Listen To Auckland Producer Totems' New Self-Titled Album

Auckland electronic producer Totems (Reuben Winter) has been teasing us with a solid run of recent singles and has now finally dropped his latest self-titled album. The new record highlights Winter’s talent for hard-hitting and inventive production, with some tracks recalling the early nineties heyday of breakbeat-oriented UK ‘ardcore dance. A prolific artist, Winter can also be caught performing live with his punk-pop band milk and in local groups PHF, ROIDZ and Caroles. On top of all this he’s been playing as a solo ambient artist, you can hear some elements of his experimental work creep in to the new Totems album. Winter shared some thoughts with UTR on the challenges he faced making the self-titled record…

“The album has been in the works since late 2015 but was one of the things I had more to the side while working on PHF, David Adison, ROIDZ and the 3 milk releases. Once that stuff was out I started focusing on the Totems stuff I had accumulated, but I was (still am haha) working on some newer ROIDZ and milk stuff so it took a lot longer than expected cos Im super picky, unfocused and am often stopped by the fatigue and pain I experience from fibromyalgia. Eventually it got to the point where I was really unsure of what I'd made because a lot of it was kinda different and I'd listened to it so many times, but after running it past a few people I really trust they convinced me that it was worth pursuing. Luckily I managed to get some time at Red Bull Studio in Auckland to mix and master, thanks to Dan Woolston.

I think it's also been very much informed by the ambient hardware stuff I've been performing this year and by more experimental music generally?”

You can catch Totems live this Thursday 26th October at Dosing Presents... Too Lit, Too Furious: Auckland Drift at Auckland’s Whammy Backroom.