11 Tracks In The House Life of Matt Masters
We last caught up with Matt Masters when he dropped Look what you’ve done and I’ve opened my eyes, with the Art of Tones remix of latter popping up in our Nu Disco tracks of the year. Safe to say Matt has been behind some wicked tracks over the last few years including his ace album ‘Never Ending Nights’.
Matt also helps keep things ticking over at legendary UK labels Freerange and Delusions of Grandeur and this week-end is joining label kingpin Jimpster at the first edition of brand new London based party ‘The Drop’ at Omeara, in SE1 close to London Bridge on 9th March 2024.
The first edition of ‘The Drop’ see’s Matt join a stellar line up including Berlin duo Session Victim, wildcard Italian producer Black Loops, Jimpster, NTS’s and Melodies International Mafalda, and another Freerange Records head Conrad Lee. It’s a pretty incredible line-up and a sure fire do not miss party.
It’s also a Resident Advisor recommended pick! You grab your tickets here: The Drop: Session Victim (Live), Jimpster (Live), Black Loops, Mafalda at Omeara, London · Tickets
To celebrate Matt dropped this wicked chart for us tracking his life in 11 tracks with tunes from Gat Decor, The Prodigy, Pepe Bradock, Afro Medusa, Master at Work, Johnny Corporate, Georg Levin, Angie Stone, Pound Boys, Switch, Lovebirds, Arithmetics, Marcel Wave and of course Matt Masters
11 Tracks In The House Life of Matt Masters
Gat Decor – Passion (1992)
This was one of the first house records I bought. It’s such a big tune, holds many memories for me and I played it throughout my teenage years. It was also around the time tracks like Atlantic Ocean – Waterfall were released. Timeless to this day.
Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation (1994)
I used to go on lots of journeys with this playing on my headphones. I had just been handed down a portable cassette player at the time. I wore the cassette out so much I had to buy the album again. No Good from this album was always on repeat and a big favourite with my friends too.
Pepe Bradock – Un Pepe En Or Vol. 1 (1997)
There are five tracks on this vinyl release and they are all great. Pepe Bradock is such a talented producer that I usually go to for references and techniques used when working on my own productions. I first started buying vinyl around 1998 when I went to Uni and this has always been killer.
Afro Medusa – Pasilda (1999)
I remember first hearing this on the Space Terrace in Ibiza that year. It has a huge build in the middle and the break ended just as a plane flew over the club. It was was my first time in Space and a real moment with my friends. Since then, I have been many times (probably 25+) and also lived there for 6 months in 2003 when I was DJing for the summer.
MAW presents INDIA – To Be In Love (1999)
At the time around the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Defected were releasing (in my opinion) some amazing tracks. India’s vocal is timeless on this and MAW are incredible. That period of time heavily shaped the music I listen to and love now.
Jonny Corporate – Sunday Shouting (2000)
Another defected track. Again, so simple with a building groove and bassline that just makes you want to dance. No huge drops just a very simple sax riff. Always a huge candidate for the ‘less is more’ in house music.
Georg Levin Feat. Clara Hill – (I Got) Somebody New (2002)
I’m a sucker for vocals and when I first heard this I thought it was a track I had missed from years ago and I was playing catch up. But it was a fresh release so I knew it would stand the test of time.
Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You (Pound Boys Stoneface Bootleg Mix) (2002)
This is an old bootleg of an Angie Stone original track. The original is great of course but this was in a lot of my sets when I first started DJing. It’s recently started to feature again in my sets.
Switch – Get Ya Dub On (2003)
This was a game changer. I was DJing at a friend’s art gallery on NYE at a private party in the West End, London. Such amazing people in an amazing space with a lot of my pals. I didn’t want to leave but had to play at another gig afterwards on NYD at Heaven in Charing Cross London. I arrived in the early hours of NYD and was not disappointed. After being in the club for five mins they dropped this track in the main room. When I found out it was Freerange I had to get involved. A few months later I met Tom and Jamie (Jimpster) to see if I could help out at the label and over 20 years later I am still with the label.
Lovebirds – Want You In My Soul (2011)
My wife and I had this as our first dance at our wedding. When it was first released it was around the start of our relationship. It was an instant classic and a track that my wife and I will always hold close to our hearts.
Arithmetics – The Faint Of Heart [Freerange] 2011
After a few years working at Freerange, I started getting into producing again as I hadn’t written anything since Uni. My first remix for Freerange was a track by Brett Johnson called WeR1 and I then remixed Jimpsters A Love Like this in 2010. Following that, I wrote this track with Dave Pezzner under our Arithmetics guise. He was over in the UK and we hooked up and wrote it really quickly. There is a great video of Seth Troxler dropping it at Timewarp in Germany and the crowd loving it. Always makes me feel warm inside when I see the video and grateful for what I do.
Various Artists – Out Of The Ashes 2012
This release came from a particularly sad time. There was the police shooting of Mark Duggan which lead to London riots that year. The riots lasted for several days and unfortunately this spread to the Sony Music warehouse in Enfield where all of our Freerange Records stock was stored and the warehouse was burned down. Freerange curated this release to honour some of the vinyl that was lost in that fire. One of my go to tracks from this release is Marcel Wave – 27 Holton (Serafin’s Back To New York Re-interpretation). Such a groove!
Matt Masters – Once Again 2019
This was a real moment for me to finally produce my debut album called Never Ending Nights. To have it released on Freerange was a dream come true. It is a collection of tracks I had worked on over several years and wanted to keep for an album release rather than for an EP. It’s predominantly a house album with some interludes and a nice broken beat groove at the end with Lazurusman doing his great spoken word thing over the top. Once Again is a slow house groove with a big bassline leading the track. I have a lovely following in South Africa and they go wild when this is played. It’s great to see the expressions on the faces when myself of others drop this track. I am currently working on some new material which I hope Tom and Jamie will like for Freerange. I’ll be playing some of it at The Drop so hope to see some of you there on 9th March.
For more info on Conrad and The Drop please check:
Matt Masters Facebook
Matt Masters Instagram
Matt Masters Twitter/X
The Drop Tickets
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