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.


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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

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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.


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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.


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Far Out Radio Systems, the musical project by Thomas Neyens, is set to make waves with the release of his anticipated second album, "Mariana No Death." This transformative musical journey invites listeners to explore the depths of the Mariana Trench, where the protagonist seeks solace amidst the chaotic realities of our world. Drawing inspiration from the roots of early techno and lo-fi electronica, Thomas Neyens showcases a unique sound palette, embracing a DIY and raw production style. "Mariana No Death" is a testament to pure machine music that delivers a powerful message of honesty and a hopeful outlook for brighter days ahead.

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Repress!

If you can picture the very furthest, coldest, darkest part of Norway, that's where Mind over MIDI resides. If you want to get an idea of what it's like there, and can do without the frostbite, then this is the perfect solution. 1997 re-issue.



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Before New Angels is the debut album by Swills & Phil Mills, a Dutch mixed electronic duo in which vibrant talent and solid experience swirl together in a hazy cloud. Ten cinematic ambient tracks that combine the imaginative power of Biosphere and the hallucinatory club DNA of Huerco S and GAS.? Take for instance a track like Common Parlance. It's a centerpiece and forms the beating heart of Before New Angels. With its elongated, shuffling chords and deadpan kicks it seems to come from an early Wolfgang Voigt recording.?? Utrecht-based Sabine Willems is the newcomer of the two. Her work is experimental and does not conform to any genre. She likes to challenge herself by keeping her instrumentation to a bare minimum. Phone recorded samples of the world around her sometimes serve as a building block. But where her earlier tracks still contain rhythm, Before New Angels is virtually beatless.? Phil Mills is the experienced side of the duo. He's from the North of The Netherlands. Anyone who dives into his musical past will come across dance productions that date as far? back as the early nineties. Mills' experience pays out on Before New Angels, where its layered melodies and slow evolving arrangements never smother the minimalist compositions.?Is this one of the better ambient albums of 2023? We tend to think so.?You better lie down and feel for yourself.?

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Repress!

The primer of techno was barely dry or England already had its own variant of the genre: UK techno. Original Man by British producer Dave Angel is perhaps the perfect example of what that variant sounded like, back then. If only you knew where to find it. The single was released in 1993 on a record label that has long since ceased to exist. Fortunately, Utrecht-based record label SoHaSo made this transverse techno-soul classic available again, in a punchy remaster. With its juxtaposed rhythm programming and orchestral arrangements, Original Man still lives up to its title, even if it is 30 years later. On the flip you'll find Quarter Pounder. With its nervous hi-hats and high paced rhythms, this seems like the perfect soundtrack for a highway chase between two roadhouses. As a bonus, SoHaSo has supplemented the vinyl version of this EP with a rare Dave Angel track which also was released back in 1993 on French dance label FNAC. It's called 4th Symphony and ticks all the right techno boxes: strings, hihats and a melancholic melody. If you wanna learn more about UK techno, you might as well start with this wonderful re-release.

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How do you get 'in the box'? Gal Tsadok-Hai knows. After some experiments with hardware, the Amsterdam-based electronic producer recently went back to his first love: computer composing. Thus keeping open all the options. Footsteps is his first EP for SoHaSo, filled with four tracks of adventurous, left-field explorations in rhythm and melody. cl_forwardspeed 5 is dominated by sub low baslines and razor blade rhythms, while mp_footsteps 1 nods more towards early Aphex Twin and the IDM trickery from last century. Flip the record for max_smokepuffs 999, on which Gal Tsadok- Hai proves he can also bring a straight four-four to great heights. It is both spacious and tense, which makes for a great combination. On closer sv_gravity 0 it's back to the days when melody was still the default in most techno and electro. If you like the abstract machine funk from Dopplereffekt, this might just be right up your alley.

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Back in the nineties, Human Beings were pioneers in the Dutch techno scene. And The Matrix may well be their finest moment. SoHaSo gives this stone-cold classic the re-release it deserves, together with a magical Plaid-remix and a forgotten track, straight from DAT. Together with Quazar and Fierce Ruling Diva, Utrecht-based duo Human Beings were among the very first brave enough to go live, back in 1992. Dance music was still called house or techno. Other flavors only came later. Both Allert Aalders and Bert van der Grift were proper nerds. Their studio was filled to the brims with vintage synthesizers and drum computers and all machines were constantly challenged. Van der Grift sadly passed away in 2005 after a sudden cerebral haemorrhage, marking the abrupt end of Human Beings. The Matrix ticks all the boxes of a proper Human Beings-tune: crystal clear melodies sweeping from corner to corner, ultra-clever drum programming and a main theme that knocks your socks right off. In the energetic live version, they have shaped the track to perfection. A secret weapon that works wonders on dancefloors, even 30 years later. London duo Plaid strip The Matrix to its bare essentials, focusing on the main melody while giving the kick a bit more oomph in a Plaid kinda way. Ghost in the Shell is exactly that. A forgotten off-beat track, made during one of those many sessions in Bert's crampy studio. Its murky downtempo rhythms take a nod to both Meat Beat Manifesto and Renegade Sound Wave. Ah, those golden days....

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SoHaSo continues their summer sampler series. Again, the Utrecht based record label brings you some forgotten beauties from the past. Mostly from the Lowlands this time. Perfect Virtue by British trio Shi Take is one of those gems. Tribal house rhythms from 30 years ago, with a bassline that makes you want to wiggle all the way to the center of the dance floor. SoHaSo label head honcho Nuno had been playing a demo of Tools for Fools by Dutch producer Sluwe Vos for years, when he found out the energetic rhythm track never got a proper release. Well, now it has. Flip over for some more forgotten Dutch house history. Jibaros is a project from dance veteran Eric Cycle. It has all the elements that made house music from the lowlands so good in those days: percussive beats, a decent baseline and good melodies sprinkled on top. It's a layercake of sweet stuff that just keeps on building. Very pricey on Discogs nowadays, but luckily Cycle still had the original DAT-tape lying around. Nozem is a bit of the odd one out. It's actually a project by a young dude from the south of Holland but it sounds like he stepped into a time machine which warped him back to the 90s. The vocals (in ancient Greek!) are from Sister of Iris. Closure track Tinkling Sensation by Delta (Alex Dijksterhuis) is more than 25 years old. With it's fast-paced rhythms this piano driven tune could well be something post-progressive from Scandinavia. But this is the real deal. Uplifting rave music from the days people were still carrying fluor sticks.

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With four highly focused and crisp new tracks, Bas Dobbelaer and Vand return to SoHaSo once again. Their Laren EP from last year got high praise from dj’s and lovers of deep, percussive dance music and ZL2 seems to wander down that same and interesting path. Though some things have changed. On their new EP the vibe seems more melancholic, more introvert. Might the pandemic and the locked down nightlife have something to do with it? Or is it perhaps due to Dobbelaer’s new favourite instrument, the Waldorf Blofeld? This small synthesizer combines the technology of today with the analogue vibe of the last century and is a therefore perfect metaphor for the delicate ‘vintage feel productions’ of Vand and Dobbelaer. In any case, ZL2 is manna for headphone junkies. The condensed kicks on tracks like Nomansland and Runner make way for some excited listening, with beautiful details everywhere in the sound spectrum. Listen how the hi-hats unfold slowly on the blissful off-beat belter Story of Blade. Where a melancholic strings ties it all together. Once again, youth friends Dobbelaer and Vand made something special together. Let’s hope the clubs reopen soon, because you really want to hear ZL2 on a proper sound system.

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If you know Dervaig is actually a small village in Scotland you begin to understand why the openingtrack of Sigward’s Balmung Beam EP sounds a bit eerie and dark. Long, long ago the Vikings came ashore at Dervaig (the word means ‘small inlet’ in Norwegian) but in the winter of 2019 Dutch producer Sigward uses it as a passage way to lead us into his new record. Balmung Beam is Sjoerd Sigward’s second EP for SoHaSo, the follow up for the well received Black Mambo-single from 2014. In the meantime Sjoerd moved from Holland to Germany, where he now resides in Berlin. This step has provided him with a cinemascope view on dance music, as his new EP clearly illustrates. Italo-esk flavors on the title track, meditative pulses on the beautiful Woodland Wells Inc and spacious Andy Stott-like tension on Jettison. DL/MS take Balmung Bean to new wave territories on their slumbering arpeggio-driven remix. You might just stick around in this small inlet.

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Listening to music while travelling is one of the best things to do in life. Bas Dobbelaer and Vand both know this. The Dutch producers label their delicate compositions with titles like ‘Transit’ and ‘Gateway to Gaia’ and travelled to Laren (a small town in beautiful nature) to isolate themselves from the hustle and bustle of hometown Amsterdam. They came back with four beautiful tracks which combine floating melodies with soft percussion pads and lukewarm basslines. Just listen to Void (Pulse Mix) and imagine the sun setting behind lined trees while being on a public bus to the one you love. Laren leaves you with a sense of melancholia and longing, which in this case is a wonderful thin

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Never underestimate the power of a good bassline. Mark du Mosch certainly doesn’t. This veteran from the harbor city of Rotterdam let’s his vicious bass line creep up on you from behind on 202 AC Ra. A dark and jacking club belter with clear Chicago roots. The five track EP The Heavens may be his debut on SoHaSo, Du Mosch has been releasing music for over fourteen years on a variety of respected underground labels, such as Moustache, Dekmantel and Royal Oak. His versatile style draws on sounds that evoke strong mental imagery and a sense of eternity, which clearly shows on the introspective Resonance Delay (She) on the B-side. In which a melancholic melody is supported by muffled slow motion beats. The beautiful artwork on The Heavens EP is by Joost Stokhof, an Amsterdam based graphic designer who is known for his love for detail. Which makes him perfectly suited for Du Mosch’ subtle and well crafted dance tunes. In a normal world you would open your EP with the title track. Du Mosch chooses to close with it. The Heavens stays true to it’s name. A harp like melody that washes ashore as foam from a greyblue Northsea that calmed down after the storm. Heaven indeed.

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SoHaSo is very happy to welcome an recently unknown entity on the label, Joannes is here with a fresh sound originating form the North of Holland. We all need to do shadow work once in a while, integrating our inner demons to create a more balanced reflection to carry out our lives from. The Got Needs EP provides the soundtrack for this personal journey, including delightful remixes by Nadia Struiwigh and Melatonin Man. Got Needs A1 is a powerful groove with heavily driven drum machines and 303 bassline for peak hour introspection, it doesn’t get more hypnotic than this. Melatonin Man strips down Joannes’ efort into a down- tempo electro afair containing some spell-binding rhythms that sure is to move some boo... On the B-side we fnd Joannes taking a more emotional approach, having pads and a cross rhythmic synth rif do the heavy lifting. Nadia Struiwigh takes these elements to the outer reaches of the universe. In her remix she slows i down and creates an intriguing dubby atmosphere with dystopian chords and industrial percussion.

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Limited Edition 300 copies / Vinyl only / Comes with silkscreened sleeve and doublesided poster. Wit Bad is the result of a beautiful collaborative project that started with illustrator Joost Stokhof. He was asked as an artist in residence for Amsterdam’s Hortus Botanicus, a place where Joost locked himself up for a week alongside the finest biodiversity in the city. Joost asked Eefje de visser to join him for a day and Eefje asked Nuno dos Santos to form a powerful trinity of which Wit Blad is the unmistakable evidence. The original version was released in April of 2018 and we finally have a vinyl (only) version to go along with it. On the A side we find an 808 version, which is an extended version by Nuno of the ‘Wit Blad’ original. Zooming in on the drums and bass line while leaving even more space for Eefjes haunting voice. Eefje is one of Holland’s best kept music secrets, her voice is soothing and her presence like a siren song seducing you in. Immersing the music with field recordings, you can hear the birds and surroundings the piece was recorded and even some whispering voices that only add to the atmosphere. Flipping to the other side we find our dear friend Mattheis remixing Wit Blad in a strong hypnotic vibe. Containing Mattheis’ trademark synth swirls, it’s as soothing as it is driving with spine tingling harmonics slowly creeping in and out.

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Kurt Baggaley is back on Something Happening Somewhere with his trademark drawn out manifestations and trance inducing melodies. Remembering Infinity is an 8-minute ode to the limitless, waves of arpeggiated notes and subtle pads wash you away with an endless display of dazzling forms. Trading off your mentally accepted shape and exchanging it with that within us that is unbounded. On the same side we find Mattheis taking this sonic meditation to the club environment, channeling the blissful experience to our inner dancer. Stretching, bending and condensing the sonic tapestry. On the B-side Kurt Baggaley shows a different side with electro slow burner ‘Under It’s Watchful Eye’. Packing a more sinister vibe while peaking inside our Orwellian society, it slowly unveils a more mature reflection. Completing the story is Awanto3, reworking the digital only ‘Detect’ into a house injected vibey piece. Think scrungy vocoders, rumbling drum computers and walking bass lines.

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What’s this unidentified vinyl object? After Nuno dos Santos’ striking Trigonometry of Love EP, Something Happening Somewhere presents a killer four track remix pack that let’s others retell the story in their own way. Far Out Radio Systems, Fader From Borneo, Mark Du Mosch and Polynation are all presenting their version on an exclusive ‘white label’. Containing a special silkscreen printed remix of the original artwork, every edition of this one is truly unique and a collector’s item to behold.


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Uzoamaka is an original track by King Britt from 2002, that still remains as fresh and uplifting as it was 15 years ago. Besides remastering the original, it gave the opportunity to invite other artists to retell the story. This time the mighty Dixon gives the original track an update for modern dance floors. Pushing the groove to the foreground, adding some extra percussion and drive while letting the choir guide you to a monumental break in which the chord suspends in the air. “Free to… Free to… Free to…” Nuno dos Santos has used his magic touch for a short beat edit, which focusses the whole affair on the groove even more. A powerful tool to add some impact to tracks or to break up an otherwise repetitious dj set. Mathias Schober is back under his SB alias, carefully tightening and shortening the original version from 2002 with his edit to create a version that celebrates the quality of the elements. Pushing and pulling, enhancing the entrancing effect of the musical soul.

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SOMEWHERE III is set to be released as two vinyl samplers, with a selection of the tracks featured in the full digital compilations, which will feature four extra digital only tracks. A host of familiar SoHaSo figures make an appearance, but there is also room for new faces like Aril Brikha, KAAP, Ripperton in his stunning collab with Love over Entropy, Equus, Tracey and Mulde

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Quince is back after a short hiatus on Something Happening Somewhere with a four track killer no filler EP that oozes character out of every sweaty pore. Making the kind of records you still remember after an intense club night slowly comes to an end, Quince presents a diverse pallet of sounds to choose from. ‘Rif’ provides perfect sturdy dance floor material with Quince’s compelling groove trusting alongside splintered melodies and Detroit influenced synth sounds producing a sense of undeniable optimism. B1’s ‘Coïtus’ shares a similar punch, combining raspy synth stabs with a detuned bell pad giving the feeling that you’re sucked into a wormhole propelling you towards an unknown location.‘Propheet’ hits you in the gut like nothing you’ve experienced before, like a smack in the face in the most positive way imaginable. It’s a raw driving electro cut, sounding like it could be coming from a long forgotten industrial era, with so much vibe that sweat starts dripping instantly. Think of it as travelling trough the wormhole and realizing you ended up in a dark nightmare of the soul. ‘Stop’ sounds like the musical equivalent of an artificial intelligent life form’s onboard computer slowly malfunctioning, experiencing true emotions in the downfall. It could be the sound of that intense night coming to an end and fits the closing of this class ep by Quince flawlessly.

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