Church of Trance

This summer, Push returns to the album format with ‘Known Universe’ – the eighth longplayer in his eminent career. That 'known universe' specifically is the hardware-driven studio world that shaped his earliest work. The one that Mike Dierickx painstakingly reassembled in order to reconnect with the tools, challenges and workflows of his original environment. In doing so he’s nailed an album that’s “ the truest reflection of Push to date. ” ‘Known Universe’ has landed! ‘Keeping it real’ ... It was a thing back then and something that lies at the very bedrock of what - production-wise - Mike Dierickx did … and still does to this day. Over his studio lifetime, he hasn’t mutated, changed-to-order or had his sound knocked off course by fleeting trend. Not even the once. Being true to the craft has quite literally been his be-all and end-all. At points that might’ve cost him ground, but Mike had an oracle-like idea of what the long game looked like. Impactful music, made wi...

Fusing two generations of artistry along a single conceptual thread,  Fisherman  ( Isaac Vissers ) lands his debut album with a project as deeply rooted in family as it is in music. ‘Metamorphosis’  takes inspiration from a series of twelve graphic works created in the early 90s by Isaac’s father, painter Jack Vissers, with the meaning of each canvas now reinterpreted as a corresponding piece of music. Across its twelve tracks, the album charts the human journey – one that moves from states of innocence and possibility, through the rebellious and aspirational stages, before finally reaching understanding, transcendence, and continuity. Whichever way you cut it, there’s never been an album quite like ‘Metamorphosis’ . Across its twelve tracks, the album charts the human journey – one that moves from states of innocence and possibility, through the rebellious and aspirational stages, before finally reaching understanding, transcendence, and continuity. Talking about ‘...

What happens when two producers — bound by a shared history, yet also significantly parted for fragments of it — rediscover the musical language that first brought them together? And then further, seal it with a 20-track first album as a two-piece? For Driftmoon’s Juraj Klička , and Miikka Leinonen , who in 2023, rejoined, seven years after his departure, the answer’s  ‘Moonstruck’ —a record born through (not to put too fine a point on it!), reunion. Featuring a constellation of talented co-producers ( Ruben de Ronde, Richard Durand, Robert Nickson, Hel:Sløwed  to mention a few )  and vocalists like  Sue McLaren Sarah Howells  and  Susie Ledge,   ‘Moonstruck’  is Driftmoon’s most ambitious studio work to date. “ Opus ” may not be too big a word. Divided into four lunar events, each echoing a stage in the duo’s timeline, they, alongside their creative allies, have delivered the most vivid, and indeed,  complete   Driftmoon LP to date....

“ Always, I have believed that artist albums need a purpose ” says Johan Gielen , “ and that purpose can’t simply be feeding the industry machine or the bi-annual expectations of a fanbase ”. Nonetheless, it’s been nigh on twenty years since ‘Revelations’ appeared, making ‘ Etherflow ’ less of a ‘return’ to the Johan Gielen longplayer, and more a musical reckoning for it. Fair to say then that expectations have been raised, and its taken the Belgium-born/Dutch-based legend three earth cycles of production to meet them. An album forged in grief, resilience, and a raw creative truth, ‘ Etherflow ’ isn’t just a long-awaited ‘next chapter’ . It’s part an epic celebration of life, and part an existential excavation of it - one that’s been written from the inside out and charged by the weight of lived experience. As Johan himself puts it: “ there’s the Beauty of Silence, but also ‘the beauty of absence” . ‘ Etherflow ’ though, is where that absence ends. What’s in a title then? Joh...

It’s by design that  Cold Blue  has taken the longer road back to back to LP life. For a man with as much affinity for the current season as he, it’s significant that he refuses to work in regular album cycles. Indeed, ‘desire’ remains the only point on his production compass. As such, it’s been six rotations since the release of  'Winter'  — his debut longform, and one which set a new high-water mark in electronic music purity and definition. ‘Mountain’ , his sophomore work ( arriving Nov 14 ), is certainly a continuum of that, but also one that, over time, may prove to be his artistic zenith. It’s the product of a creator who places studio craft over song, atmospheres beyond clubfloor furore, … and patience - quite simply, above all other concerns. Now, that patience — both his and yours — is rewarded through the release of the extraordinary  ‘Mountain’ . If 2019’s ‘ Winter’  captured Cold Blue at his most expansive, then  ‘ Mountain ’ finds him in...

THE FIRST ARTIST ALBUM FROM ONE OF JAPAN’S FOREMOST ELECTRONIC MUSIC TALENTS. FEATURING MUSICAL COLLABORATIONS WITH CHRISTINA NOVELLI, JULIE THOMPSON, LINNEA SCHOSSOW, CLARA YATES, CARI AND OTHERS From Tokyo’s high-rises to the farthest edges of sound, one figure has spent the last decade bending studio frequencies to her will. Over that time, she’s built nothing less than a sonic solar system, with  Rina   ‘Rinaly’   Noguchi  firmly at its core. ‘Ecliptica’ , her debut longform. takes its title cues from the passage of the sun — a rotation where shadow and luminosity are locked in a permanent state of pursuit. First track through last, that chase musically characterizes the album, cycling between mass and elevation, brightness to grit and synth glare to bass drive ...  ‘Ecliptica’ s opposing poles are formed by techno and trance, and the artistic yin-yang they develop is one Rinaly both identifies with and channels throughout. “ My life ha...

Has  Paul van Dyk  used Artificial Intelligence on an album that questions Artificial Intelligence’s role in our future? Well, we’ll get to that. Having album-gifted a locked-down world both  ‘Guiding Light’  and  ‘Escape Reality’  in 2020,  ‘This World Is Ours’  is the German pioneer’s first longform foray in five years. Paul’s  been in the  ‘think-phase’  of his eleventh LP ever since, and few would deny that the last five rotations have given us plenty to think about. “ Very pro technology ” is how  Paul van Dyk  describes himself, something populated by his early adoption of new music tech at pretty much every career juncture. In the respect of AI though, he sees both a clear distinction … and a natural fork in the road. “ Artificial Intelligence isn’t music technology, or film, or entertainment, social media, military, finance or any other sector. To my mind, it is simply a new definition  of  ‘technolog...

From the outside looking in, ‘making it’ in the electronic music sphere always appears to be the toughest nut to crack. Mark Sherry  however  would  respectfully disagree.   ‘ S taying there’  is where the hard work begins. Famously,  Mark  did the former ,  near enough, inside his first studio trip, taking him to the top 5 of both his native UK and the international charts. He has barely paused for breath since. A testament to a professional life lived exclusively within the dance music space,  ‘TH3RTY’ s  title   denotes both his years working there and the album’s track count. Work hard and (DJ-wise) play hard is  Mark’s  ethic, and  ‘TH3RTY’ s its absolute embodiment.  Fittingly, over  ‘TH3RTY’ s thirty, its music both looks forward and reflects back. It features collaborations with rising singer-songwriters like  Adara, Brieanna Grace  and  Kate Louise Smith.  Equally, it includes p...