Danny L Harle

Danny L Harle
Birth name Daniel Eisner Harle
Born 1989/1990 (age 25–26)[1]
Origin London, England, United Kingdom
Genres Electronic, modern classical
Occupation(s) Producer, composer
Years active 2010–present
Labels PC Music
Associated acts A. G. Cook, Raffy
Website danielharle.com

Daniel Eisner Harle is a British music producer and composer who records under the alias Danny L Harle. He has released two singles through the London-based PC Music label and is a member of Dux Content with A. G. Cook. His songs are among the most chart-friendly work from the offbeat label.[2]

Biography

Daniel is the son of saxophonist John Harle and has an older brother Matthew.[1] He played the cello as a child but did not have a strong interest in music. At the age of 12, Harle learned bass guitar after discovering bands like Slipknot and Madness. He picked up free jazz and participated in the Royal Academy of Music's junior jazz group.[3] In 2006, John recorded Daniel's song "Caesar Hath Wept" with the Duke Quartet.[4]

Harle went to Goldsmiths, University of London to study classical music.[3] He began recording campy electronic music in 2010, influenced by Scandinavian skweee music.[5] His thesis was chamber music that combined traditional musical instruments with video game consoles playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.[3]

While at Goldsmiths, Harle reconnected with A. G. Cook, with whom he had gone to school as a teen.[6] The two bonded over their shared musical tastes and interest in comedy duo Tim & Eric. This grew into a musical project called Dux Content.[3] Since they did not have a vocalist, Dux Content focused on musical experiments like compound metres and changes in tempo.[3] One of their earlier works was a collection of compositions for the Disklavier, released with Spencer Noble and Tim Phillips under the name "Dux Consort". Dux Content released its songs with strange renderings of digital avatars for promotional artwork.[5] They contributed to the score for Alicia Norman's animated film Heart of Death and began considering a children's television show titled Dux Content's Jungle Jam. Harle and Cook explored how to build rhythms out of a vocalist's natural singing tempo and released the results as "Dux Kidz".[3]

When I tried to do it, I realised that this music is achieving what any 'formally' educated composer is trying to do, which is to communicate a compositional idea in the most direct way possible, and largely doing it better than any other type of music that I had heard.

“
”
– Danny L Harle[3]

Harle's work with Cook allowed him to branch into pop songwriting and production. He initially struggled to replicate the vigor and simplicity of pop music. After producer Enchanté invited him to perform at a gallery in Stroud, Harle felt guilty at the prospect of playing music by other artists. He decided to write a song that would fit with 1990s dance music. The resulting track, "Broken Flowers", was released on Cook's fledgling PC Music label in mid 2013. Harle described the song as "completely frivolous", explaining that he was "trying to make the most completely conventional song."[3] "Broken Flowers" uses rapid trance arpeggios, an organ bassline, and synthesiser parts similar to work by video game composers Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu.[7][8][9] It was viewed as one of the label's more mature releases for the twist in its rhyme scheme.[5] Fact magazine placed "Broken Flowers" 79th on its list of the "100 best tracks of the decade so far".[8]
"In My Dreams" (2014)
The airy vocals on "In My Dreams" have a hook similar to Nelly's "Dilemma" featuring Kelly Rowland.[10]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Daniel worked on the sound design for John Harle's 2014 album The Tyburn Tree (Dark London) with singer Marc Almond.[11] That October, Harle released his second single "In My Dreams" with singer Raffy. It has a jumpy, upbeat rhythm with a xylophone part, and Raffy's vocals are cheerful but detached.[12][13] Noisey ranked "In My Dreams" 8th on its list of the best songs of 2014,[14] and Complex magazine placed the song 14th on its year-end list.[15] For Christmas of 2014, Harle and Raffy recorded a cover of East 17's 1994 Christmas number one "Stay Another Day".[16] He stated in February 2015 that, although he has enough tracks to make an album, he is focusing on recording new songs with Raffy.[3]

Discography

Singles

Year Title
2013 "Broken Flowers"
2014 "In My Dreams"

Remixes

Year Artist Title
2014 Kero Kero Bonito "Sick Beat" (Danny L Harle Remix)
2014 Billon "Special" featuring Maxine Ashley (Danny L Harle Remix)
2015 Spector "All the Sad Young Men" (Danny L Harle Remix)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gilbert, Jenny (2 March 1996). "Fantastic read". The Independent. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Barchi, Aly (12 December 2014). "CMU Artists Of The Year 2014: PC Music". Complete Music Update. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Bulut, Selim (24 February 2015). "Next: Danny L Harle". Dummy. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  4. ↑ The Quiet Room (Media notes). Various artists. Sony BMG. 2006. 82876821452.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Sherburne, Philip (17 September 2014). "PC Music's Twisted Electronic Pop: A User's Manual". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Sohrab (25 August 2013). "Radio Tank Mix: A. G. Cook". Tank. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Pearl, Max; Lhooq, Michelle (8 January 2015). "PC Music is Post-Internet Art". Vice. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The 100 best tracks of the decade so far". Fact. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Moynihan, Joe (13 August 2014). "PC Music: the 10 best tracks so far from 2014's most divisive record label". Fact. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "PC Music's Danny L Harle streams new 'In My Dreams' track". DIY. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  11. ↑ "The Tyburn Tree: Dark London - Marc Almond,John Harle". Allmusic. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Golden, Zara (8 October 2014). "Listen to Danny L Harle's Airy 'In My Dreams'". The Fader. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "PC Music's Danny L Harle dazzles on new single 'In My Dreams'". Fact. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  14. ↑ Bassil, Ryan (9 December 2014). "Noisey UK's 25 Best Tracks of 2014: 10 - 1". Vice. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Keith, James (19 December 2014). "14. Danny L Harle — 'In My Dreams'". Complex. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  16. ↑ Dunn, Francesca (26 December 2014). "christmas cover: danny l harle, stay another day". i-D. Retrieved 1 March 2015.

External links