The new track, set for release this Friday on the Polyamor Berlin label, is just one of the latest chapters in a musical journey that has definitively evolved over the past year
The path of change undertaken in recent times by several trance producers and major figures within the scene has become an undeniable fact. Each of them has chosen to follow it in their own way, pursuing a personal and instinctive journey, guided by their own vision of the genre and their own taste.
Matty Ralph has consolidated his transformation in the shortest possible time, through an extraordinary versatility across genres. Ultimate, announced by the artist himself, represents his strongest current statement of a precise style, developed over the recent period and embracing 90s culture through piano touches and high BPMs.
Born from a culture rooted in the rave scene, the Northern Irish producer draws his foundations from hard trance, a genre he has managed to incorporate with precision since his earliest productions. The change, perhaps the most definitive and consistent one of recent times, has taken place alongside several leading labels, from Armada to Doof Music, Dreamstate ,through to the newly established Bebé Recordings. The melodic theme of some of his most renowned productions, such as 1999 and Dreaming, is built around an electronic synth designed to recreate the characteristic sound of late-90s analogue synthesizers, a sonic feature that would go on to establish and define his identity.
His move to Musical Freedom with Heaven, co-produced alongside JOKESONYOU, perhaps marks the highest point of Matty’s career to date, with Tiësto’s due recognition during his recent performances. It is perhaps here that the confirmation of a style capable of embodying the perfect synthesis between the nostalgia of club culture at the turn of the 90s and 2000s and the high-BPM bounce aesthetic has found its perfect balance.
A musical style also embraced by other peers in the scene, such as Sneijder with his Alt1 project (hence their latest release, Are You Ready?, alongside Matty Ralph), Ben Gold with LAWTON, Billy Gillies and Bryan Kearney.
With Ultimate, the level he has reached is one of confidence, a track that embraces a rave and old-school approach through vocal samples used in just the right way, perfectly placed within the Trance/hard dance context of the past.
Precisely this approach to different genres, somewhere between trance, techno and even dance, represents one of Matty Ralph’s strengths. Rather than classifying the genre, he prefers to emphasise the era, the times gone by. A choice that highlights the solid foundations of a producer who is still young, yet capable of looking at the historical period we are living through with remarkable awareness.
Matty Ralph will be one of the featured artists at Dreamstate Vancouver on November 28th.
Ultimate will be released this Friday on Polyamor Berlin.