PRAN8's ‘Off The Leash’ Has No Time for the Algorithm

Imagine spending your nights listening to Berlin basement sets from a room in Jharkhand, trying to work out how those sounds are made. No club down the road, no studio full of equipment, just YouTube, a laptop and a lot of trial and error. That's how PRAN8 found his way into techno. During lockdown, he began experimenting with music without even knowing what a kick or a 303 was. His early tracks sounded terrible, he admits, but there was always that one loop he wanted to get right. That one groove that made him nod. And he'd keep at it until he found it.

A few years and countless experiments later, the 28-year-old producer from Jamshedpur has released ‘Off The Leash’, a track that takes its cues from underground acid culture. The ingredients are fairly straightforward: a rolling bassline, snarling acid lines and drums that keep pushing forward. No enormous drops, no sudden tricks to grab attention. Made on his laptop in just two days, with PRAN8 also creating the artwork, the track keeps things deliberately stripped back and unpolished. His influences include Deborah De Luca, Sama' Abdulhadi and I Hate Models, but the intention here is less about recreating someone else's sound and more about finding his own place on the dancefloor.

There's a rather personal story behind the title, too. ‘Off The Leash’ is about letting go, but PRAN8 reveals that it also refers to a controlling, manipulative woman who finally left his life. So there's a little more to the title than just a dancefloor instruction. Sometimes getting something out of your system calls for a different kind of release. In this case, it came with a bassline.

That attitude carries into what he wants to make next. PRAN8 isn't particularly interested in spending his time guessing what an algorithm might reward or shaping tracks around the latest online trends. He wants to make music for people who actually listen, turn up and dance. People who stay for the groove rather than wait for a drop. He started out in his room trying to recreate sounds from halfway across the world. With ‘Off The Leash’, he's making his own contribution to that conversation. And he isn't asking the algorithm for permission.