released this year — and in his career to date — by Bangladeshi electronic house producer Zulcan.

“Awaken” is 3 minues, 59 seconds of haunting melodies and the pounding drum rhythms of house.

“It is one of my first ventures into the rave/techno world of music,” he said, “and I will continue to get better with time.”

That last part is the 14-year-old talking instead of the artist. With this track, the artist has created a fascinating listen that does what techno dance/house/rave/garage music — whatever you want to call it — is supposed to do, which is to get pulses pounding and feet moving.

Zulcan was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but now lives in Singapore. “Awaken” and another of his first 10 releases share a South Asian vibe mixed in the techno.

He said that he does not generally begin making a song intending to do certain things with the sound. Instead, he makes “whatever I feel like making.” Sometimes this means that certain songs share a sonic quality, like the chanting voices and sustained, ethereal string tones in “Awaken,” “Up” and “The Psychedelic Surfer.”

The four tracks of his EP Rise all begin with piano notes and progress into techno beats and melodies that develop those themes.

“Other times,” he said, “I experiment with new sounds, like with some of the stuff that I will be releasing soon.”

Zulcan started producing a couple of years ago, working with rap, trap and hip-hop beats, which he put on YouTube as types. He eventually realized that he wanted “to do something different that could stand on its own.”

He was already experimenting with garage, having been introduced to electronic music by his oldest brother through artists like Fred Again and the group Mandragora.

His own musical tastes also include people like Kanye West and Radiohead.

“I consider every artist or song I have ever listened to as having an influence on my music.” 

But inspiration began with Fred Again and Mandragora. He started making his own electronic music and putting it on YouTube, where it can still be found, he said. The “next step” came earlier this year, when he put his first track, “Nights,” on streaming platforms.

“Nights” has a dreamy, acoustic feel in the intro, moving gradually into the synth instrumentation and keeping the dance aspects very low key.

“Awaken,” as a word instead of song title, could apply to the development of Zulcan’s music since “Nights.” He brings in a lot of elements, from the melodic components that swim through your head from ear to ear — left to right, right to left and back again — the variety of instrumentation, the alternating melodies and dance beats.

Among his output so far is one EP, the four-track Rise, and he is working on another.

“I definitely want to play a part in bringing techno and house music into the forefront of mainstream music — and become a household name in the process,” he said.

As previously noted, Zulcan is a 14-year-old who sometimes talks like one, like when he says, “I know my skills need improving before I can fully develop a ‘style,’ and I am willing to dedicate the time and work to making that happen.”

But the 14-year-old is not evident in the music he has released to date, and getting to know his “style,” as he develops it, will provide its own musical rewards for the listener.

Stay connected to Zulcan as he grows on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Single, “Awaken”
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