DESCRIPTION:
2x12" Tech / Deep House - Focus, integrity and substance, all allied to a relentless work ethic and that essential (if indefinable) sprinkling of magic dust, have kept Nick Warren at the top of the electronic music tree for not far short of forty years.
In that timespan, Nick has been tour DJ for Massive Attack, held a residency at Cream, been a Glastonbury regular, and become the UK’s most successful export to Argentina (in no small part due to his touring brand The Soundgarden). As half of Way Out West, he has helped write (and re-write) the rule book for club-based electronic acts, achieving true longevity without compromise. He has curated over a dozen essential compilations – a mainstay of the Global Underground series whose heavyweight influence is still felt to this day, an in-demand decknician for pivotal brands such as Renaissance and Balance, and the very first DJ entrusted with creating a blueprint for the now iconic Back to Mine series.
It's quite the CV, a career many can only dream of. But Nick has long had one further itch in need of scratching. Inspired at a young age by his dad’s Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream albums, coming of age with experimental labels like 4AD and Factory, roots deep in the dub-wise scene of his native Bristol, a long time collector of exotica and obscure film soundtracks…all that knowledge and passion has long been crying out to be channelled into a Warren solo album.
All of which brings us to the career-defining Turbulence. The world is certainly a turbulent place as Nick gets set to unleash his masterwork, but the musical turbulence at work here arguably takes its lead from other interpretations of the word – turbulence as a feeling of heightened intensity, turbulence marked by a sense of unpredictability.
A warm welcome back to vinyl to 90s progressive house original and Bristolian hero Nick Warren, who hear delivers his first expansive collection of cuts on wax since the Balance The Soundgarden compilation in 2019. More significantly, Turbulence is also his first ever solo album - a remarkable statistic given his longevity. Described in advance as "a window into his musical soul", the eight-track set attractively drifts between immersive, dancefloor-ready (and occasionally string-laden) progressive house soundscapes (the beautiful 'Loveland' and 'Turbulence'), Tangerine Dream-inspired analogue synth workouts ('Siete Largos' with Nicolas Rada), prog breaks (the Way Out West flashback 'Patagonia' and attractive 'Cobble Pot'), tactile tech-house (Mattias collaboration 'Herrera') and post-punk influenced electronica ('The Covern').