The Catabolic new release June 2 is an uplifting disco house track with summer energy, deep house touches, and a much longer history than most.
In one form or another, the track has been around for about 14 years. It started with a set of chords I kept coming back to. Something unresolved, hopeful, and a little bittersweet.
Over time, that feeling became the heart of the song: holding on to something meaningful, even when things have changed.
Musically, it leans into disco house, while still crossing over a little into the deeper house sound I naturally gravitate towards. The chorus opens up around the line:
“Hold on to the moment…”
For a long time, the track didn’t quite feel finished. Then the right singer came along, and it finally started to come alive.
The new Catabolic release is out June 2. You can follow Catabolic on Spotify here to catch it when it lands:
The E-mu SP-1200 and its predecessor the SP-12 didn’t just help create great tracks — they defined entire genres. The SP-1200’s 12-bit sampling and unmistakable lo-fi warmth became foundational to hip hop in the late 1980s, with producers like Pete Rock, Large Professor, and DJ Premier using it as their primary drum machine and sampler. At the same time, Chicago and New York house music producers were running the same hardware to build the gritty, textured rhythms that drove early house tracks. The SP-12/SP-1200 workflow — chop, pitch, layer — became the DNA of drum-based electronic music production.
Fast forward to 2022 and Isla Instruments released the S2400, a machine built explicitly as a spiritual successor to that legacy. The S2400 brings 12-bit sampling back with full modern connectivity, and it has rapidly developed a serious cult following among producers who want that era’s character without hunting for a fragile 35-year-old unit on eBay. The machine sounds right. But its stock display? That’s a different story.
The stock OLED on the S2400 does its job, but it’s utilitarian. If you’ve dropped serious money on a piece of gear that pays homage to production history, there’s something satisfying about making it look the part too. That’s why this S2400 screen mod is worth a small amount of your time. Here’s how to do it cheaply, reversibly, and without touching a single screw or wire inside the unit.
What this mod actually is
This is a non-destructive screen color overlay using camera lighting filters — the kind photographers use to adjust color temperature and mood — combined with a custom laser-cut wood frame. No electronics, no disassembly, no voiding of warranties. Total cost is around $20.
You can change your mind anytime. The filter simply sits in front of the screen held by double-sided tape. If you decide you hate orange next month, swap it out in five minutes.
Your three options for getting a filter
Before buying anything, know your sourcing options:
Direct from a supplier like CrystalFonts — you get exactly the color you want, but you’re committing upfront
eBay resellers — the selection is wider but you pay the reseller and eBay markup
Camera filter packs on Amazon (the Selens pack is the one used in this video) — you get a wide variety to test in person before committing, which is the move I’d recommend
Color options: what actually looks good
Running through the Selens pack in person reveals some clear winners and a few that look better on camera than in reality. Here’s a realistic breakdown:
The strong choices
Dark green — gives that Kraftwerk-era terminal feel, vintage and readable
Pink — looks less aggressively pink in real life, genuinely distinctive on stage or in a studio photo
Dark orange — cuts the blue OLED bleed well, warm and readable; go for the darker of the two orange options in the pack
Dark purple — dramatic in person, would be a strong second choice if you want something theatrical
The passes
Plain blue — doesn’t read differently enough from the stock OLED color to be worth it
Black — unless you genuinely have light sensitivity issues, this one kills readability
Frosted — novel but ultimately impractical; pass
Pale yellow — washed out; go for a saturated yellow if you want that look
One useful note: the blue bleed from the underlying OLED comes through lighter filters more than darker ones. Orange and green do the best job of neutralizing it.
The wood overlay
The filter alone looks clean, but the wood border is what elevates this from a mod to a statement. The screen dimensions are 30mm × 60mm, so you’re trimming the filter slightly larger than that, then having a matching frame laser-cut.
If you’re in any city of reasonable size, a local maker space or laser cutting service will handle this without issue. You can go basic — just a rectangular border — or get into more elaborate designs. Wood options that work well:
Maple — light, clean, modern
Cherry — warmer tone, suits the vintage aesthetic of the S2400
Custom engraving — if you want to go further, the same laser cutter can add detail to the frame
Trim your filter to slightly larger than 30mm × 60mm. Attach it to the back of the wood frame. Then attach the combined piece to the display. For adhesion you have three options depending on how committed you are:
Double-sided tape — reversible, easy, the default choice
School glue — semi-permanent, removable with effort
Epoxy (e.g. JB Weld) — permanent, only if you are absolutely certain about your color choice
That’s it. The full video walkthrough is below. If you end up doing this mod — especially if you go with pink — send a photo. I’d love to see it.
The demand for the SP sound is so enduring that Dave Rossum, the original SP-1200 designer, launched an authentic reissue through Rossum Electro-Music. I find the S2400 essentially gets you there while giving you a more modern workflow.
Hey everyone – I’m excited to share my latest track “Deep In My Soul” with you. This one’s been in the works for a while, and I think it just might be my absolute signature deep house track. It’s coming out on July 23 and will be available on Spotify and Apple Music and most other streaming platforms. New deep house music coming your way.
Thanks for listening and supporting the music. Can’t wait for you to hear this one!
Listen to a lot of music on headphones/ear buds? Me too. If you are on the go, exercising, or just walking around the kitchen, headphones are a great option. And I noticed some of those older tracks from the 90s are a little easier on the ears.
Back in the day the underground stuff often did not have all the modern sonic treatments. Today it is common to apply loads of limiting, intentional distortion, sonic carving and the rest. It’s not something I do in the beginning but a club track has to keep up the pace with the rest of the music out there. So either I will add some of that in at the end, or else the mastering engineer will be doing that (quite rightly) to make the track competitive.
One day I was out for a run and I was thinking about all this. I thought – hey why not try to bring back some of that underground headphones friendly vibe. Instead of piling things on, let’s try subtraction. So for this mix I took out all the drums and then redid the drums entirely. I did a lot of subtraction on vocals. And no mastering engineer on this one. The result is Let Go (Astramental Headphones Mix) and it’s headed your way 1/15/25. So I hope you enjoy this mix and let me know what you think. Should I add headphones mixes for my future tracks? Drop me a line and, as always, thanks for listening!
New track featuring trance-inducing keys. As I was making this track I found myself getting lost in the keys. They just transported me to a headspace. What kind of genre is this? Well it reminds me of the dub techno stuff I used to hear in the mid to late 00’s shared by some of the great folks at the defunct Elektron Users forum. But this track is a little too active for your average dub techno. It’s also got my signature house vibe.
Put it all together and maybe it’s deep dub techno trance house. You heard it here first 🙂 Hope you get lost in the vibe as well. Enjoy.
For your streaming enjoyment. I’ve recently posted a mix of some of my deeper, vibier tracks. This one covers both some very recent tracks as well as some of my classic tracks. Sit back and enjoy the grooves. I rarely post mixes so this is a rare one from me. Let me know if you enjoy it and would like me to post some more.
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Behind the scenes – I usually make tracks in an environment called Reaper. But for this one I got out my classic copy of Ableton Live. I got my set list together and then pulled all the tracks into Ableton. Then I started thinking about set tempo. I usually produce tracks in the 120-125 BPM range, but here I thought I would go for 120 BPM so the vibe would be a bit more laid back. Next up I worked on track transitions. Once I had everything the way I liked it, I bounced it all out for sharing.
