- Project
- BALIMORE
- Written & produced by
- Steven Ran Cohen
- Catalogue
- 37 releases
- Tempo range
- 118 – 150 BPM
What the project actually is
Nine styles sounds like a lack of focus until you look at where they sit on a tempo map. Afro and Latin techno at 118–126, melodic techno at 124–130, tech house at 124–128, hypnotic techno at 132–136, peak-time at 138–142, psytrance at 138–145, acid at 142–148, hard groove at 145–150, and dark ambient with no pulse at all. Laid out that way it is not nine unrelated genres — it is one continuous range with the same hand on it, covering a full night from the first hour to the last.
That is the organising idea behind the catalogue, and it is why the site is arranged by tempo rather than by release date. A listener looking for something specific is almost always looking for a tempo and a mood, not a chronology.
Written, produced and mixed by one person
In most electronic releases those are three roles and often three people. Here they are one, which shows up in the records in a particular way: the arrangement and the mix are decided together rather than in sequence. A pad that would need carving out in the mix simply does not get written that wide; a kick that would fight a bassline gets its decay shortened at the point it is programmed. The result is a catalogue that is unusually consistent in weight from record to record, because nothing was handed off.
Steven Ran Cohen also records deep outlaw country as Richard Dall — a separate project with a separate identity, deliberately kept apart from this one.
Where to start
It depends what you want the music to do. For working or driving, the melodic end at 124–130 BPM is the right entry point; for a floor, 138–142. If you would rather hear the range than read about it, the long mixes cover the most ground in one sitting, and the video clips are fifteen seconds each if you want the shortest possible sample. The whole catalogue is at all 37 releases, sorted by tempo band, and the BPM guide is the map of how the bands relate.
Common questions about tempo and genre are answered directly on the questions page.
Contact
Bookings, sync, licensing and press: booking@bali-more.com.