A gem on the always-progressive Houndstooth roster, Throwing Snow's Mosaic was one of THUMP's favorite albums last year. The haunting, dancefloor-adjacent treatise on sullen aesthetics and propulsive beats was captivating from opening to closing notes."Mosaic was my first solo album, so it was a chance to combine all my influences and I decided I would have a no rules approach to it,' says Ross Tones, the brains behind the Throwing Snow operation. "As a result, it works as an album, but I wanted to get back to making people dance."That urge to get toes tapping has resulted in a slew of 2-track releases and a return to body music." The singles series is designed to be functional music built on a few strict rules," Tones explains. "I've learned a lot from playing live and watching the reaction of the crowd, so I tried to introduce this into the tracks without them becoming too formulaic."From Throwing Snow's latest, the "Glower/Clasp" release, we've got the premiere of the A-side, a 6:25 minute analog techno groover with arpeggiating synths washing over one another for the entirety. The double-meaning of the title exemplifies the Throwing Snow dichotomy - Is it in reference to a steely gaze or an object prone to emitting light?Either way, it's the kind of tune that would have Simian Mobile Disco salivating, and it was put together in a return to format (or formatting) for Tones. He explains the process: They are all built according to a set of rules and for a particular purpose. For instance I only wanted to use arps from the Jupiter 8, and designed them so that I could use the same melody but make them wax and wain by only changing a few parameters."All this moodiness begs the question: Is Ross Tones as dark as Throwing Snow's music? "I would definitely say not," he laughs. "I think my music is kind of a cathartic release of any frustrations and anger I have. That said dark, minor melodies actually make me feel really happy but these two things are probably linked. It's just like the fact that most metal fans are really chilled out people!"Throwing Snow is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter
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