As many seminal 90s parties where Ross Harper began his journey are looking back by celebrating his 25th and 30th birthdays, Harper is embodying his experiences and writing the future. The Dark Album is now blossoming into a collection of music that is a statement to a divided scene about musical unity in diversity. Harper has personally been road-testing the remixes in London, Amsterdam and Barcelona as part of 2023/24 The Dark Album World Tour.
The crowd reaction has been outstanding, the looks on some of the raver’s faces when these tracks drop is second to none. The Kay Barton remix caused complete drama, as did the incredibly powerful JoeFarr remix. Feedback from the Barcelona show was an absolute dream with a couple of guys emphatically stating this was the best DJ they had ever heard, similar comments came from Harper’s time at Sisyphos, where one raver said he had lived in Berlin for 10 years and this was the best DJ set he had heard.
Bill Brewster announces ‘After Dark’ compilation
BT drops new single "k-means clustering"Volume 3 has an exceptional quality to offer from four outstanding artists. Harper first came across AMAS with their Face 1 EP, he was stunned by the emotion held in their deep techno sound. The Jozef K take on My Gift runs in a similar vein, holding feeling and space in the sound, actually the AMAS and Jozef K remixes work beautifully “in the mix”. Kay Barton ramps things up in incredible style with a force of strength that is as grounded as it is space age. The build-up in this track is completely wild, the power of which must be witnessed to be believed. Finally, after his Zeitgeber remix from Volume 2, Mario rejoins The Dark Album remix throng, this time with a perfectly paced downtempo vibe.
AMAS are a mysterious duo hailing from southern Germany, writing music that reflects the psychology of modern life. Their take on My Gift involved threading in parts of their poem called The Void. The rich harmonics are accomplished through classic hardware such as the Juno 60 and Moog Subsequent 37. The result is a timeless piece of contemporary musical poetry.
Jozef K is an established UK producer with releases on established labels such as Last Night on Earth and DJ support from the likes of Dixon, The Blessed Madonna and Jo- ris Voorn. For his remix, he worked completely “in the box” and focussed on creating a strong bass to accompany aspects of the original melody, as well as threading in some stand-out Jozef K atmospherics.
Kay Barton heralds from the same generation as Harper himself, with roots and connections to the original Berlin Love Parades, he has been producing since his teenage years and has seen releases on labels such as Bonzai and Trapez. So it is no surprise that his remix draws on that original 90s energy, albeit with modern production quality. Barton utilises Harper’s bleeps and psychedelic tones, then bounds them up in a harder, faster style with a powerful Arturia Brute synth lead after the drop.
Harthouse, Broque and Form&Terra mainstay, Mar io embellishes us in his soft spot for downtempo, which, again has a link to the 90s through groups such as Morcheeba and Massive Attack. When he heard The Power of Three he was transported back to “that place” and felt inspired to create a quiet and relaxed remix that is suitable for home listening, after-hours and chillout areas.
Pre-order/Buy “The Dark Album Remixes” HERE
