Selections: Lakeway

Lakeway’s debut album ‘I’ve Missed The Sun’ arrived via 1 More Thing last month, seven years after he first began work on it, and three years after all the music was finished. Yet it still sounds like the future. A synapse-popping ride through the Exeter, UK producer’s wild sonic world, it coalesces concepts that have emerged throughout a decade of releases across labels like Diffrent Music and SweetBox, Med School, and Unchained Asia. 

His frantic grime-infused drum & bass, penchant for bubbling cinematic synthscapes, appreciation for the sparkly, high-energy sounds of hyperpop and much more are fused together like never before. Take the hollow square-wave synth tones that are synonymous with grime (and Lakeway for that matter); here they cast a neon glow on opener ‘The Beginning’, the title track, and ‘Shotgun’, yet the former skips from ambient to turbo, ‘I’ve Missed The Sun’ is a cornucopia of glossy arpeggios and ravey stabs, and the latter could almost be a lost Prodigy track, with its grinding guitar riff, 10-tonne breakbeat and sweeping acid line.

Speaking of the Braintree trio, the early days of British dance music were indeed an influence on the project; Lakeway has previously cited Orbital and A Guy Called Gerald as particular inspirations. “That stuff really came through when there was a massive heat wave during one of the lockdowns. I’m still not sure if it was a case of chance or if that style of music resonated with me more because of the outside conditions,” he explains. “It was a mix of the heat and a longing to be somewhere completely different to your bedroom. That sort of environmental influence is always going to come through in one way or another, it was more of a mindset than any desire to make a particular type of music.

“A lot of imagery that stuff gave me is a rave at night in a place just as hot, yet with a far nicer sea breeze than sunny, stuffy old Devon. I wanted to bring across a similar imagery when making the album, and applying some of those influences made complete sense within the context.”

That “mindset” comes through in a sense of timelessness, and grandeur without pomp. Like on ‘NSE&W’, where sludgy 4/4 garage, MC snippets and emotional chords capture the vibe of classic rave anthems. Or ‘Let Me Go’, with its old-school piano lick and slamming techno beat. Or ‘Alone Again’, featuring Becca Jane Grey, which has more than a hint of Orbital in its jittery opening — before switching, in typically unpredictable Lakeway style, to something like an industrial ballad.

Then there’s the ‘Harlem Shake’-esque brass brashness of ‘My Mistakes’, the foghorn-laden d&b of ‘Limelight Junkie’, and glistening vocal cut ‘Under the Lights’, which feels one friendly algorithm away from being a TikTok anthem. Most individual tracks are packed with enough ideas for a full EP, but they’re intertwined in a way that doesn’t feel (too) overwhelming, and ensures anything but a dull listen.

So why did it take so long to release? The list of reasons is extensive, beginning with the closure of Med School, ending with Diffrent Music going on hiatus, and including numerous medical issues along the way, such as unexplained seizures and being poisoned his own prescription medication. It’s been a “long and somewhat rocky road,” Lakeway understates, but now it’s finally arrived via the young label from music journalist Dave Jenkins. And following a return to education, Lakeway is in a much better place. “It’s a weird feeling when you are finally allowed to move forward, but it’s also the best feeling,” he tells DJ Mag. “I think after a certain point an inability to focus on the positives can be incredibly harmful, so I might as well just see what happens. Good or bad, I’m sure it will at least not be boring!”

Looking to the future, he hopes to “push myself out of my comfort zone a bit more, perhaps work with artists in more of a song-writing capacity as well as a beat-maker”, adding, “Essentially, if it’s new and exciting, I’m here for it!”

To celebrate the launch of ‘I’ve Missed The Sun’, out now via 1 More Thing, Lakeway spotlights jungle gems, wavy grime, hyperpop heaters and plenty more besides. Dive in below.