Better Days

Toby Davies (Planas) follows up the much acclaimed and heavily rotated Breathtaking single with his third release for Exceptional Blue label: Better Days .

Better Days shows Planas in full party mode. A merger of 80's drums, lurching, distorted bass stabs and euphoric vintage rack synth chords, Better Days looks both backwards and forwards at the same time, harnessing the feel good sounds of the eighties and nineties and mashing them together with cutting edge production techniques and a mammoth slab of sub bass. Linn drum tom fills and wailing guitar lead lines punctuate this instrumental piece, which, after a goosebump-inspiring intro quickly develops into an intergalactic space funk explosion that's like standing under a waterfall of pure sonic joy.

The main themes and motifs reoccur, evolving and weaving together with ease, showing Planas as both a master musician and master producer. Fans of Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and David Hasselhoff will definitely dig.

In other news Planas has been typically busy recently remixing the Foreign Beggars track 'Flying To Mars' which was released on 2nd July through the esteemed Mau5trap Records whilst the Planas mix of 'Finest Hour' by Exceptional Blue labelmates Submotion Orchestra has reached over 200,000 YouTube views.

Toby has either produced, engineered or written songs with a growing list of great artists including Dionne Bromfield, Binky Griptite of The Dap Kings, Tim Hutton (The Prodigy/Groove Armada), Sinead Harnett, Alex Clare (Island) and Kim Burse - Beyonce's creative director. He also co-produced and recorded vocals for tracks on the L-Vis 1990 album, 'Neon Dreams'. Steadily building his credentials with rated releases on Ranking (which he co-owns) and Immerse records, his productions plus remixes for the likes of Foreign Beggars, Black Diamond Bay and Screaming Soul have won DJ support from Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 1, XFM), Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 1/6 Music), Don Letts (BBC 6 Music), Ronnie Herel (BBC 1Xtra), Mr Scruff (Solid Steel), Pearson Sound (Hessle Audio), DJ Nonames (Foreign Beggars) and DJ Q (BBC 1Xtra).

Toby is an original member of Gentleman's Dub Club, for whom he writes, produces and plays bass, plus he founded the renowned club night Vagabondz, which is now part of the Outlook Festival inCroatia.

Planas' live act has been growing in stature with great reviews from the March tour with Submotion Orchestra. Planas Live is a four-piece band including Toby himself, Ed Thomas (synths/vocals) who also featured on the Author album (Tectonic), Claudia Georgette (vocals/percussion) who featured on Planas' first Exceptional release, 'Merry Go Round' and Niall Lavelle (drums/percussion) who also plays percussion/synths for Gentleman's Dub Club. Toby's DJ appearances include Outlook Festival (Croatia), Subline (Russia), True Badness (Bulgaria),Vagabondz (London), Sub Dub (London) and the Outlook festival launch party in London.