Downtempo techno stars The Connection Machine return with stunning re-release, featuring unreleased tracks and Legowelt remix of classic Echoes From Tau Ceti. Four years after the re-release of their debut The Dream Tec Album on U-TRAX, the Dutch downtempo techno duo The Connection Machine returns with a second highly anticipated re-release. BlackHole+ contains remastered versions of most of the tracks on their original The Black Hole EP, released on U-TRAX in 1995, plus five tracks from their highly sought-after EPs on Tabernacle Records: Lost Connection and Lost Machine (with electro outfit Lost Trax on the flipside). The original Black Hole EP had black labels and all details of the release were added as a computer-spoken track on the b-side. For this re-release, this track was removed and a Legowelt remix was added of the still immensely popular track Echoes From Tau Ceti. More

Debut album by Dutch producer w1b0, who passed away in August, to be released in November on U-TRAX. Wibo Lammerts' sudden death on August 15th shocked the worldwide electro community, and also left the record label, that had been working on the debut album with the artist known as w1b0 for the past two years, dumbfounded and in grief. Wibo had jokingly always called his upcoming debut album 'his legacy', which now sadly has become a painful truth.. W1b0 made quite a name for himself with heavy electro tracks that he released on labels like Bass Agenda, Hilltown Disco and Discos Antónicos. Standing at 202 meters, and combined with a cheerful character, most people remember him as the gentle giant of electro. For this album, Wibo wanted to steer away from the dark and heavy electro he mostly made until then. The idea of having a platform to create delicate electronic music in different styles, and make it a showcase of his versatility, was very appealing to him. And that is where he and U-TRAX found each other.
More

Dutch pioneer Sp@sms returns to U-TRAX with 'From A 20th Century Box' LP, backed with remixes from Bloody Mary and Cosmic Force On 'From the 20th Century Box' Arno Peeters, aka Sp@sms, returns to U-TRAX with his debut full-length album. Showcasing years of sonic exploration stemming from his time in various groups including Random XS and Voltage Control amongst others, the LP also draws from his experience studying and teaching music at the Centre for Electronic Music as well as his work in project-based sound design. Filled to the brim with pulsating arpeggios, crunchy drums and dark, moody atmospheres, the LP is marked by a retro yet timeless feel. Inbetween its snaking, squelchy synth lines and old school electro grooves Sp@sms masterfully incorporates playful textures and elements from found recordings and unused projects, resulting in a vastly versatile and experimental album fusing all things techno, acid and EBM. An expert lesson in sound design and composition taught by one of the Netherlands' most trusted and experienced artists, the LP also contains remixes from Dame Music's Bloody Mary and Utrecht electro stalwart Cosmic Force and arrives via heavyweight, colored double vinyl, More

Comprising Marco Simioni, Matteo Mazreku, and Francesco Pio Nitti, Qualia are a group of Italian producers who have never met in person. Due to the covid pandemic, they had to colaborate in the cloud, resulting in some exquisite ambient braindance. Having previously released records on Detroit Underground and fellow Utrecht label 030303 between them, they arrive on U-Trax in April 2022 with their eponymous EP of four deep tracks taking in?uence from a range of genres, including acid-techno, ambient, noise, and beyond. Leading the release, 'Perception' brings beautiful strings, funky 808 drums and acid tones for a deep and moving opener. The track clearly reveals the inspiration Qualia got for this release from the early Gescom releases. Stretched across the A2 is the ambient bliss of 'VV Cephei A', which brings Boards of Canada-esque drones and tones. On the ?ip, the title track 'Qualia' brings a headsy dose of braindance to the mix, recalling the early experiments of Aphex Twin with merciless 303 squelches and distant reverberations. Closing track 'Until I Break Apart' leads with dark, moody strings before a pounding kick introduces a stark tempo shift before deep ambient atmospheres engulf the ?nal minutes. Vinyl release comes with 30x30 cm insert, designed by the artists. More

Since our first contact with NYC based producer Thavius Beck in 2018, he sent us over 100 unreleased tracks, or beats, as he calls them. 25 of them have been selected for releases on U-TRAX, good for over 2 hours of music, across this album and the Lovesick EP. Growing up in LA, Thavius Beck entered the hip-hop scene as member of Global Phlowtations, and released several solo albums under the Adlib moniker. In later years, he released five albums under his own name on labels like Mush, Big Dada and Plug Research, and also produced albums for artists like Saul Williams and K-the-I???, and did some remixing for amongst others Nine Inch Nails. Nowadays he combines making music with a career as a succesful certified Ableton and Bitwig trainer and as a music teacher at Berklee NYC. The tracks vary in style a lot, but what they have in common is that they either are moody – in U-TRAX lingo: deep - or they are drum heavy. The common denominator would probably be 'experimental/instrumental hip-hop', reminiscent of producers like Flying Lotus. People have tried all sorts of comparisons to pinpoint Thavius' sound, ranging from 'between DJ Shadow and Orbital' and 'a mix of Massive Attack and The Orb'. None of these are spot on, yet quite a few of these tracks feel like a happy marriage between hip-hop beats and techno sounds. Despite the fact that some tracks are 20 years old and have been made with widely different gear (one track was even made on a PlayStation 2), this selection sounds remarkably balanced, yet diverse. From the irresistible single 'Lovesick/Still Sick' to the dark and massive 'Birdsong' (that echoes the sound of his popular song 'Atmos'), and from the head-nodding 'Work!' to the soothing 'Reunited With The All' - if this collection showcases anything, it's Thavius' brilliant production and composing skills, as well as his wizard-level sampling techniques. The result is a luscious electronic music album with a broad appeal. Available on double 180 grams colored vinyl vinyl, comes in gatefold picture sleeve. More

Utrecht label U-Trax welcomes 90s legend P.A. Presents for an enhanced re-release of his first two releases on this label, namely "Salicylic Acid" and "Flight Simulator".

Ironically P.A. Presents aka Peter Aarsman is the only artist on U-TRAX that actually is born and bred in the city of Utrecht. Even more irony lies in the fact that he hasn't lived in the city for 25 years and has only recently returned home. He was an early player in the hip hop and boogie scenes and long before house landed in Europe he was playing disco and Italo which helped establish him as a truly vital DJ talent. The two reissue EPs presented here marked his production debut back in 1993, both of which are hugely sought after and pricey techno records on second hand markets. In 2019 he returned to the music scene with two new EPs on U-Trax in the the form of Swirling Gas and Sax Madness and new releases are planned for 2020.

The release kicks off with 'Mesopmorph', an effervescent, nostalgic cut with a deeply buried techno rhythm that eventually takes over in tribal style. 'Pop' is a brilliantly tense and dense track wired up with fizzing synths, chattering claps and haunting effects as well as pending drums, then 'Theme' is cosmic industrial, with powerful hits and metallic sounds married to searching laser synths.

'Vera S' is classic 90s techno with mad vocal sounds and frantic synth lines darting about the mix, then things grow deeper and more heady on the stripped back intergalactic journey that is 'Flight Simulator.' The timelessness continues on the dancing analogue drums and hi hats of the classic Detroit styled 'Experiental' and 'A Gasp' before 'Vexillum' brings more warm solar winds and molten techno grooves whist 'Long Metal' closes out with pounding kicks, skewed synths and real sense of space travel.

These are essential early techno tracks that sound as fresh and relevant now as ever and come with remastering and restoration from Thee J Johanz.
More

The second new release this year by Utrecht DJ/producer P.A. Presents (Peter Aarsman) is a highly varied EP, offering a house, techno, acid and electro track. And just like his Swirling Gas EP that was released in February, these tracks are all conceived in the 90s, and still sound fresh as a Spring morning at the top of the Dom tower.
he housey title track "Sax Madness" is a rather atypical track for Peter, who usually focuses on techno. But don't let the piano or breakbeats fool you, it still has the energy that we are accustomed to from P.A.'s productions. No saxophones have been harmed during the production of this track.
Talking about energy: "Zero P" is filled to the brim with that! Pumping, driving techno beats that remind us of Kevin Saunderson's productions, will get anyone moving. Funky stuff!
The flip side sees P.A. team up with Dazzlinj, aka his long term music buddy Jeroen Lazeroms, also from Utrecht. With "Protrack 1" the two deliver a fresh and at the same time somewhat oldschool acid tune, with the 303/808 duo taking center stage.
They close off this EP with the powerful electro banger "Creators". High paced electro beats are accompanied by hypnotizing strings, vocoder lyrics and a 303 for an acidic touch. Guaranteed to get crowd going!
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 skilled 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. His DJ background proved helpful with producing his tracks, as most of his them are dancefloor orientated and usually have an impeccable timing. 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 the fame that his 12" "Entangled" did on fellow Utrecht record label Deviate, which made it to many charts and compilation albums.
All tracks have been revamped and edited into more current lengths by DJ Zero One, blessed by DJ White Delight and mastered by Thee J Johanz. Label art by Bonk Artwork.
The EP is available for download and streaming and in black and limited edition gold vinyl from December 6, 2019 More

African Nightflight sees Dutch techno pioneer Arno Peeters from Utrecht team up with Nijmegen-based fellow sound scientist Bart Rovers. Back in 1996 they made five stunning tracks that are hard to define, let alone to categorize. "Otherworldly" perhaps is a fair attempt. The title track "4Rest" for example, comes in two mixes (Dotted Version and Triplet Version), both uptempo and with a distinct Arabic sound and feel. They still work perfectly in any high-energy DJ set today. "Brubaker" goes in the opposite direction in terms of BPM: both "Brubakers' Slide" and "Brubakers' Skank" are heavy sci-fi dub tracks that evoke memories of the best On U-Sound dubworks. The EP is topped off with the wonderful and spacey sound adventure "Make Up Your Mind (Thirst)."
This was the first of the final three releases of U-TRAX in the 90s, together with EPs by Maarten & Tjeerd and Sonar Base, that heralded a new and quite deep form electronic (dance) music. All three were released after the infamous collapse of the industry of Summer 1996, so none of them were sold out at the time, but they are all very dear to us.
When this EP was originally released, it came with one of the patented corny U-TRAX press releases, in which a new airline service to the African continent was announced (Air U-TRAX), offering "travelers" a one-way ticket to any place on the continent for just under 200 Dutch guilders (cheap in those pre-budget-airlines-days!). The only catch was that passengers were dropped off from the planes on a parachute, because "landing was too risky". Also, the airline only flew by night, to "...reduce [the] risk of gunfire or rockets being aimed at the planes."
The first 15.000 travelers received a free copy of this African Nightflight EP. Not surprisingly these all got lost or broken during the parachute jumps, making mint copies of the record a rather rare commodity.
The good news is that some original vinyl copies are now available again through Triple Vision Distribution as of November 22, 2019. Re-mastered digital versions of the tracks are available for downloading and streaming on the same day.
Original release date: September 1996. More

What is probably the weirdest U-TRAX release ever, is now available again on original heavy weight vinyl and has been remastered for digital download and streaming.
Jo-I is Johan Sagel and nine of the drumtracks he made in the 90s with his quite un-hip Roland R-70 drumcomputer ended up on this heavyweight vinyl EP. Label boss DJ White Delight also abused Johan's R-70 together with DJ Zero One, adding a trancey acid re-interpretation of the Jo-I tracks to the EP.
Back in 1995, Johan was a young advertising professional, originating from the far Northern part of Holland, where only potatoes grow and very few people live. He later moved to the city of Groningen and became very active in the scene there, that included Thee J Johanz, of Bally Hoo fame. Johan teamed up with Reyer Caderius van Veen, who released a 12" as Lynx on the U-TRAX sublabel Phoq U Phonogrammen. Together they performed and recorded as Live Acid Performance (L.A.P.) 01 in the 90s.
Original release date: March 1995.
More

SP@SMS - Titanic EP (U-TRAX - 8 UTR QDM5)
With his first release as EBM outfit Voltage Control on Antler Subway in 1989, Utrecht-based Arno Peeters can easily be considered one of the Dutch Dance pioneers.
Influenced by hip hop, electro and acid house, and his uncontrollable urge to experiment, he moved on to produce techno. Disappointed by the genre s conventions, he rather suddenly stopped with dance music altogether around 1995, letting a wealth of DATs with unreleased material collect dust in his studio.
To our great pleasure, U-TRAX was allowed to pick some nuggets from these archives, resulting in this Titanic EP and an album later this year.
Arno started experimenting with sound at very young age, resulting in his first cassette releases with experimental soundscapes in 1983. In 1986 he joined the notable Centre for Electronic Music (CEM), where he was able to take his experiments to a new level in a professional studio-environment.
In his techno episode , he recorded several 12 -es and CDs as Sp@sms and The Implant, and as part of Random XS, Urban Electro, African Nightflight and The AWAX Foundation, with most of his records being released on the famous DJAX label.
After turning his back on techno, he applied himself to more experimental music again. In 1996, he created AeroSon, a 40-minute sound collage that won him the first prize in the category Composers Under 30 at a high-brow international contest for electro-acoustic music. This piece was later released on the prestigious Mille Plateaux label.
Since then, his focus has shifted away from releasing music, towards working more project-based: on remixes, compilations and interactive (installations, video, sound design), building himself a successful career as radio maker, teacher and engineer, contributing to several award-winning documentaries and podcasts.
This EP is a nice cross section of Arno s dance productions, serving you some acid, techno and electro.
Titanic V1 was originally created to be a Random XS track, the techno band he formed in 1991 with Sander Friedeman. It was performed during their live set at one of the G.U.R.U. parties, organized by U-TRAX label boss DJ White Delight and label artist P.A. Presents.
This acid track was remixed into a techno monster when Friedeman replaced the 303 with a 101 and added a ton of delay on the bass drums, resulting in the woofer destroying Titanic (Underwater Dub).
The flipside sees a rare post-1995 recording by Arno: CEM Traxx 1. As the title suggests, this melancholic electro gem was created using the intricate machinery of the CEM Studio. Originally created as one half of a two-part composition for some project in 2003, it was never released before.
The EP closes with a typical Arno brainchild, the tongue-in-cheek acid banger XD5 Acid Master, from 1994. Tracks like this happen if you leave Arno unattended with a rather un-hip machine like the Kawai XD-5: he turns it inside out and uses it for things it was never intended for. Buckle up!
All tracks have been produced by Arno Peeters and mastered by Ruud Lekx. Label art by Botterman Ontwerp.
The EP is available for download and streaming on virtually all platforms and in black and limited edition iceberg colored vinyl from October 11, 2019. More

When this record was first released back in 1996, it came with an hilarious press release that had something to do with a hidden data track featuring the voice controlled web browser U-Scape. As outdated this nonsense is now, the music still sounds fresh like with most U-TRAX original releases from the 90s. Created by Dutch techno veterans Maarten van der Vleuten and Tjeerd Verbeek, this is one of the three last U-TRAX releases of the 90s; releases that marked a new, more intense musical direction for the label and that are all very dear to us personally.
The title of the 5-track EP is inspired by the area in Utrecht where Tjeerd and U-TRAX label boss DJ White Delight used to live in. Tjeerd then was very successful as Trance Induction and Pyrex Detox, and had just founded his own record-label Desert Rose Industries. Maarten's collected works include hundreds of tracks, using 40+ aliases, like Major Malfunction, In Existence and Flux. He too had then just started his own record-label, named Signum Recordings. Like U-TRAX, both producers
have been releasing new material on their old labels in recent years.
Maarten and Tjeerd at one point got together and composed some soothing, yet dark and deep techno-tracks with an ambient feel to them. "MT34" makes you feel you're walking across an Indian marketplace, with snake charmers playing their characteristic sounds, backed by some jumpy 909-rhythms, while "Winter" sounds like the darkest Icelandic winter storm you can imagine. "101" was singled out in the infamous 1996 press release as the data-track containing the U-Scape browser. Coincidentally, it is quite pleasant to listen to! It sounds like an experimental track with crispy clear ultra-low and extremely high pitched sounds. The flipside brings you the melancholic and gripping Ice and the old-school and tranquilizing ambient track "Fusion".

Original release date: November 1996.
More

The third release on U-TRAX in 1993 was also a third debut, this time by Natasja Hagemeier and Jeroen Brandjes. Early in their career, they used several artist names, but became most commonly known as The Connection Machine. With their debut mini-album The Dream Tec Album they more or less described their style: dreamy techno. It became an instant Dutch techno classic and U-TRAX is proud and delighted to offer a fully remastered re-release, including three never before released bonus tracks (one of which is digital-only). More

The third release on U-TRAX in 1993 was also a third debut, this time by Natasja Hagemeier and Jeroen Brandjes. Early in their career, they used several artist names, but became most commonly known as The Connection Machine. With their debut mini-album The Dream Tec Album they more or less described their style: dreamy techno. It became an instant Dutch techno classic and U-TRAX is proud and delighted to offer a fully remastered re-release, including three never before released bonus tracks (one of which is digital-only). More

Legendary Utrecht DJ and producer P.A. Presents (Peter Aarsman) returns with his first new release since 2000 with this vintage techno stunner, Swirling Gas. This EP also marks the first new music on U-TRAX in more than 21 years, kicking the label s comeback into a higher gear.
More

Legendary Utrecht DJ and producer P.A. Presents (Peter Aarsman) returns with his first new release since 2000 with this vintage techno stunner, Swirling Gas. This EP also marks the first new music on U-TRAX in more than 21 years, kicking the label s comeback into a higher gear.
More

The second release in January to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Frank de Groodt s career as a recording artist is a re-press of his legendary Sonar Bases 4 10 double 12 . Exactly 21 years ago, in January 1997, Frank elevated to electro stardom with this astonishing combination of dark electronica and electro beats. More

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

So you thought U-TRAX was all about fancy, state-of-the-art, absolutely undanceable, hard-to-understand, semi-intelligent techno? Well, you're absolutely right, but this U-TRAX-release is just not! Produced by German Heinrich Tillack, these TICK TRAX VOLUME 1 are just the good old way of making techno. Raw & uncomplicated, in the tradition of the Chicago underground.
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.
The 5 tracks on this 12" are centered mostly around the 909 drum machine and the 303 bassline synthesizer. While two bulky techno tracks feature on side A, the flipside is completely dominated by acid tracks, most of them receiving high praise when they hit the dance floors in the mid 90s.
More recent techno heroes also know how to appreciate these vintage tracks, like Dutchman Danny Wolfers, aka Legowelt, who had this to say about 'Pump Track' on his Facebook page: "Such a fun track, how it stops and starts, almost falls apart. It's mentally challenged simplicity with a giant hall rave vibe... total dance floor control track. On the super cult U-TRAX, one of the coolest Dutch labels from the 90s!"
Original release date: Fall 1994. More