Tom Trago returns to Rush Hour after 10 years with a wonderfully accomplished mini-album, tip!

During the years he spent living in Amsterdam, when his DJ career seemed to become an unstoppable juggernaut, Tom Trago was a regular visitor to Deco Sauna, a local institution that helped him “decompress” and de-toxify his body. Eventually, a more extended period of “decompression” was needed, with Trago moving to the coast to reassess his priorities and spend more time with his young family.

‘Deco’, his sixth album and first for Rush Hour in a decade, was recorded following an extended absence from club dancefloors, as Trago cut back on DJ commitments to prioritise family life. When he returned to the studio, often with his daughter by his side, Trago initially struggled to get back into the groove. The desire to make dancefloor-focused music had – temporarily, at least – deserted him; instead, he found himself drawn towards a desire to create “electronic lullabies” and music that reflected his more pastoral environment (his home backs on to a patch of woodland in which he would walk every day).

Returning to his most familiar synthesisers – and specifically the first synthesiser he bought, on credit, as a young DJ and wannabe producer – Trago set about navigating different musical routes without the straight-jacket of club-focused dancefloors. Occasionally, old friends from Amsterdam would join him in the studio – Tracey and Maxi Mill, both of whom are part of his Voyage Direct label roster, contributed to tracks on the album – but for the most part the production process was a solo endeavour: musical therapy for an artist determined to do things differently after years spent making club hits and sweat-soaked peak-time workouts.

The results are rarely less than spellbinding. Trago sets his stall out with opener ‘Dark Oak’, a gorgeous, colourful, sun-bright scene-setter co-produced by Tracey that layers tumbling lead lines, chiming melodic motifs and kaleidoscopic chords atop the gentlest of bubbly beat patterns. Maxi Mill lends a hand on ‘Central Park’, a deep and hypnotic excursion marked out by rhythmic bleeps, minimalistic beats and layered melodies, and the summer sun-down rush of ‘Never Peace a Puzzle’, where kaleidoscopic synth sounds, meandering solos and looped electronic stabs rush towards a dancefloor of the mind.

Trago’s desire to create “electronic lullabies” for his young daughter comes to the fore on ‘To Be Left Unlocked’, a hypnotising fusion of spacey electronic motifs, Steve Reich style (synth) marimba melodies and slowly building musical intensity, while the echoing Fender Rhodes riffs, squelchy synth-bass, glistening guitar notes and sparse, snappy post hip-hop beats of ‘When The Sky Is Watching Us’ doff a cap to the producer’s roots as a bedroom beat-maker.

Given the project’s genesis, it’s perhaps fitting that Trago chose to conclude proceedings with ‘It Might Be Forever’ and the digital only ‘Blue Dope’, the album’s most rejuvenating, immersive, and vibrant moments. Both feature sustained chords painted with vivid aural brush strokes and come blessed with the merest hint of a rhythmic pulse – a thread that subtly runs throughout Trago’s most mature and musically rich album to date.

Matt Anniss More

Trembala is the new multi track project of Dutch artist and producer Tom Trago on his own self-titled imprint. The four track vinyl sampler is part from a 11 track larger digital release that will be released during the summer of 2022. It’s a warm and sunny ride with the typical Trago edge. First track in the series 'Forever Whatever' is a serious dancefloor jam and bulldozes the listener with positivity, showing off Tom's finesse with shimmering synth work nestled amongst delicate but driving percussion and the bounciest of baselines. Timed perfectly a nostalgic motif ties the arrangement together creating moments of pure elation and joy in this immediately recognizable aural feast. This vibe continues through all four tracks, making it a perfectly well-rounded uplifting and dancy deep house affair. More

Fresh material from the most talented Mr Trago.

Locked in during 2020/21, Tom Trago kept himself busy by increasing his daily music-making activities. As he had done pre-pandemic, Trago set aside time each day to improvise and record tracks in the studio attached to his home in Bergen on the Netherlands’ North-West coast.

Tide Will Turn, Trago’s third release on the Jong Nederlands label he established to share his work, showcases three such outings. As with previous EPs on Jong Nederlands, each of the tracks was created using a small selection of electronic instruments, drumcomputers and effects units.

EP opener ‘Number Own’ is typically emotive and quietly colourful, with chiming lead lines, sustained synthesizer chords, stirring riffs and fluid electronic motifs rising above bustling, body-popping beats and a smooth, jazzy bassline. Bubbly and ear-pleasing, it’s the aural equivalent of watching sunlight bounce off the waves that wash up on the beach just a few hundred metres from Trago’s studio.

Title track ‘Tide Will Turn’ is an altogether more relaxed and becalmed affair. Its drowsy chords and gentle, undulating melodies slowly sashay their way between clicking drum machine percussion and slow-motion beats. Trago picks things up again on ‘Understood’, wrapping attractive synth stabs, cascading lead lines and fizzing electronics around a pulsating bassline and breathless, all-action, electro-influenced beats. It provides a fittingly attractive and emotion-rich conclusion to another fine batch of straight-to-tape improvisations. More

Earlier this year, Tom Trago established the DIY label Jong Nederlands as a vehicle for the improvised, straight-to-tape tracks he records every day at his home studio in Bergen, a sleepy town on the Netherlands’ North West coast. His intention was to surprise and inspire in equal measure, delivering emotive musical material crafted with a small selection of electronic instruments, drumcomputers and effects units.

It's down to this ethos that no two label releases follow the same direction – as listeners will discover when they tune in to this speedy sequel to JNL001, which hit stores early in the year. Opener “From Above” is poignant and melancholic, with bittersweet synth-strings, spacey motifs and bubbly lead lines riding a lo-fi drum machine groove, while the track that follows, “Young Janet”, offers warmth in morning-fresh musical sunshine via rich Rhodes motifs, chunky drums and sparkling synthesizer riffs.

Darkness, and late-night intensity is provided by title-track “You Deserve Better”, a mind-mangling, acid-fired excursion where trippy, razor-sharp TB-303 lines rise above tough but dusty drums and a suitably weighty bassline. Trago’s basement-bothering intent can also be heard loud and clear on the EP’s final excursion, “Passenger Seat”. Here he readies an imaginary starship for take-off, reaching for flighty, Italo-disco style lead lines, increasingly forthright motifs and the kind of crunchy electronic drums that have long been a feature of futuristic and far-sighted machine music.

The sleeves are all hand stamped by Pieter Bijwaard More

Since relocating from Amsterdam to Bergen on the Netherlands’ north west coast, Tom Trago has gone back to basics. Every day he jams out tracks in his home studio using a small selection of electronic instruments, drum computers and effects units, a process that allows him to quickly capture ideas, emotions and the intense moments he experiences while making music.

It’s these diverse and sometimes surprising musical moments that will be showcased on Trago’s new DIY record label, Jong Nederland. The imprint is named after the building where he now lives and works, an historic and storied place that has been home to artists of all descriptions since the 1960s. Each vinyl release will feature tracks made by Trago using his improvised, straight-to-tape technique, packaged in handcrafted sleeves illustrated by internationally renowned Dutch artist – and fellow Bergen resident – Pieter Bijwaard.

The Jong Nederland story begins with two tracks of undulating, slowly shifting dancefloor voodoo rich in crunchy drum machine hits, lilting electronic melodies and instinctive dancefloor warmth. On the A-side you’ll find “Whisper”, a hypnotic but fluid affair where hushed melodies tumble down over off-kilter polyrhythmic machine drums, spaced out effects and bubbly, ever-changing analogue electronics.

B-side “Belltower” sees Trago up the tempo a little and bounce us towards the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Utilizing a rubbery rhythm track full of sturdy but supple kick-drums and hissing cymbals, Trago layers up fizzing synthesizer lines, poignant minor key chords, wiggling acid-style motifs and starburst electronics to fire the synapses and stir the senses. Like its’ A-side companion, “Belltower” gently twists and turns throughout, reflecting the real time, hands-on changes made by its creator during the spontaneous sessions that led to its creation. More

The Portuguese say that ‘saudade’, the emotional state of nostalgia and the emotional thrills it can trigger, is an extremely powerful thing. It’s certainly hit Tom Trago hard in recent times, with the Dutch producer naming his new self- released single – his first since 2017 – after this distinctively warm and fuzzy heightened emotional state.
Trago’s nostalgia pangs were a direct response to his new life on the Netherlands’ North Sea-facing West Coast, a move that provided the musical inspiration for his 2018 album “Bergen”. While happy in his new home studio, Trago found his mind wandering back to countless happy days and nights spent jamming with friends and contemporaries in his basement studio beneath Volkshotel in Amsterdam.
“Saudade”, Trago’s latest single, was made during one of those all-night Amsterdam studio sessions alongside JP Enfant, a DJ/producer best known for his residency at De School and releases on his LET Recordings. The A- side “Main Mix” fizzes with excitement and the possibilities of the night ahead. Sentimental, emotion-stirring chords, lilting lead lines, chiming melodies and ecstatic electronics rise above a chunky, hot-stepping drum machine rhythm. It’s nostalgic but immediate: a musical marriage of two giddy producers living for the moment.
On the flip you’ll find the “Ambient Mix” set to soundtrack slow-burn sunrises the world over. All immersive synthesizer chords, yearning musical motifs and seductive melodies, it sees Trago delivering a suitably tactile and loved-up soundtrack with which to usher in the dawn of a new day. More

Bergen is the next, and natural step in the expanding career of Dutch producer Tom Trago. The acclaimed producer behind Voyage Direct will release his fourth LP, with the label and crew he's built a close relationship with over the past ten years - Dekmantel. With a new studio and approach to music, Bergen is Trago sounding at his very finest, returning to his roots with a focussed, and dedicated production ethos. More

5 Track EP. Yamaha’s DX series of synthesizers has long been a source of inspiration for Tom Trago. The DX7, in particular, appeals to the Dutch producer thanks to a unique sound that he describes as “glassy but classic and icy”. 34 years after it went on sale – the same year as Trago was born, interestingly – the synthesizer’s sound still bristles with futurist appeal. More

Tom Trago's new 12", the album sampler to the upcoming album The Light Fantastic. Featuring the dancefloor stomper "Two Together" which was co-produced by Steffi, "True Friends" featuring Breach on the vocals and the non-album track "Avenido". Big TIp! Tom Trago is back, giddily dancing out of the studio into the dizzying light of a European summer. Tucked under his arm are the masters for his third album, The Light Fantastic. Since his most recent appearance on Rush Hour last autumn, Trago has spent most of his time in the studio. Over four memorable months, he constantly jammed, recorded, tweaked and produced tracks, until he had enough strong material to put together what might just be his best full-length to date. Along the way, he was joined by an impressive guest list of guests and collaborators from Amsterdam and beyond, all of who were roped in after “popping into the studio to hang out”. You’ll have to wait to hear the album, but the good news is that there’s an enticing teaser of what’s to come in the shape of this formidable three-track taster. One of the tracks, the chiming, loose-limbed, bass-heavy workout “Avenido”, is exclusive to this 12”. When he sat down to make The Light Fantastic, Trago was keen to recapture the essence of his early work, and particularly the melodic warmth, kaleidoscopic chords and robust grooves that characterized his 2009 debut album, Voyage Direct. This time, though, he wanted to rely less on samples and apply the lessons learnt from four years of largely acclaimed production work. As a result, The Light Fantastic oozes a gleeful sense of fun, whilst retaining the depth and definition that has always been a hallmark of Trago’s work. The two album tracks featured on this sampler confirm the rich dividends that this new approach brought. “True Friends”, featuring the combined talents of Brit-in-Amsterdam Ben Westbeech and local hero San Proper, bristles with loved-up positivity, all bubbling electronic melodies, fuzzy vocoder vocals and jaunty, bottom-end bounce. Then there’s the small matter of “Two Together”, an extra large helping of the kind of loopy, feel-good deep house funk with which he made his name. Expertly teased, tweaked and produced, it sees nagging hooks, darting synths, jazz keys and disco stabs riding a relentless, full-throttle groove. Co-produced with Berlin-based Dutch producer Steffi, it’s nothing less than a wide-eyed late night rush. If it doesn’t have you tripping The Light Fantastic, nothing will.
More

After Tom Trago's 'Use Me Again' took dance floors across the world by a storm this summer, 'Rise Up' / 'Sky High' is his follow up single which should fire up the crowd during the winter. Tom Trago and Cinnaman (local Amsterdam DJ) got together in the studio and out came 'Rise Up'. They somehow managed to mix freestyle, minimal, low-fi and bass together to create a cross-over house explosion. Based around a quirky bass line and vocal, the track keeps building until a catchy synth stab drops in which elevates the track to the next level. 'Sky High' sounds like a late night basement session, which is actually the case, recorded in the studio of the Serendeepity/Barking Dogs crew from milan, with San Proper and friends joining in on vocals. A bittersweet love song in which San yearns for a simultaneous high, which is backed up by a deep, silky house groove. A late night production made for late night entertainment. Comes as vocal dub and as original demo mix. Get down and rise up! More

Back in 2016, Lars Bartkuhn was on a quest to expand his musical horizons. Inspired by the idea of the desert as a transformative place – an alien environment whose combination of vastness and beauty challenges those lost within it to first find themselves before they can find a way out – he loaded up his sampler with sub-Saharan samples and set about making two 12” singles, ‘Nomad’ and ‘Massai’, which subsequently appeared on Utopia Records.

Following completion of work on his 2023 album Dystopia, a conceptual ambient meditation built around electronic and acoustic improvisations, the German musician and producer decided to return to the core ideas that inspired those two 12” singles. Once again, he wanted to challenge himself, explore the more exotic side of his musical influences, and discover a course through the musical desert to ultimately become a better musician, producer, and composer.

The result is Nomad, an album that not only brings together two sides of his work – the immersive ambient explorations at the heart of Dystopia, and the club-focused rhythms that marked out his early career deep house explorations – but also draws on a familiar palette of influences, from Latin jazz-fusion and the deep jazz brilliance of ECM Records releases, to the ‘fourth world’ works of Jon Hassell and the African music that had initially inspired the ‘Nomad’ and ‘Massai’ singles.

Searching from the start for a more ‘analogue’ sound – hand percussion, kalimba, piano, voice, bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitars, alongside the modular synth sounds that were such a part of Dystopia – Bartkuhn combined improvisational and traditional composition techniques, painstaking editing, tweaking and reworking tracks over an extended period.

Added to impeccable sound design – even the more dancefloor-focussed excursions are optimised for headphone listening – the results are startling, even by Bartkuhn’s impressively high standards.

There are, of course, radically reworked versions of previous singles – a sun-kissed, Brazilian jazz-fusion informed re-invention of ‘Transcend’ (where Bartkuhn offers nods to another musical hero, Pat Metheny), an expansive, solo-laden take on ‘Nomad’ and a ambient inspired re-recording of ‘Massai’ – plus the kaleidoscopic brilliance of 2021’s ‘Every Morning I Meditate’, but far more never-before-heard highlights.

There’s the 6/8 time, Latin-tinged sunshine of ‘Back To My Innerself’, a track built on organic performances that were improvised straight into the sequencer; the meandering, densely layered sound world that is ‘Flame’ (a tribute to ECM recordings of the 1970s); the lightly techno-influenced fourth world futurism of ‘Ghibliman’; the organic deep house bliss of ‘African Skies’, where Bartkuhn’s vocalisations come to the fore; and the slow-motion ambient house of ‘First Kalimba’.

Nomad, then, is an album that effortlessly showcases Bartkuhn’s unique musical personality and ability to craft warm, colourful sound worlds – some rhythmic, others not so much – while neatly sidestepping categorization. It could well be his strongest and most personal musical statement yet. More

6-track EP compilation with Terada's work for the Ape Escape games, tip!

Outside of the international house underground, where his early ‘90s works for the Far East Recording label he co-founded with Shinichiro Yokota are rightly celebrated as bona-fide classics, Soichi Terada is best-known for his work composing music for video games. Yet until now, few of his productions for video games have been released outside of Japan, especially on vinyl.

Apes In The Net, a six-track EP featuring music composed for the popular PlayStation 1 series Ape Escape, sets the record straight. It not only showcases Terada’s quality as a composer and producer, but also his versatility. Like much of Terada’s work on the Ape Escape series, the tracks featured don’t explore deep, New York and New Jersey influenced house sounds, but rather his lesser-celebrated love of jungle and drum & bass – a sound he fully explored on 1996 album Sumo Jungle.

“The producer of the Ape Escape games heard that and got in touch,” Soichi remembers. “They asked me to make the soundtrack, and then work on the music for the sequels after that. I used to love making music with AKAI hardware samplers, synthesisers, and computers, so I played and recorded the tracks using almost the same methods as I did when I made house music. Using breakbeats and audio samples with a sampler was the most useful way to make the soundtracks.”

The six tracks on show, which were originally recorded in the ‘90s but reconstructed and remastered for Japan-only CD and digital releases over a decade ago, mix elements of Terada’s familiar deep house style – think warming chords and pads, memorable melodies, and emotive musical motifs – with blistering D&B breakbeats, 16-bit synth sounds, electronic bleeps and undeniably weighty basslines. They’ve stood the test of time and arguably sound just as fresh now as they did at the turn of the millennium.

For proof, check the soaring, spellbinding ‘Spectors Castle’, where uplifting lead lines and sumptuous chords dance atop punchy beats and growling bass, the jazzy and saucer-eyed rush of ‘Mount Amazing’ (all twinkling piano motifs, alien synth sounds, squelchy bass and skittish drums) and the intergalactic, liquid D&B excellence of ‘Time Station’, whose whistling melodies and stargazing chords are undeniably alluring.

There are plenty of other delights to be found across the EP, too, from the bustling, race-to-the-finish breathlessness of D&B/bleep techno fusion workout ‘Spectors Factory In’, and the rumbling sub-bass, creepy pads and suspenseful melodies of ‘Haunted House’, to the bombastic, all-out-assault on the senses that is ‘Coaster’, the set’s most “purist” jungle workout – albeit one that also doffs a cap to the pulsating world of big room techno.

Apes In The Net, then, celebrates Soichi Terada’s mastery as a video games composer and early Japanese junglist. Props are well and truly overdue. More

*2024 repress*

Leon Vynehall’s beautiful ambient, cinematic race car track now reconstructed for the dancefloor…Comes with an unreleased beat version on the A-side and the original version taken from Gerd Janson's "Music For Autobahns 2" on the flip. More

Since 2014, Brighter Days has been a part of the rich tapestry of Amsterdam nightlife – a semi-regular party promoting positivity and inclusiveness run by resident DJs Kamma and Masalo. On the back of the platform provided by the party, the duo has notched up a string of memorable club and festival appearances, a regular Brighter Days show on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM, and a memorable Boiler Room set streamed live from Dekmantel Festival.

Now Kamma and Masalo have taken the next step and curated a Brighter Days compilation for Rush Hour, a collection that does a terrific job in offering up slept-on and unreleased gems – including a clutch of their own tried-and-tested re-edits – while also accurately representing the sound, style and ethos of the event that inspired it.

Like Kamma and Masalo’s event, which invariably takes place in intimate dancing spaces in Amsterdam, the Brighter Days compilation offers up an open-minded, club-friendly soundtrack that joins the dots between crate-digging obscurities from the recent and distant past, fresh cuts, ‘secret weapons’ and previously unreleased music from young, local producers who have become regular faces on Brighter Days dancefloors.

Across nine tracks, Kamma and Masalo deliver an enticing blend of tactile and colourful house, disco, basement-ready throb-jobs, inspired dancefloor dubs and righteous boogie jams, some of which are appearing on vinyl for the very first time (see Haroumi Hosono and Yasuhiko’s ‘Turquois’, an exceedingly rare, CD-only chunk of deep, throbbing tribal house intoxication).

There are highlights everywhere you look, from the piano-house rush of the ‘Subterranean Mix Edit’ of S’Xpress’s overlooked 1990 single ‘Nothing To Lose’ and the South African Kwaito-boogie brilliance of Cisco The Champ’s ‘Move On’, to the Italo-disco excellence of Hugh Bullen’s ‘Alisand’, and Mr Fingers’ jacking 1988 remix of ‘We’re Gonna Work It Out’ by fellow Chicagoan house producers North/Clybourn.

Kamma and Masalo’s remixing and re-editing skills are put in the spotlight, too. There’s the edit of Discotheque’s 1982 Dutch-Belgian disco classic ‘For Your Love’ and a previously unreleased ‘dub’ edit of French-Cameroonian artist Anyzette’s 1984 gem ‘Baladoun’, a low-slung slice of drum machine-rich body music that blurs the boundaries between Italo-disco, Afro-boogie and proto-techno.

Completing the package are two cuts that demonstrate the duo’s love of showcasing tracks by young and little-known Dutch producers. Peffa’s ‘Routine’, an immersive and emotive treat that blends elements of deep house and Detroit techno, is just one of numerous unreleased tracks by the producer that Kamma and Masalo has been showcasing in their sets in recent years, while Desmon – whose ‘Submerge’ is a woozy, off-beat deep house treat – has been a regular on Brighter Days dancefloors since the start. It’s a fitting nod to what makes Brighter days special: a close-knit community of dancers and inspired, lesser-known music old and new. More

Since relocating to Brazil some years back, Needs Music co-founder Lars Bartkuhn has returned to his long-held love of musical improvisation. Although it’s a product of his jazz roots and classical training, the German producer has constantly found new ways to apply it to his work in the sphere of electronic music.

‘Dystopia’, his first solo album for almost nine years, was born out of two interlinked ideas: a desire to create improvised music without the aid of computer sequencers or an electronic drum set, and a deeply held love of storytelling through sound. Bartkuhn set to work improvising with modular synthesizers, acoustic instruments and hand percussion, later adding light-touch overdubs to a handful of pieces. When he listened back to the recordings, an aural narrative emerged, and you’ll hear it if you listen to the album from start to finish, as is intended.

As you’d expect from a musician and composer of Bartkuhn’s undoubted ability, ‘Dystopia’ is a stunning album – an undulating, expansive ambient journey packed with emotional resonance. While Bartkuhn naturally sees it as a logical progression of his previous ambient-leaning work with Kabuki as The First Minute of a New Day (and particularly their self-titled 2020 album Séance Centre), ‘Dystopia’ also features subtle nods to many of his long-held musical loves, including John Hassell’s ‘fourth world’ recordings, the impossible-to-pigeonhole 1970s catalogue of deep jazz imprint ECM, and the far-sighted American minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich.

The album’s emotional depth is evident early on, with the slow-burn title track – all bubbling electronics, billowing chords, clarinet-style notes and gently strummed guitars offering the most melancholic and bittersweet of openings. The becalmed ‘A Drop Of Water In The Ocean’ follows, with discordant aural textures and hand percussion mimicking the rolling ocean, before ‘Largo (Calm Before The Storm)’ hints at unsettling times ahead.

‘Water and Warm Air’, the only track on the album whose starting point was not Bartkuhn’s cherished modular set-up, bleeps and bubbles across the sound space, adding a starry and otherworldly slant to proceedings, while ‘Disembodied Journey (Parts 1, 2 and 3)’ is a sublime, slowly unfurling journey in three movements – all Tangerine Dream style synthesizer motifs, Pat Metheny-esque guitars and jazz-fusion instrumentation.

So the album continues, with the poignant warmth and looped motifs of ‘Still Existing’ and the sparse, dubbed-out minimalism of ‘Do You Know How To Get Out?’ – a kind of 21st century jazz-fusionist’s take on sparse electronic hypnotism – giving wat to closing cut ‘Into The Waves’, a gentle combination of undulating electronic arpeggios and echoing instrumentation that offers a hopeful and undeniably picturesque conclusion.

Fittingly, the album cover features a painting by the late Dutch artist Franz Deckwitz (1934-94), whose images of alien landscapes were used by Phillips on a series of music concrete compilations. The image featured on the cover of ‘Dystopia’, depicting a deep blue ocean and shoreline, was painted by Deckwitz in Amsterdam in the late 1970s and inspired by a trip to the island of Ponza, Italy.

Matt Anniss More

Tom Trago returns to Rush Hour after 10 years with a wonderfully accomplished mini-album, tip!

During the years he spent living in Amsterdam, when his DJ career seemed to become an unstoppable juggernaut, Tom Trago was a regular visitor to Deco Sauna, a local institution that helped him “decompress” and de-toxify his body. Eventually, a more extended period of “decompression” was needed, with Trago moving to the coast to reassess his priorities and spend more time with his young family.

‘Deco’, his sixth album and first for Rush Hour in a decade, was recorded following an extended absence from club dancefloors, as Trago cut back on DJ commitments to prioritise family life. When he returned to the studio, often with his daughter by his side, Trago initially struggled to get back into the groove. The desire to make dancefloor-focused music had – temporarily, at least – deserted him; instead, he found himself drawn towards a desire to create “electronic lullabies” and music that reflected his more pastoral environment (his home backs on to a patch of woodland in which he would walk every day).

Returning to his most familiar synthesisers – and specifically the first synthesiser he bought, on credit, as a young DJ and wannabe producer – Trago set about navigating different musical routes without the straight-jacket of club-focused dancefloors. Occasionally, old friends from Amsterdam would join him in the studio – Tracey and Maxi Mill, both of whom are part of his Voyage Direct label roster, contributed to tracks on the album – but for the most part the production process was a solo endeavour: musical therapy for an artist determined to do things differently after years spent making club hits and sweat-soaked peak-time workouts.

The results are rarely less than spellbinding. Trago sets his stall out with opener ‘Dark Oak’, a gorgeous, colourful, sun-bright scene-setter co-produced by Tracey that layers tumbling lead lines, chiming melodic motifs and kaleidoscopic chords atop the gentlest of bubbly beat patterns. Maxi Mill lends a hand on ‘Central Park’, a deep and hypnotic excursion marked out by rhythmic bleeps, minimalistic beats and layered melodies, and the summer sun-down rush of ‘Never Peace a Puzzle’, where kaleidoscopic synth sounds, meandering solos and looped electronic stabs rush towards a dancefloor of the mind.

Trago’s desire to create “electronic lullabies” for his young daughter comes to the fore on ‘To Be Left Unlocked’, a hypnotising fusion of spacey electronic motifs, Steve Reich style (synth) marimba melodies and slowly building musical intensity, while the echoing Fender Rhodes riffs, squelchy synth-bass, glistening guitar notes and sparse, snappy post hip-hop beats of ‘When The Sky Is Watching Us’ doff a cap to the producer’s roots as a bedroom beat-maker.

Given the project’s genesis, it’s perhaps fitting that Trago chose to conclude proceedings with ‘It Might Be Forever’ and the digital only ‘Blue Dope’, the album’s most rejuvenating, immersive, and vibrant moments. Both feature sustained chords painted with vivid aural brush strokes and come blessed with the merest hint of a rhythmic pulse – a thread that subtly runs throughout Trago’s most mature and musically rich album to date.

Matt Anniss More

Heavy hitting remixes by Alex Attias and Byron The Aquarius of tracks from Soichi's 'Asakusa Light' on Rush Hour. TIP! More

Multi-instrumentalist Lars Bartkuhn returns to Rush Hour following the brilliant ‘Transcend’ 12'' and the two exquisite ‘Needs: Not Wants’ compilations with two brand new cuts. ‘Melancholia’ is a mesmerizingly deep and dubbed-out workout with climbing basslines, distant vocal chants and jazzy percussion. Flip side ‘Icarus Ascending’ is a thick disco-bass invested house floor burner crafed to uplift all spirits to higher levels More

Double LP documenting a realtime collaboration between Terrence Dixon (Metroplex/Tresor/Rush Hour) and Jordan GCZ (Off Minor/Minimal Detroit/Rush Hour). Finally the full results of these special sessions see the light of day (a ltd edition 12" of exclusive tracks owas released in 2020).
BIG TIP!

"In September 2019, Motor City techno legend Terrence Dixon made a rare trip to Europe. He was introduced to Jordan Czamanski AKA Jordan GCZ, a serial collaborator and electronic music improviser best known for his work as part of Juju & Jordash and, alongside David Moufang and Gal “Juju” Aner, as Magic Mountain High.

The pair hit it off immediately, so Czamanski powered up his studio and the pair began to jam. Over the following five days, the pair improvised extensively, stopping only periodically to drink coffee and discuss music, life and much more besides. While in the studio, they barely uttered a word to each other, instead responding almost psychically to the rhythms, grooves, riffs and musical motifs the other was spinning into the mix.

The results of these surprisingly magical 2019 studio sessions are showcased on Keep In Mind, I’m Out of My Mind, the pair’s first joint album and Dixon’s most significant musical collaboration since the Detroiter’s 2018 hook-up with German techno and ambient veteran Thomas Fehlmann.

In keeping with the project’s improvised roots, the six-track set is notable for its immediacy, pleasing looseness – it was mostly created using outboard equipment including synthesizers, drum machines and effects units – and sonic fluidity. It offers a neat, symmetrical blend of the two producers’ trademark styles, with Czamanski’s attractive chords, melodies and jazz-flecked motifs rising above hypnotic, cymbal-heavy rhythms that have long been the hallmark of Detroit’s sci-fi-fuelled techno sound.

This unique and appealing, dancefloor-focused sound ripples through album opener ‘Fretless’, an ultra-deep chunk of heady liquid techno, and the breathless bustle of ‘Operation Delete’, where bubbly synthesizer motifs, cascading ambient electronics and urgent bass cluster around a killer broken techno groove.

It’s there, too, throughout the surging, deliciously percussive ‘Space Chime’, an alien-sounding concoction that sounds like it was beamed down from some distant galaxy, the warming-but-intoxicating minor key swirl of ‘Axis Mundi’ – a two-part slab of techno psychedelia full of trippy electronics, dystopian jazz riffs and intergalactic intent – and the pitched-down, mind-altering oddness of closing cut ‘Above Ground’, when the pair goes all-out in pursuit of leftfield techno perfection.

Created from scratch in a few days by two of electronic music’s most accomplished improvisers, Keep In Mind, I’m Out of My Mind is an exemplary meeting of musical minds and sonic sensibilities."

Matt Annis

Comes with insert with photographs by Atelier Fantasma (Jop Verberne). More

vThe legendary N.A.D. follows up the aptly titled ‘Electro EP’ with the punishing ‘A Day in May’, a scorching hot four track technofunk monster that marries the Detroit and Kalamazoo techno traditions with classic UK techno. Absolutely exceptional high-octane material destined to set any dancefloor on fire. More

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Soichi Terada & Masalo team up to produce club mixes of tracks from Soichi's 'Asakusa Light' on Rush Hour. TIP! More

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Late nineties saw three releases of Boo Williams on Titonton Duvante run Residual Records. From these three eps we pulled the four best tracks, which make up this 'Residual EP'. Four times raw, deep, melancholic, late night grooves at which Boo is a master. Essential house music! More

Doing exactly what it says on the tin - a tough four track electro set from Mustafa Ali under the N.A.D. moniker. TIP!
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Back in 2015, Japanese deep house pioneer Soichi Terada stepped back into the limelight courtesy of Sounds From The Far East, a Rush Hour-released, Hunee curated retrospective of material released on his Far East Recording label in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buoyed by the positive response and renewed interest in his work, Terada went back into studio to record his first new album of house music for over 25 years, Asakusa Light.

Developed over 18 months, Terada tried to recreate the mental and physical processes that led to the creation of his acclaimed earlier work. Those familiar with Terada’s celebrated, dancefloor-focused sound of the 1990s – a vibrant, atmospheric, and emotive take on deep house powered by the twin attractions of groove and melody – will find much to enjoy on Asakusa Light.

“I tried to recall my feelings 30 years ago, but when I tried it, I found it super difficult,” he explains. “I didn’t even know what I thought about myself five years ago, and the mental metabolic cycle seems to be faster than I thought. I tried different methods, including digging up my old MIDI data and composing by remembering old experiences. With the help of Rush Hour, I found some of the light from my heart that I had 30 years ago. I nicknamed the light I found in my heart, ‘Asakusa Light’.”

Produced using the very same synthesizers and drum machines that powered his 1990s work, the album is a joyous, colourful and life-affirming collection of timeless house music that not only recalls Terada’s own impeccable back catalogue, but also that of similarly celebrated contemporaries such as the Burrell Brothers or Ben Cenac (Dream 2 Science, Sha-Lor).

Terada, who has spent much of the last two decades writing video game music, has always had a gift for combining warm, undulating synthesizer basslines and perfectly programmed machine drums with stirring chords, smile-inducing melodies and mellow musical flourishes. It’s this immersive, sun-kissed and tuneful trademark style that takes centre stage on Asakusa Light, an album for the ages.

The set begins with the alien-sounding chords, soft-touch percussion and dawn-friendly warmth of ‘Silent Chord’ and ends on a high via the bouncing string stabs, starlight chords and thickset grooves of ‘Blinker’; in between, you’ll find a deluge of effortlessly feelgood music that’s the aural equivalent of a dopamine rush at sunrise.

There are subtle variations aplenty throughout the album – see the 8-bit lead lines and pulsing electronic textures of ‘Takusambient’, the vintage Tony Humphries flex of ‘Diving Into Minds’ and the effortlessly funky ‘Marimbau’ – but it’s the uniquely atmospheric, vivid and tactile nature of Terada’s loved-up sound that resonates. After well over 30 years in house music, the light in his heart is shining brighter than ever. More

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The exceptionally gifted Lars Bartkuhn (Needs/The Astral Walkers) debuts for Rush Hour with the excellent double A-sider Transcend’/‘Every Morning I Meditate’.

‘Transcend’ is deep dancefloor floater centered around a brilliantly conceived electric piano theme that’s impossible to get out of your head, while ‘Every Morning I Meditate’ reaches into the depths of ambient house - a deep and dreamy Balearic-tinged sunrise workout referencing some of Larry Heard’s best nineties downtempo work. More

Dutch multi-talent Oceanic debuts on Rush Hour with the outstanding ‘Total Comfort’ EP, displaying his skills as an increasingly confident producer, taking cues both from classic Detroit and UK techno whilst looking at the future with four slices of delicately woven post-modern breakbeat techno. Excellent stuff! More

*2021 repress* Back in 1996 Robert Hood launched his Floorplan monikor on this 12" through his own M-Plant sub-label Drama. This is probably the only time he really touched up a disco record and what a way to do it... Raw and minimal to the bone. This has to be one of the funkiest records to have emerged from Detroit in the last 25 years, and its unmistakably Robert Hood. BIG TIP!

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