HUGEL’s Debut Album Is Here

HUGEL describes his debut album as a sonic self-portrait.

“I put everything I had into it,” the Make The Girls Dance label head says of the LP. “The sounds I grew up with. The cultures that shaped me. The people who inspired me. The emotions I felt along the way.”

The 16-track project, Twenty One, takes its name from the length of time that separates the now global touring DJ from the younger version of himself who made his first mix with vinyl in his bedroom in Marseille 21 years ago, with no sense of just how far music would eventually take him. The milestones HUGEL has since reached – a Coachella debut, residencies at XS and Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas, his label’s returning residency at Hi Ibiza, and now, his first full-length – were once distant dreams and now, a reality reaffirmed by the album.

Threaded with sultry, summery sensibilities spanning dance/pop, tech house, Afro House, Afro pop, and Latin house, Twenty One boasts an equally expansive coterie of collaborators, ranging from Big Sean and YoungBoy Never Broke Again to David Guetta and Barbara Doza. Some of the artists who appear, HUGEL says, are “people I looked up to when I was a kid,” bringing a “surreal” full-circle quality to the LP.

While HUGEL admits he “truly tried to make an art piece,” Twenty One feels less like something framed behind glass than a statement of authenticity.

Listen below.

Twenty One is out now via Make The Girls Dance Records. Get it on Beatport.