A Thai producer mixes in elements of hip-hop with his unique electronica sounds

Producer and composer Montian "A" Manamon-trikul, aka Playboy Electronix, returns to the music scene with a brand-new album, but for "Awake", he's moved away from familiar sounds to rock mixes with weird electronic grooves.

"It's very different from 'The Legend of Yaowaraj', which essentially featured rearrangements of the movie theme," he says. "This new album is based on rock spiced up with my own mixes of electronic music. Like other genres, electronica has evolved and today it incorporates other sounds such as hip-hop."

But while he stirred up quite a lot of interest with his last album, even winning a nomination for Best Instrumental at the 17th Season Awards, he's having less success with "Awake".

"I presented the album to a few record companies but received no reply. That made me kinda nervous," Playboy admits.

Released by Here, the seven-track album opens with "Help Me" featuring Kook Kik 001 then segues into "Khwam Ngiab Khong Duangchan" written and sung by Tul Apartment Khunpa. Other tracks include "Sukhumvit 2" featuring Golf Oscillator 2, "Dream" (chill-out mix), "Turn On" (club mix), "Awake" (groove club mix) and "Fight" (Playboy club mix).

"'Help Me' is an erotic number," says the musician. "'Sukhumvit 2 got its name because I'd like all my albums to have a song about the sois on Sukhumvit, while 'Fight' proves that the sound of scratching blends well with all music styles."