NUDE150: Ross Harper

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.

Today, he joins the NUDE Techno podcast, with an hour of Techno. Listen to it below on SoundCloud & Mixcloud. If you are feeling this series, then please consider supporting it on Mixcloud Select.

Sum up this podcast in 10 words…
Sexy experimental techno that pushes the boundaries of modern music.

What’s your personal favourite track on it?
Ross Harper – New Super (Kay Barton Remix)

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?
When I lay down a mix there is a story I wrote a couple of years ago that always inspires me. It goes a little something like this…”There was a king who was very ruthless and downright mean. One day a court jester was brought before him who was so terrified he could hardly control his own muscles and kind of just jibbered. The king actually found him extremely entertaining, but the jester just wanted to get away and managed to slip through the crowd. The king sent word out to his best men to find the jester and bring him back. Eventually they found the jester and dragged him back. As soon as he appeared before the king, the king could not help but pronounce a blessing over the jester and his family forever.”

Tell us about your next EP?
Throughout 2023 there are some really cool remixes appearing of tracks from my 2022 LP, The Dark Album. This was the LP that Charlotte de Witte called “Beautiful”, and Richie Hawtin played out quite a bit, and it made the front page of Mixmag. Every remix artist is handpicked by me, not because I think having their name on the release will get me attention (in case you didn’t know that is why a lot of remixes get made – lol), but each artist is chosen because I genuinely adore their music and have played their tracks in my shows.

What have you got coming up?
Aside from the remixes, I’m having a whale of a time with my monthly residency at Brighton based party, The Luces Phenomena. It’s a beautiful space with an exciting up for it mixed crowd. I’m also touring with the sounds of The Dark Album, so if you would like me to visit, get in touch.

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?
I heard an interesting statistic the other day, it was something like, on average we have 16000 thoughts a day and 80% of them are negative. So I guess, with that much negative self-chatter going on, my message would be…find one meaningful thing in your life that truly excites you and stick to it.

Tracklist

Mydoz – Deep & Rave [1205 music]
Ross Harper – Something New (Coast2c Remix v2) [unreleased]
v0ll – Noise [self release]
Quiddam – Vestal Virgins [self release]
Rotkeller – Skpp Skpp feat. B. Skupin [Thrénes]
DJ Dextro – Valquirias (Original Mix) [Korpus 9]
unperson – steel wound [Illegal Alien]
Raul Alvarez – In The Middle Of Nowhere [Analog Defense Network]
Ross Harper – Hard Patience (Developer Remix) [unreleased]
Diplo & Seth Troxler – Waiting For You ft. Desire (Danny Daze Sun & Waves Extended Mix) [Higher Ground]
Insolate – Wonderful Life (Truncate Remix) [Arkham Audio]
Ross Harper – Narcissist [Amorphic Reshape] [unreleased]
Cri Du Coeur – Warning (Mark Broom Remix b) [Arkham Audio]
Withheld – Zu Haus mit Ciara [Pantamuzik]
Ross Harper – New Super (Kay Barton Remix) [City Wall]
RE-ST – Molva Rausch [NOMO]
Phase Twice – Serpe (Original Mix) [TUTU]
Ross Harper – Zeitgeber (JoeFarr remix) [City Wall]
Ross Harper – Deep Life (DJ Emerson Remix) [unreleased]
Raul Alvarez – One Night In Heaven [Analog Defense Network]