Lunetten EP

When this record was first released back in 1996, it came with a hilarious press release that had something to do with a hidden data track featuring the voice controlled web browser U-Scape. As outdated this nonsense is now, the music still sounds fresh like with most U-TRAX original releases from the 90s. Created by Dutch techno veterans Maarten van der Vleuten and Tjeerd Verbeek, this is one of the three last U-TRAX releases of the 90s; releases that marked a new, more intense musical direction for the label and that are all very dear to us personally.

The title of the 5-track EP is inspired by the area in Utrecht where Tjeerd and U-TRAX label boss DJ White Delight used to live in. Tjeerd then was very successful as Trance Induction and Pyrex Detox, and had just founded his own record-label Desert Rose Industries. Maarten’s collected works include hundreds of tracks, using 40+ aliases, like Major Malfunction, In Existence and Flux. He too had then just started his own record-label, named Signum Recordings. Like U-TRAX, both producers have been releasing new material on their old labels in recent years.

Maarten and Tjeerd at one point got together and composed some soothing, yet dark and deep techno-tracks with an ambient feel to them. “MT34” makes you feel you’re walking across an Indian marketplace, with snake charmers playing their characteristic sounds, backed by some jumpy 909-rhythms, while “Winter” sounds like the darkest Icelandic winter storm you can imagine. “101” was singled out in the infamous 1996 press release as the data-track containing the U-Scape browser. Coincidentally, it is quite pleasant to listen to! It sounds like an experimental track with crispy clear ultra-low and extremely high pitched sounds. The flipside brings you the melancholic and gripping Ice and the old-school and tranquilizing ambient track “Fusion”.

Original release date: November 1996.