London record label Phantasy has celebrated a milestone with its 100th release: the single “Automatic” by label founder and veteran DJ and producer Erol Alkan. It arrived today, February 19th, in digital and vinyl format.
“Automatic” encapsulates a curious cocktail of influences, generally anchored to house but simultaneously hinting at nu disco and techno. Tribal-sounding drums underscore a sustained synth arpeggio colored by a progression of filters and effects over the course of the arrangement.
“I spent some of lockdown revisiting music I’d made that I had almost forgotten had existed, looking for projects that might be worth another look,” Alkan wrote in a Facebook post.
“Although I originally recorded it around 2008, ‘Automatic’ immediately shone through as a track that was a perfect distillation of many of the records that had influenced me from around then, as well as something I’d have played in a dark, sweaty club in 2020 or 2021, given the opportunity,” he went on. “There is a certain symmetry and arc of the then into now, which made it feel like the perfect record to release as the 100th single.”
Erol Alkan cut his teeth as a DJ in London nightclubs like The Gass Club and Going Underground – the latter of which he relaunched as Trash in 1997. He became a fixture at Fabric after the turn of the millennium, earning the distinction of 2006 “DJ of the Year” by Mixmag.
“Automatic” is sold out in vinyl record format. Stream or purchase it digitally across platforms here.
