About a month ago, a video started floating around the Web for "Heart Throb," a track by M3SA. It features two dancing, anthropomorphic KRK Rokit monitors, a demented doctor played by Tesh Cwalino and a young girl, Sallie Bowen, succumbing to vapors of love for the physician.
It's a video that's quintessentially Denton, from the cast and crew to the city's Downtown Square on display in the background, and it plays in contrast with the juke-influenced track. Denton is not necessarily known for an abundance of footwork producers.
Since then, the video has made its way onto a handful of blogs, most notably national site Good Music All Day, and has gotten the man behind M3SA, DJ/producer Andrew Barton, some local and national attention.
"Ever since I got into the whole London scene, I've been stuck on that, like, future bass, future garage, juke," Barton says. "But I see myself as more of an individual just kind of creating and building on top of that."
Barton also cites deep house and post-dubstep as influences, but says he's not as concerned with genres, instead focusing on pleasant, danceable sounds.
"Basically what I'm trying to do is get dance music that's not overly aggressive — some minimal, sexier tracks," Barton says. "I'm trying to get good electronic music in Denton because I'm kind of sick of what I've been hearing for the past years."
Working closely with fellow DJ/producer Bryce Isbell, Barton says a scene of musicians who feel the same way is emerging.
"We're bringing something new, and I think people are really digging it because they're used to going to the club and always hearing the hits or hearing tracks a million times," he says.
"Heart Throb" is the only single he's released thus far, but Barton is working on an LP he says should be finished by summer. He'll then take it to a professional studio to do all the post-production, such as mixing his virtual software synth sounds with analog components such as compressors, mixers and pedals.
"I'm a fan of mixing digital and analog together," he says. "You get the best of both worlds."
As for why he's debuting with an LP rather than a less intimidating EP or split?
"I'm really big on concept albums — even with my mixes I spend a lot of time making them because I like projects to flow together."
