#15 Feat. Staff Picks in Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic)

07.10.21 > Claires Accessories has remixed Federations Venus, pitching it up to 170bpm + DJ Hyperdrive has played it on his Boiler Room Hard Dance 121 set. I am out for a run, listening on my bone conductors. What is this? It is fast. It is raw. It is animal. It has the thrash metal / crust-punk pace of psy, but without the trite robot farts + UFO samples. There are gabber kicks + Bladerunner riffs. It is cold + it is minimal. + then it is hard + it is beautiful. I want to hug a dog walker. 11.10.22 > SIOC has remixed Otto K (LOST182), Claires Accessories has reworked Steve Jones (LOST183), + Astral Bandits oneiric psy-gaze masterpiece Different Kind of Friend(LOST185) has broken all known BPM records for a Lost Language a-side. 21.12.22 > A quiet night in sharing music over a bottle of red, some shrooms, + a fish pie - Melissa + I had a moment listening to Matriarks Virvle. I have stuck it on a 2hr mix, alongside current faves from Pro Athlete, Mikkel Rev, Mac Declos etc / recent EL-EL signings. This is THE PULSE OF A TIMELESS WAVE. 28.04.23 > Matriark is DJing at COCYX in London. It is my 43rd birthday. The venue is an old office space in Tottenham that I worked in 15 years ago. It has since been turned into a nightclub + I find myself dancing where my desk used to be. Pissing on the ghost of a photocopier. I bore everyone with this synchronicity. Matriark drops Lost Tribes Gamemaster (HOOJ081), pitched up into the high 160s. It goes off. Drunk on meaning / a heavy dose of McKenna Mushrooms (Terrence / Paul) I fall into a fugue. I feel unreal. 11.9.23 > Thanks to a campaign by Trance vet J00F, Beatport have introduced a new genre tag - RAW TRANCE, + with EL-EL sat firmly in the uncooked camp, they have asked me to submit a video talking about it. I stand in a field and blabber on about - The sound. The art. The underground. + a NEW PUNK ENERGY(TM). When things are truly exciting, it is never just about the music. 10.12.23 > Holeigh loved the EL-EL promos. Shes gonna play Factorias Darkskye remix in Paris tonight. Said it sounds wicked at 155. 12.4.24 > Loving the Afgang Remix of Racket Sports. Almost donk when it breaks. (Donk-ish? Donk-y?). With the Nordic Echoes remix of Suns Horses, thats 2 killer cuts from Denmark. 1.10.24 > Dave Moth has reworked Dominions 11hrs + weve collaborated with Ulteriors Paul McGregor as SIDE WOUND. It is a dream. Paul Speedmaster Coppings remix of Locomotion (LOST193) has just been released, + the Vergil edit of DIFFERENT KIND OF FRIEND has racked up plays from new breed heavyweights KI/KI, Hyperdrive, + Charlotte de Witte. 10.12.24 > SIOC has remixed 3 classics from our back cat. The masters sound great. Hard to pick one, but Origin (LOST001) is 100\%\% going on the next EXHIBITION. 07.02.25 > I am sat in my local trying to write a blurb for this comp. All our raw cuts on one CD length mix. As usual, it is a fucking jigsaw. The running order - a puzzle. Until you find the corners. + the edges. + then it isnt. I keep a daily record in lined red + black. Dreams, shadows, cosmic love / loathing. The last 4 years are on the table in front of me. Everything takes forever. This is that. Never not was. BL 25.

Side Wound, qoob, Dave Moth, The Mfa, Origin, Astral Bandit, Dominion, Otto K, Chris Johnson, Steve Jones, Darkskye, Natious, LostLegend, Side Wound ft Paul McGregor, Various Artists

#93 Feat. Staff Picks in Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic)

Chris Johnsons Locomotion (LOST171) was originally released back in 2020, with a widescreen prog trance remix from EL EL stalwart Relaunch racking up several plays on Paul Van Dyks VONYC Sessions. Top marks. There was clearly more mileage in the originals driving-stabby-vandit esque riff, though - so we were truly made up when Speedmaster Records head honcho / trance pioneer Paul Copping heard it, liked it, and agreed to rework it. Berlin based Speedmaster Records has been (and continues to be) a driving force within the fast, melodic, new school trance scene, releasing high nrg music from Part Time Killer, Funk Tribu, Technokool, and SIOC. With this in mind, Pauls remix of Locomotion finds another ratio gear, pitching things up, and adding a techy Marco V style drive over a tough and chunky groove. Choo-Choo! On the B-Side, Borderline Records boss Activa - who has since signed some of Chriss music (and shared our musings re the untapped old-school-love-parade-energy of Locomotion) has given us the rework hes been playing out in his sets. A faithful re-spray that tightens, tunes, and touches things up in all the right places. EL EL 24

Chris Johnson