British producer and DJ Jon Gurd has slowly risen up the ranks of techno this year with a number of standout club singles and a blossoming new label.
Primal Rhythm is his imprint for his impressive solo material that covers everything from driving percussive tech house, to raw beat workouts, deep melodic techno, rolling basement techno, and emotional end of the night grooves.
Today Primal reaches its sixth release. Label boss Jon Gurd is behind ‘Diving For Souls’, a deep and hypnotic techno twister. The track reminds me of the spectacle of Ibiza’s Amnesia club on a Monday night when one of the Cocoon heroes is in the final quarter of a blockbuster DJ set.
It comes as no surprise that ‘Diving For Souls’ is supported by some of techno’s most respected DJs, including Southampton techno linchpin Alan Fitzpatrick, Detroit hero Stacey Pullen, legendary Scottish duo Slam, and Glasgow’s Gary Beck.
I sat down with Jon Gurd to find out more about the new single, and his burgeoning label on England’s South Coast.
Tell me more about ‘Diving For Souls’.
The sound of Primal Rhythm this year represents almost exactly where I want to be as an artist. ‘The Brotherhood’, which was Primal’s debut release, was a big single for me and the label. That was quite hard percussive techno.
Our next two releases were a bit softer and groovier, so for this release I decided to show a different side to myself again. ‘Diving For Souls’ is a peak time track of what I consider as deep techno.
I’m really into this kind of sound. Gary Beck inspires me a lot in this field. I love everything that he does. He’s quite diverse – he can do underground, funky, deep or melodic club music.
Slam are a big influence for me too. I’ve followed them for about 10 years and they’re masters of this kind of deep techno.
The track is full of energy, but at the same time it is quite hypnotic and melodic. That’s a hard balance to achieve.
I love working contrasting moods into a track. One producer who I have always admired is Brazilian DJ Renato Cohen. I’ve played his stuff for years, and his techno always has a great groove despite it being pretty tough. He keeps his music funky, even when it is banging. That’s what I try to do with some of my music.
Quite a few influential DJs are playing ‘Diving For Souls’. Alan Fitzpatrick has played it regularly for two months, Joey Beltram said he “will support”, and King Unique said he is “a big fan of your tribal business”. How does it feel to get such reactions?
Getting respect from DJs that I admire and am influenced by, is one of the most rewarding things about running the label. At the end of the day, Primal Rhythm’s music is designed for destroying dancefloors, so to get such positive feedback from big DJs who play in the world’s best clubs, week in week out, makes it all worthwhile. It makes my day!
Six releases in, how do you feel Primal Rhythm is going?
It’s going really great. From the start I wanted the label to not be just another digital label. Rather than flood the market with an abundance of tracks as so many labels seem to do these days, Primal is all about quality over quantity.
I take great care in my productions, and really try to bring something new to the genre with every track.
And when a Primal track does particularly well, such as with ‘The Brotherhood’, I try to ensure that we don’t get stuck in a rut by releasing the same thing again and again just because the formula worked the last time.
In the end, I want Primal Rhythm to be about diversity, within the realms of techno and house, and to always be striving towards the future, towards new sounds.
So far the label has been mainly about your solo productions. Do you plan on introducing other artists to the label?
Definitely. Reset Robot aka Dave Robertson is a close friend of mine, and he did a remix of my track ‘Atomic State’ for Primal. I’ll be collaborating with him in the future, and there’s another guy we’ll be introducing to the label soon. Actually, the plan with Primal is to push future talent into the scene too, and we’ll be putting on some label club nights too. As I said, I hope Primal Rhythm becomes much more than just another digital label.
(Words: Terry Church)
Listen / download Jon Gurd ‘Diving For Souls’ from Beatport