Exactly 25 years ago, in January 1994, U-TRAX released an EP from a new young talent from the Utrecht area. His name: Frank de Groodt, who's debut Missin' You EP immediately established his name as a techno and electro phenomenon. This re-release of the original techno beauty is the first of two releases that U-TRAX will put out in January 2019 to celebrate Frank's 25th anniversary as a recording artist.
Frank at the time lived in Hoevelaken, a small town outside the city of Amersfoort, which is where he was born and lives again these days, some 30 minutes northwest of Utrecht. For his first release he picked the rather unusual moniker Pieces of a Pensive State of Mind as his artist name. Later in 1994, he released his first 12"-es on Djax records as The Optic Crux, and he continued to keep making up artists names in the following 25 years: Sonar Bass, Fastgraph and The Operator. He is also one half of the live outfit Random XS (together with U-TRAX veteran DJ Zero One), collaborated with Arno Peeters (a.k.a. Spasms) as Urban Electro and with Detroit's Dennis Richardson as Ultradyne. And that's not even all of his alter egos.
All four tracks on this re-press have been remastered for maximum impact, including two versions of the title track.
Like all beautiful art, Missin' You is inspired by heartache, referring to a lost love. This track appeared a year prior on the notorious Drome Tapes cassette label, the predecessor of U-TRAX. The Awax Reorganisation is a remix by U-TRAX label boss DJ White Delight, with the help of DJ Zero One and Frank himself, transforming it into a long ambient-ish technotrip. The flipside is where things get even more exciting, with the funky Detroit-techno style Echoic, still a favorite of popular modern-day DJs like Hunee. We have to issue a small warning regarding the closing track: the bassdrums are deformed by a flanger and reverb and the combination with the latest record cutting technology makes Channel Pressure not only a freaky and pumping track, the disorienting sound can also make the audience on the dancefloor a little nauseous!
Original release date: January 1994.
Re-release scheduled for January 11, 2019.
This special 25th Anniversary Release will be available in digital form for purchase and streaming, on black vinyl and limited edition silver vinyl. More

After 27 years, The Implant (aka Arno Peeters/Sp@sms) retruns to Phoq U, with four weird and wonderful tracks, including a Assembler Code remix. More

Alex Ranzino shows off four highly effective techno tracks on the legendary Phoq U Phonogrammen, alongside a remix from The Advent. Amsterdam's Alex Ranzino joins Phoq U Phonogrammen, the 26-year-old sublabel of U-TRAX, with the 'Ride Da Perc' EP. The Utrecht-based imprint welcomes the fast-rising producer following stints on underground labels such as Revenge Techniques and Clone, coming in hot on the heels of its own recent Phoq U release featuring Detroit's Rebecca Goldberg. Alex Ranzino kicks things off with the title track of his 'Ride Da Perc' EP, rocking punchy 909s and spacious, undulating strings. The Advent shows a different side to the track in his remix, still alien-like in nature but demonstrating a sense of dark, mysterious hypnotism through incessant groove and deep pulsating synth work. On the flip side of the 'Ride Da Perc' EP, Ranzino drops 'Acid Groove', a track that proves the age-old fact that b-sides should never be ignored. It's got pumping 303s and ceaseless rhythm, marked by a subtle but masterful house touch. Next up, 'Alienated' rolls on as the perfect warehouse party starter before 'Machine Geweld' closes out the EP as a real late-night mind-melter, already in heavy rotation in Alex's sets at Dutch institutions like BRET, WAS, Intercell and De School. More

Phoq U Phonogrammen is a recordlabel that puts out quick and dirty music, rough and soulful techno straight from the heart onto vinyl. Who gives a fuck about sound quality?
Not Fanon Flowers anyway, who was responsible for the first release in 1995. He had been dissed by a record company, a so-called 'underground' label from south of Detroit even before he ended up with Phoq U. As a student he lived in Ypsilanti nearby Detroit, but he is from Kalamazoo originally, the hometown of Jay Denham, the genius responsible for one of the best techno 12"s ever made: Fade II Black on Derrick May's Fragile Records. Inspired by Jay, he picked up producing tracks himself and in 1992, and made some raw, lo-fi analog 909/101-tracks.
Four of these tracks ended up on this The Sleeper EP. Critically acclaimed by those who know, tracks like 'Flim Flam' will get everybody bouncing. The real gem is hidden on the B-side though, where 'Serinity' lives, a completely mental and beautiful tripping techno jam.
The term 'vintage techno' couldn't be explained better than with this release.
More

Detroit's Rebecca Goldberg, aka 313 Acid Queen, releases 5 techno bangers incl. Mark Broom remix on Phoq U. Phoq U Phonogrammen, the rebellious U-TRAX sublabel, returns after 26 years with its eight release, produced and manufactured in Detroit. Detroit native Rebecca Goldberg, who has previously released music and performed live under her 313 Acid Queen alias, will present her brand new People Mover EP at the Detroit Movement festival, on May 26, 2023. The EP features 5 dancefloor fillers, including the Detroit-style remix by Mark Broom of the opening track Automated. The EP is inspired by transportation, industry and travel, as well as the city of Detroit of course, paying homage to the original minimal techno music and the evolution of technology and industry.all tracks are live jams, recorded in one take on all hardware instruments. Rebecca tries to do as little post-work as possible, with just a little bit of final arrangement. Her work often incorporates field recorded sounds, and for this EP she used samples recorded while riding on the Detroit People Mover itself, the elevated automated light rail system in downtown Detroit. Goldberg started a sound walk group called Detroit Frequency and the recordings were taken on during the first event last summer. The EP kicks off with the fast-paced Automated, that echoes the hypnotic minimal techno sound of Robert Hood. Mark Broom added an extra dose of 909 funk in his Mark Broom remix, which provides the track with even more pumping rhythms and making it sound even more 'classic Detroit'. The B-side opens with Elevated, that features industrial-ish DPM sounds on a bed of pure acid, as if Goldberg wants us to remember why she is named the 313 Acid Queen. Staying On meanwhile, puts a repeating DPM announcer's voice central stage, making it a fascinating piece of minimal techno. The closing track Linear Motion creates a dark atmosphere, with eerie, down-pitched DPM sounds that makes this a spooky techno trip that we believe many people will love. More

The producer behind this project wished to remain anonymous when we released this EP back in 1996, but 23 years later we can be a bit more candid: it's none other than Utrecht DJ legend Peter Aarsman, a.k.a. P.A. Presents!
Peter knew he wanted to be a DJ since he was ten years old, in a time when this was still a very unusual career to dream about. Long before house music had landed in Europe, Peter was fiddling around with disco and Italo 12"-es and all those years of training is what made him the awesome DJ that he still is today.
While the era of house of techno of the late 80s and the 90s brought him countless DJ gigs, his reputation didn't cross the city borders much, until he bought his first gear and started producing techno music himself. Peter is well-known for his intuitive approach of techno, helped by his DJ background. His live-gigs are famous for the enormous amount of energy they radiate. At home, at his Analogue Treasury Room, he records his tracks in a way that is very similar to playing live. This usually results in fierce and energetic Detroit-style techno tracks, that work perfectly well on the dancefloor.
Peter debuted with the mini-album Salicylic Acid on U-TRAX in 1993, followed by the Flight Stimulator EP a year later. Both are classics today, but neither brought him as much fame as his 12" Entangled did on Deviate, a record label that was started by a couple of our friends from Utrecht a year prior to U-TRAX. Entangled made it to many charts and compilation albums, including Carl Craig's mix CD as part of !K7's DJ-Kicks series.
This EP contains exactly what the title says: some old shit. The tracks are made in less than one hour, recorded on cassettes and then forgotten about. They were found again at the bottom of an old cardboard box back in 1996. Because we liked the vibes in these tracks still a million times more than most of the shit that was released in the mid-nineties, we decided to put these tracks out in a limited edition of 600 copies. All tracks sound raw, and are sometimes unfinished even. What's more: Peter didn't bother to come up with titles. So just follow the instructions on the vinyl's label: grab a marker and make up your own titles!

Original release date: August 1996.
More

The Artists Formerly Known As The Connection Machine (Utrecht, Netherlands) go raw and mean on this one! If the underground The Hague-style from the 90s is your thing, this 12" is your cup of tea. 4 hectic 808/303 trax, all mixed in a dirty way, with loadsa fx on the 303.
The Connection Machine/Cray Emoticon is the multi-talented duo of Natasja Hagemeier and Jeroen Brandjes, who debuted on U-TRAX in 1993 with their instant classic and much sought after 'The Dreamtec Album' (catalogue no: 3 UTR UMM 1). They went on to create another epic release called 'The Black Hole EP' on U-TRAX (catalogue no: 5 UTR UMM 2), but not after they presented 'Bitflower', a true work of art on Planet E from Detroit. Later they released the CD album 'Painless' on Down Low Music and in more recent years two 12"s (shared with The Lost Trax) and an album on Tabernacle Records from the UK.
The title track is originally meant as a replacement for the original game music of level 9 of the 2nd episode (E2L9) of the computer game Doom. The artists thought the original score wasn't doing right to the intensity of the game and made their own apocalyptic soundtrack. 'Gnawing The Heart' already proved its usefulness on many a dancefloor, whilst 'Choice Chip' will satisfy the ultimate speed freaks amongst you. If you're not into drugs or mushrooms, 'I Wish My Zapper Was A Gun' can deliver you the same effects: it's a psychedelic space-acid trip, built around a sample of the sitcom 'Neighbours'.
You can't get wrong with this vintage and merciless dance floor material from the mid-nineties.
Original release date: October 1995. More

The second and, as later would turn out, also the last release in Heinrich Tillack's critically acclaimed Tick Trax-series. The first Tick Trax-release by this talented producer from Braunschweig (Germany) was released as Volume 1 on U-TRAX in 1994 (cat. no.: 13 UTR SYS 1). It was a very successful record, however a bit too 'rough' for U-TRAX. Therefore, Volume II is launched on the U-TRAX sublabel Phoq U Phonogrammen, that has a more raw approach to techno, acid and electro.
Heinrich is a bit of an enigma. Having released some 12"s on Detroit's Plus 8 Records (as Sysex), Force Inc. Music Works (as Absolute) and Disko B (as Festival) and his own label Jakpot (both as Festival, as well as Co-Jack, together with Olivier Bondzio aka Hardfloor), he more or less disappeared from the face of the earth. It is said that he is a developer of children's apps for mobile phones nowadays.
This second Tick Trax release has 6 tracks, all in the distinctive raw Chicago-style that Heinrich uses only in his Tick Trax-identity. For minimalists, the CR-78 orientated beats on 'Samba Track' (from '93!) will be the track to go for. For heavy pounding floor fillers you can rely on 'Heavy Weight Track' and 'Super Heavy Weight Track'. Our personal favorite is 'Rush Track', another minimal track, but heavy and dark at the same time. The power is the drive in this one!

Original release date: October 1995. More