Rod Asclepius is the electronic music project and moniker of Tom Morgan, a producer who has been making electronic music off and on for almost two decades. Rod Asclepius is inspired by the downtempo (or “trip hop”) music made in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Although this is the inspiration for the project, Rod has infused his own unique take on the style which he calls “Chicago Downtempo”, creating something that is inspired by the old but reaches for innovation and a new, fresh sound.

While Rod has been making music for many years, this project represents an attempt to make something that could be enjoyed and appreciated by anyone, whether you just like listening to music or you have rather sophisticated tastes in music. The aim is just to make damn good music. Due to the fact that this kind of music has more wide appeal than the more esoteric projects Rod is also involved in, more effort has been put into promoting and distribution for Rod Asclepius. Rod wants as many of you as possible to be enchanted by the slow beats of his music.

Compared to the original Bristol sound, there is much stylistic change: the sound is rawer, even more drenched in a night-time vibe. It is music for the dark city of Chicago. Also, Rod found a really weird set of a samples of a homemade dub-siren which he sprinkles liberally all over his music, creating interesting tonal spaces that sounds almost chiptune-inspired. Delay effects are used ostentatiously. Vintage synth samples provide a change of pace, being used in a modern DAW but providing a link to the past.

Rod uses a tracker DAW called Renoise which has many of the same features of old school trackers like Impulse Tracker or FastTracker, but is updated for the modern age and allows studio-quality music to be produced. Some of the music exhibits influences from tracker music, although its a subtle influence for the most part.

Enjoy Rod Asclepius!