John Summit returns to Defected for the first time since his 2020 breakout hit.
Beatport’s best-selling artist of 2021, John Summit, returns to Beatport’s number one house music label, Defected, for his latest hit, “La Danza.”
The Chicago star’s new single follows a vast run of releases over the past few months, including “Human” (feat. Echoes) on FFRR, his collaborative tune with Sofi Tukker “Sun Came Up,” his remix of Purple Disco Machine’s “Dopamine,” and more.
With “La Danza,” Summit brings a high-spirited, Latin-infused vibe that incorporates his trademark infectious groove along with red-hot vocals and a butt-shaking bassline.
Beatport shines a spotlight on the meteoric rise of Franky Wah’s brilliant and blissed-out SHÈN Recordings imprint.
Fast-rising dance star Franky Wah has been wowing clubland with his illuminating and sweeping productions on labels like Ministry Of Sound, Club Sweat, Anjunadeep, and more since first emerging on the scene in 2018. As legions of fans continue to rally behind his sound and sets worldwide, the artist broke out in 2022 with SHÈN Recordings — a record label and luxury brand that “pushes the boundaries of progressive club culture.” The imprint first hit the airwaves with the arrival of his two-track EP in April last year, “More Than You’ll Ever Know/Surrender (ft. Clementine Douglas).” The producer then rounded off 2022 with the widely received mixtape This Is SHÈN. This beautifully curated 27-track journey features a collaboration with Sasha while simultaneously introducing the label’s dedication to Chinese philosophy, religion, and mythology.
Since then, SHÈN Recordings has been hard at work, dropping dreamy, driving, and cinematic records from Vintage Culture, Cristoph, Jem Cooke, Shadow Child, Korolova, Marsh, Giorgia Angiuli, and more. In addition to building up a roster of releases from some of clubland’s finest, the label launched its debut Ibiza residency this summer at Club Chinois. To celebrate this burgeoning imprint’s shining achievements, we caught up with Franky Wah to learn what he believes are three of SHÈN Recordings’ most essential tracks and his plans for his label’s future.
The mighty and high-spirited UK duo Y U QT detail their journey from being inseparable childhood pals and losing contact before reuniting to become one of the UK club scene’s most beloved and energetic pairings.
“We basically can’t get away from each other,” laugh Leicestershire-born best mates Darryl Reid and Cooper who, as DJ/producer duo Y U QT, have gone from childhood pals to storming the UK club scene with their high-energy DJ sets and genre-spanning productions.
First meeting at Lutterworth High School in Year 7, they bonded over their love of music and skateboarding and have been largely inseparable since. When hanging out as kids, Cooper would DJ while Darryl perfected his skills on PlayStation game Skate. They shared a love of hip-hop, notably US rappers Nas and Biz Markie, but their music interests elsewhere differed: Cooper liked house, but Darryl preferred guitar music; incidentally, he played in a band with Cooper’s brother.
When the pair finished GCSEs, Darryl went to music college while Cooper stayed behind to study media for a year at A-Level. However, they weren’t separated long, as Cooper soon decided to join Darryl for “the biggest doss on Earth.” With 90% of the course being practical, they skipped their few theory lessons. “We were given a lot of freedom to do what we wanted… most of the time,” Cooper remembers. “It was great because we weren’t the type of kids who liked sitting down in a classroom with a pen.” In contrast to their school teachers, the college tutors “allowed us to be ourselves.” For the majority of their two-year course, they were in the studio; “everyone knew we would probably be better off there and not disrupt lessons,” Cooper laughs. Despite this, no songs were created together; instead, they would make “silly stuff, like Darryl rapping… “It was never anything serious or with a specific goal,” Cooper recalls.
Living in villages on the outskirts of Leicester, they felt removed from the city’s music scene and didn’t start going to clubs until they were 18. When they started DJing properly together, Cooper recalls that it was amid the UK dubstep explosion; the first dubstep night outside of London, Kontact was held in Leicester and hosted sets from Skream and Benga. “That was so exciting because it was a completely new sound,” he reflects. Darryl also remembers fidget house being “absolutely nuts” locally, with artists like Lee Mortimer, A1 Bassline and The Bloody Beetroots.
While Cooper would work on the door at Sophbeck, his steady income came from day shifts in retail. Darryl, meanwhile, had progressed to media college and, after making music on his headphones, ended up touring Australia and Europe. This long-distance separation resulted in a “strange period of time where we weirdly didn’t hang out,” Cooper remembers.
Inexplicably, 11 years passed until the pair reconnected, but they quickly made up for lost time. “I was chilling with mates at mine and Darryl came round, we had some beers and were just messing about making tunes,” Cooper recalls. After this “silly session,” they decided to meet up in the week. A shared epiphany followed: ‘Why have we never made music together?’ “It was always a super separate part of the friendship,” Darryl remembers, “which is mental thinking about it.”
Their first time making music was a case of putting their heads together. Next time round they shared each other’s playlists, including ‘98/99 garage tracks by Sunship and MJ Cole. This gave them a reference point to work from. Darryl says the first track they made was “like if you put both of our influences into a song… but maybe it was too many influences.” Their second – far darker and grime-orientated – “was a case of throwing different things in and going with it,” Cooper recalls. “We’re probably always looking for each other’s approval,” Cooper says of their creative process; “and that works well, because you’re constantly pushing one another.”
Thanks to their rapid work rate, they quickly had five tracks finished. Cooper knew exactly who might be into them, and he was right: garage scene-leader Riz La Teef wanted to release them on his then-new label. While this presented, as Darryl jokes, “the biggest cheat code ever,” they needed to come up with an artist name. One problem: they only had the time it would take for the record to be pressed. As Cooper puts it, six weeks of “sending each other random shit via texts” followed. Incidentally, Darryl had started researching stars in the solar system and discovered that one is called UY Scuti. When he saw the message, Cooper replied ‘what about Y U QT?’ Job done.
With the release of their 2021 EP, Dancehall Damager, they had landed on a distinct but hard to categorise sound. “If you pick out someone like Bicep, what do they make?” asks Darry. “They make Bicep and as long as there’s a Bicep sprinkle over the top, it works.” It’s an ethos they share: “everything has the Y U QT sound, but we want that to be wider because more people can come into the gap,” Darryl considers. One thread that ties the Y U QT world together is the UK-centric sound at its core. “Whether it’s rave-y, jungle-y, garage-y, house-y or bassline-y, it has a British-ness.”
This wide-scope approach to dance music applies to Y U QT’s DJ sets, which feature 85% their own music. “It bounces around that whole world,” Darryl summarises, citing one track that “broke the boundary massively”: Skin On Skin’s “Burn Dem Bridges.” “That did something where it’s alright to play in a techno set, a house set, a grime set, a garage set… that dome of music is what I’m interested in.” Regardless of the type of tune they play, there’s one constant: Darryl and Cooper’s tireless energy. “For the whole night, we literally don’t stop dancing and acting like children,” Darryl jokes. “Because me and Coop are so happy behind the decks, people often say they feel ten years younger at our shows. Everyone is super happy and knows the vibe, too; there’s no worrying about not being able to dance in a certain way because… just look at what’s going on in the DJ booth.”
While such sheer joy could be interpreted as the antithesis to competitively stationary and expressionless DJ culture, Darryl says they’re just enjoying the moment. “If you’re given a free bar and a pair of decks with your best mate, you’re gonna have a good time!” Cooper feels the same: “I still find it weird that people watch a DJ, so if people are looking at you, they want to see something fun, and that then translates to the audience. If we’re jumping around like mad, they might feel it’s okay to do the same and be themselves.”
The vibe rubs off, particularly during the ‘ALL NYTE LONG’ shows, which they describe as their favourites to play. “It’s five hours of showing off the music that we like, so when we get to the heavier stuff everyone’s so ready for it,” Darryl says. They’re equally connected to their fans online, too; far from keeping track IDs hidden, the pair happily send out their dubs on request. Arguably their biggest dub to date has been energetic jungle roller “Y’all Ready For Dis,” which, thanks to a spin during Yung Singh’s Boiler Room set, gave them an “accidental” viral moment. “That track has opened up our audience massively,” Cooper says – and not just in terms of their fanbase, which now spans drum ‘n’ bass and jungle. Bookers who previously pigeonholed them into garage-only line-ups “now saw what else we do”, he adds. When the pair played it hours after making it, at the opening show of their tour, in Nottingham, “the room went absolutely ballistic”, Darryl remembers.
Ever since, their edits have been getting into exactly the right hands. Bicep play their take on “Apricots” in their sets, and Joy Orbison has been rinsing the Y U QT version of “Hyph Mngo” for ages. “It gives you such a big certificate of authentication,” Cooper enthuses, “especially because some people might be like ‘what are you doing? You can’t do that to this song!’” Darryl continues: “Because we’re not that massive… if Four Tet remixed Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” they’d say ‘it’s Four Tet, we all love it,’ but the more you do it, and the more those people play it, you realise ‘okay cool, maybe we can do this.’” Darryl thinks their keenness to take snippets from other tracks stems from their love of hip-hop: “It’s almost like paying homage to the original songs, while putting our spin on them and bringing them into the Y U QT world.”
They’re certainly doing something right. Earlier this year they made their own Boiler Room debut and went on a US tour. Now, with a hefty gigging schedule lined up for the next few months, they’re also gearing up to drop their new EP, BABE?. “These tunes are a step in a slightly different direction,” Cooper teases, adding that they are harder to pin into just garage. “They’re garage-influenced monster songs,” Darryl enthuses. Although they struggle to pinpoint exactly where they fit into the scene (“I don’t have a clue, musically,” Darryl admits), Cooper says that “while we came up with the big garage resurgence, it feels like we’re slightly leftfield of that.”
One thing’s for sure, though: the pair remain grounded to their roots – quite literally, having stayed in Leicester. “A lot of people in London have got a vision of where they want to go musically, but being outside of the scene, I think it’s really beneficial to not be wrapped up in any of that,” Cooper considers. Having achieved success on their own terms, the duo would love for their DIY story to inspire other people.” When people were getting to that age of moving to uni, everyone I knew felt they had to go to London,” Cooper recalls. “So if a younger kid can think outside that idea and realise they can make something of themselves in their hometown, that’s a great thing.”
Revisit – Unlocking Beatport Success: A Live Webinar on Music Promotion Strategies
(Get access to the full webinar replay below)
On 14th September we broadcasted a live webinar on how to promote your music on Beatport. Hosted by Raphael Pujol (Vice President of Curation) and Marina Palacios (Head of Label Relations Team, UK), the session offered a wealth of practical information on how you can leverage Beatport to successfully promote your music and build your fan base.
As well as providing a general introduction to the suite of tools and platforms available within the expanding Beatport ecosystem, Raphael and Marina peeled back the curtain on some of the internal processes involved with getting your releases picked up and promoted by the curator team at Beatport.
“Every week we have millions of visitors visiting our store and I think that’s why having your music available on Beatport can be very powerful – and can be a marketing tool in itself.” – Marina
Throughout the session, Raphael and Marina gave a lot of great technicals for best practice in producing marketing and promotional materials, and explained how the curation at Beatport works. Despite hosting a colossal 90,000 labels and processing 30,000 releases every week, the curator team is human-run without the use of algorithms or machines. The labor-intensive process allows the curation team to be hands-on with artists and labels, providing expert services backed by an acute understanding of the music and the culture across all of the genres and regions that are housed on the platform.
Raphael explained the importance of first creating a clear vision and profile behind the music you’re releasing, and a demonstrable work ethic in marketing and promoting your own music, saying: “Getting different types of content to support your music is extremely important today. And that sometimes will make the difference in sales. And sales will mean chart positions, and chart positions means more visibility, more visibility means more sales…”
This isn’t only essential to build an audience and successful business in today’s digital world, but also necessary if you want to be actively promoted on the Beatport platform. First and foremost however, good quality music is still the number one factor in being considered by curators for promotion.
“Incorporating all of these things in your vision will create the right energy and space for you to work in developing your business, and all of that will naturally unfold. When we see that as curators, as Beatport, we want to help you.” – Raphael Pujol
Additionally, picking a distributor that understands and represents your sound and culture is equally important. Having a good distributor by your side that you’re aligned with will allow them to help you get your music out to the right places.
When approaching a distributor it’s important to be ready to work with them – with a clear brand and some kind of marketing plan, so that there is enough lead time for promotion and ensuring you get the best engagement when releasing your music.
The webinar also covered the different avenues of promoting your music through Beatport’s ecosystem including various editorial, banners, charts, and the unique opportunities that can be unlocked through Beatport’s promotion accelerator – Hype.
To get those key promotional strategies and essential details on how you can get featured by Beatport curators, sign up below to watch the webinar in full:
The UK House legend shares stories from his inspiring career and the making of his new sample pack, Circus House Music.
Liverpool-born DJ, producer and promoter Yousef Zaher has long been a part of house music history, but in May of 2021, Zaher – who writes and performs as Yousef – became a part of national history when his club night Circus was picked to host the first club nights in the UK after over a year of restrictions as part of the government’s Event Research Programme (ERP).
“It was myself and my business partner Rich knocking on the door of Liverpool Council, maybe eight, nine, ten months before the party actually happened, making the suggestion that at some point, the UK will surely by definition, have to restart events.”
“We had three weeks’ notice, we got a phone call to say, look, the government has sanctioned this, we would like you to give it a go, and you have to pay for it yourself. So we had to book it in just a few days.”
But Yousef’s musical journey began long before the world-changing events of 2020. He has had a career spanning over 20 years with countless highlights behind the decks, in the studio, and behind the scenes at Circus Recordings.
To celebrate the release of his new Beatport Sounds sample pack, Circus House Music, we sat down with him in his studio to ask him a few questions.
I guess it depends how far back you want to go. Even when I was in school, I really wanted to get into the acid house and rave scene when it was in its infancy.
At the weekend at school I would disappear to go to fledgling raves – amazing places like Shelley’s in Stoke – when I was super young, way too young to get in. It was an incredible formative experience seeing people like Carl Cox, and even The Prodigy live, and they were among their first-ever gigs.
Later down the road, when acid house hit Liverpool, I’d go to places there. But then, most importantly, it’s when Cream started, and that’s when I started to understand the authentic message of house music a lot more just by going every single week and seeing the American DJs who turned my ears like David Morales and Tony Humphries, Roger Sanchez, Derrick Carter – they were the people that really turned me on to the authentic house sound.
Of course, even in Cream, it was a full range of music across three rooms, but it was just being introduced to people like The Dust Brothers – now The Chemical Brothers – Andrew Weatherall, DJ Harvey, people like that were back in the annex.
Of course, most importantly, Paul Bleasdale was the backbone of everything that happened in that club musically. And for me, as I’ve said lots of times, he was one of the most important DJs in Liverpool’s history.
Do you have a first memory of when you noticed things really started to take off for you?
I think it’s been well documented that at the very beginning of my endeavours to become a touring DJ. I won a competition in the now-defunct magazine Bedroom Bedlam DJ. That set me off on a path where I got gigs at Ministry of Sound, which went really well. And then Pacha in Ibiza, which went extremely well.
I was telling somebody about it a few days ago. I had two copies of “Rock Shock” by Roy Davis Jr. and another track by The Buffalo Bunch and I was just mixing it up on three decks, doing my thing. The room at Pacha was going absolutely bananas unbeknown to me – I just thought it was normal. When I came off the decks, there was a whole range of agents and promoters and managers and everybody wanting to get a little piece of me – I had no idea that this was the beginning of the rest of my life.
That night, I went off and had lots of fun and on Monday I went back to my normal job – I literally worked in the children’s underwear section as an assistant. And little ones catalog. Don’t miss those days. But the phone calls came and I was made resident at Ministry Of Sound pretty quickly, and I was signed to the Ministry Of Sound agency. God bless Amy Thompson for looking after me and supporting me back in the original days. But yeah, man, that whole weekend or week in Ibiza in 1998 literally changed my life.
What’s the story behind your own club night, Circus?
Really, I was lucky enough to get the call up from Cream to be a resident. Short backstory – I was going there every week for seven or eight years, I was religious every week. But then I won the DJ competition and the irony was, I was now unable to go.
I was off playing Renascence and Ministry of Sound and playing gigs around Europe and my Saturdays were taken. But obviously, I wanted to be playing at Cream because that was always my dream. And when I say dream I mean that literally, I couldn’t sleep some nights imagining what I was gonna do when I played there. Eventually, Jim King and James Barton asked me to be a resident of Cream. That was fantastic.
I was there for a few years, but what was happening simultaneously was the music in the main room was becoming so far and far away from what I was doing in the annex — which is like underground house and techno — and eventually, we decided to do my own night at Cream.
It was going to be called Circus because I was at a party in Miami in a penthouse, and it was going crazy. I was DJing to everybody and these people from all over the world, all walks of life, and it was just kind of total chaos – it really felt like a circus.
We were about to start our night Circus at Cream, presented by Yousef, but unfortunately, Cream closed. I got a phone call from one of my long-serving business partners and best mates Rich McGinnis, who suggested that we continue doing the Circus idea together. We found a venue that was run by his girlfriend’s dad at the time, we put a few hundred quid in each and we just started. Fortunately, the first night at the Mask Arts Club – now called East Village Arts – was a real success. People from the Annex, my audience, came with me and we’ve not really looked back. We’ve kept on pushing away just between the two of us ever since day one. It’s now over 20 years and, of course, we’ve had lots and lots of crazy moments since.
What’s the future for Circus?
The future for Circus is to just continue to just try and do the best and most creative events that we can manage. Obviously, we’ve got the responsibility of looking after our staff and all these things so we need to make sure that the events work. We love the fact that we are able to support a range of artists across the city and beyond. We like it when major names come to play for us – the energy after those events is just second to none.
For me, it’s been like an unexpected 20-year journey. I thought it would be five years, ten years. Now it’s 15, 20 and beyond. So it’s very, very much established. But again, we just want people to have a good time and feel safe. That’s a good thing to touch on because the levels we go to ensure safety in the city now are literally second to none nationwide. It’s something that I’m really proud of, the journey might be slightly more complicated to get in, but once they’re in it’s safe and I find that’s something that I really take personally.
Finally, are there any artists you’d like to collaborate with in the future?
I guess I would like to collaborate with more of my DJ peers. I’ve done that quite a lot over the years. I’m 80% to 90% of the way into my fifth album, which is very much a collaborative process but largely with musicians and lead singers rather than electronic music producers. Maybe there should be a bit more of that. I’m not sure
I’m always trying to be creative and move forward. I think that sometimes there can be a bit of a disconnect between my musical output and my DJ sets, so I’m trying to connect those dots a little bit more. I’ve just released an EP called the Tools EP, which is very clearly just DJ tracks. But when I do an album, it’s listened to from start to finish, so people know me for a range of things. I’m just trying to make sure that the dots are connected a bit more over the next one if you like.
Yousef’s Circus House Music sample pack is now out from Beatport Sounds, and available on Loopcloud. Check it out here.
