The Sounds That Shaped Me: Trutopia

From the green, green hills of Wales to the hot and steamy sidewalks of summer in Brooklyn. UK brotherly house duo Trutopia found themselves transported to the Big Apple in September last year to take part in a special studio session organised by iconic imprint Nervous Records.

Joining forces with Germany’s Ben Delay and Portuguese producer Moullinex. The pair were immersed for a week solid in a state of the art studio experience with session players, engineers and enough hardware to sink a battleship. The resulting body of work aptly titled the ‘Brooklyn Sessions’, will be released across a trilogy of EPs this year. The first out this week and already winning plaudits from house heads around the world. 

Producing together as Trutopia for the past four years, the brothers initially started out playing in indie and rock bands. Then the sounds of the house began to steer them in an altogether different direction. Releasing on Strictly Rhythm, Sweat It Out, Armada Subjekt and ToolRoom as well as Nervous Records. Trutopia have seen their music supported by Radio 1, Kiss FM, Capital Xtra, DJ Mag and yours truly at Data Transmission HQ.

As the pair look towards an increasingly bright future as a shining light of UK house, they look back at the five tracks that pushed them firmly down the house music direction:

Dave Spoon: At Night (ToolRoom Records)

Will never forget the first time we heard this, it was in a club called Escape in our hometown Swansea. The electro gritty feel transformed the room & as cheesy as it sounds, that’s what made us want to make music. Ten years later, we found ourselves on the same line-up as Dave Spoon aka “Shadow Child” – this was a huge moment for us!

Kim English: ‘Nite Life’ (Armand Van Helden’s Retail Mix) (Nervous Records)

So many tracks from Armand have influenced us & our sound, giving us a love for the “classic” edge to house music. This one in particular stood out as it has everything, a thumping low end, massive chords, dope af drums, rave synths & not forgetting a HUGE top line from one of our industry’s finest, the late, great Kim English. This actually came out on our very own Nervous Records & it’s mad that we get to keep such good company! 

MK: Burning (Defected Records)

Now this track is what you call and instant tune! MK is an absolute g at chopping vocals and catching you with hooks. He seems to nail it every time & when we are in the studio, we often find ourselves looking back to the early stuff he produced for influences.

George Morel: Let’s Groove (Strictly Rhythm)

This one was actually introduced to us by our older brother. It was on one of his tapes & we can actually remember it hoofing out of his 6 by 9s in the back of his RS Turbo ha! Little did we know we’d still be playing it now, just on bigger speakers! Big shouts to Strictly Rhythm on this one, they’ve built such a catalogue of classics & also have played a big part in our careers, continuing to believe in our music, pushing it out there for all you house heads.

FlashMob: Need In Me (Defected Records)

Coming out in 2012, one of our favourite years of house music. We can remember Pete Tong playing this bomb from Flashmob. We actually played this recently in a club in Hong Kong and no matter the room you’re playing to, this one just sends it. It still sounds brand new! Would love to see Flashmob return to this kinda vibe! CLASSIC.