A life-long friend of Toolroom and absolute legend of the electronic music scene, Shadow Child debuted on the label with ‘Rising High’ on 2nd February. His career within this alias spans an impressive 12 years, kicking things off back in 2012 with ‘String Thing’; a record snapped up by Claude von Stroke’s Dirytbird label that simply took the dance world by storm. From that point onwards a consistent flow of strong releases have appeared from his shadowy lair and been unleashed onto the dance floors of the world to devastating effect. Regular DJ spots include the mighty Fabric in London, Warehouse Project in Manchester and Motion in Bristol.

For those not in the know, or in need of a refresher, here are 10 essential Shadow Child records as picked by the man himself.

 

“I’lll never tire of working with Mark, one of my heroes from his Altern 8 days especially. We connect in the studio so easily and I’m incredibly proud of this one. We discovered some Keith Haring audio talking about morse code from an art piece, and as Mark is such a huge Keith fanatic, we sampled it in this one. We actually got Ardalan to re-vocal it as using Keith’s voice wasn’t possible in the end but the result is as big as it was when we demo’d it. The stabs are Morse Code for our initials too. Shouts to Peggy Gou for the super early love and mega social media posts!”

Rave tinged everything is what I say. This one’s probably the most uplifting tune I’ve written in a while, bringing back the early 90’s Quadrant Park era sound in a record with big piano’s and a killer vocal, sampled with blessings from The Beloved’s “Up, Up and Away”. Buzzing to get this one out.

I guess you could file this one alongside “Rising High” with the rave-infused 4/4 business. Not everything I do is along these lines, but soon as I was asked to remix the Queen of Pop, that piano took me here.

This one is THE most requested track from the original Shadow Child era.. grateful I did this one and no so raven as the others here. Times change and the sound changes.

OK, back to the rave.. in the truest sense here too. I love the original breakbeat-rave era, and making EP’s around this sound recently for Shall Not Fade and Time Is Now has been a dream. This one samples Mr Time of legendary duo Krome & Time, directly from one of the first rave tapes I had in 1992. Big thanks to Bernie for the sample!”

DBG actually stands for something and I can’t remember what it is now! So much fun making this, playing with DJ Haus’ modular synth when he came to my studio. We spent the day making freaky noises for tracks to take away, and this is what I did with mine. Love the fact Jamie Jones snapped this up – totally different to the usual Hot Creations vibe – take note kids!

Might be weird if I didn’t put this on here – so here it is. Nothing more to say!

Signed this one from some old mates of mine under a fresh name.. and just had to remix it. The original is stunning.. hope I did it justice too. Big up TEED for the super early love in his DJ sets! Probably one of my bet remixes, but what do I know.

My favourite remix from back when the SC thing took off.. fantastic vocals from Charlie Taft to work with. Less rave.. more feels.

S.P.Y and I often link on jungle tunes.. my roots! This one was on the E-Beamz label which has incredible music across the label. Techno, house, jungle – the lot. Everything I’m about. Maybe I need to stick to 1 thing? Nah.

‘Rising High’ by Shadow Child is out now. Listen here.