Loz Goddard House | Deep House 5 Items

Loz Goddard is welcoming the new year with a colorful and optimistic record filled with earthy tones, setting the scenes for much-needed musical regrowth in the early stages of 2022.

The return of master Loz to Outplay!

After releasing strong stuff on labels like Razor-n-Tape, Quintessentials and Quartet Series plus some recent remix action on Melbourne's Kyoku, monsieur Goddard has made a new EP for us as a perfect follow up to his 2015 Loose Jams!

He presents a wonderful EP of three varied tracks, showcasing his prowess in combining synths and sampled bits.
First up is uptempo discofied 'Hazy', which builds well on the sound he's become known for.

On the flip there's deep dusty chugger 'Peaches' and the sweet, sweet melodies of synthy groover 'Murmur' to provide a proper close to the EP!

In our 20th celebration year we welcome back Loz Goddard! It’s been quite a while since we last saw him on our label. With his standout debut collab release with Harry Wolfman in 2016 he has developed a unique mix of electronica, deep soundscapes and lush organic Deep House on labels such as “Oath”, “Razor N Tape”, “Church”, “Outplay” and “Apparel Music”. Now he finally returns with a mini album that features beautiful crafted ambient and electronica cuts paired with three upbeat tracks that will for sure shake the dance floors in and outdoors this summer! Enjoy!

In his own words, here are some insights on the influences and production process of these six pieces:

The release is named after a night in the White Hotel in Salford watching Skee Mask. At the time I had a bunch of unfinished ambient ideas as a result of making “Balloon Tree Road” (out on Oath). There were a lot of ideas I still loved that didn’t get finished for that release, so I set about finishing them late 2022 & early 2023 with the view to releasing an EP or ‘mini album’ that was again angled a bit more towards home-listening.

The more upbeat tracks are newer jams that I created in 2023. I wanted to include a few club-ready tracks on the record as well, so the release appeals to DJ’s as well as home listeners. I approached the production much like my past two records on Oath, with lots of live drum elements, some sampling and a mixing approach which keeps everything sound warm and organic. It’s rough round the edges - as has been the case with my productions of late - and offers a nice contrast to my DJ sets and radio shows at the moment, in which I am playing mostly Deep/Progressive House, Breaks & Techno. There’s some influence on the title track from the Deep & Lo-Fi House sound of artists like Baltra & Mall Grab, and I have taken influence from all the breaks I’ve been playing in DJ sets for ‘How’s This for a Vague Song Title’.

All tracks mastered by Salz Mastering in Cologne. Photography & Art by Break 3000.

On his second excursion for Oath, Manchester-based producer Loz Goddard continues to nurture the clubby side of his sound with a razor-sharp and bombastic EP that contains all you could ever wish for when it comes to breaks, euphoria, and sonic depth….

As a producer, Loz has operated under a number of guises, but one thing has always remained – his elegant and inspired application of melody. His early career was marked by a number of superb releases on labels such as Church, Tusk Wax, Apparel and many more, all of which highlighted a deep affection for groove, tone and atmosphere. The music largely operated within the realms of Deep House – at times spilling over into Nu-Disco – but there was always a little bit of shine on each EP that pointed to other spheres of influence, and it was these references points that made Loz Goddard’s music feel broad, considered and introspective. The music appealed on many levels and provided plenty of worlds and spaces in which listeners could get deeply involved within, and this journey is filled with beautifully polished gems that can be held and admired in your hands time and time again.

A two-year break from releases resulted in the release of ‘Ballon Tree Road’, his debut LP and first release on Oath, and to say the record was a step forward would be an enormous understatement. Here Loz Goddard set down a marker of things to come, as he drew from the melodic outlays that were a cornerstone of his discography to date and permeated these through a spectrum of styles and rhythms that represent everything good about a dance music record. You had the quiet moments, the heart-felt moments, the pure and powerful moments, with Loz exploring everything from Breaks to Ambient, Broken Beat to House, and even some D’n’B thrown in for good measure. This was a marker if there ever was one, and it firmly established Loz’s second era phase, one where his abilities were given space to shine on a much broader scale.

‘Are We Ever Leaving Here?’ builds upon the energies found within his debut LP, providing a bitesize experience that aims itself directly at the dance floor – but listening at home provides a lot of scope for inward escapism. The EP presents three original cuts, of which the title track gets things going – a deep set, resonating chord gets things going, which fans out to include additions to the sequence, and before long the breaks come into play, achieving lift-off and welcoming you firmly into the experience. ‘Parallaxing’ really evokes that firm set 90s Techno sound, with a hard-as-nails rhythm section (with hats aplenty) providing a basis for acid lines, swelling backroom chords and gorgeous interplays between synth lines – the way in which this song peaks is utterly glorious. ‘Space Nugz’ takes things down a notch, but keeps things heavy yet delicate. The beat here is cavernous, diving deep down within the strata along with the bass line that keeps proceedings ticking over. The melodic top layer is spacey, drifting between the ethereal and the real, enticing the listener to leave this plane and pursue a new life in another galaxy.

To round off the experience, there are two remixes from Casa Voyager head OCB, and Bristol-based producer Boulderhead, and they do not disappoint. OCB puts his spin on the title track, and the BPM gets pushed to its max, with the vibe pulled apart and rebuilt as a heads-down, floor-smashing proggy roller. Boulderhead focuses on ‘Space Nugz’, and here the groove is once again flipped on its head, with the remix pushing into the realms of dreamy chuggy techno, with the melodies filling up the spaces so beautifully.

Loz Goddard started something beautiful with his debut LP, and saw his sonics reach new heights and touch new depths. This EP keeps the flames burning bright, with expertly crafted dynamics and his signature melodic abilities on full display, with the two remixes adding much to the experience. As a mini-experience, it’s hard to beat, and it only sets the heart racing for what might come next – for the meanwhile, Oath are incredibly proud to facilitate this beautiful new experience from Loz Goddard, and its one hopefully to be enjoyed at a few spots this summer…..

Hand-numbered, hand-stamped 12" limited to 300 copies.
No: 201