Setting the Pace

download_20151215_152347As we wrap up another twelve months, we’d like to express our gratitude to the DJs, music lovers and fans who have made 2015 such an important milestone for Retreat.

Although our label was silent for more than a year, you’ve supported massively our “comeback” releases from Quarion and Session Victim, not to mention the repress of „Treats Volume 1“.

You’ve proved us once again the pertinence of our “quality over quantity” philosophy and we intend to pursue that route in 2016 and beyond.

As a small token of our appreciation, we’d like to offer a 10% discount on all Retreat-related articles in the Webshop if you place your order before the 1st of January 2016. Please note that with the xmas craziness in full swing, your package might arrive a bit later than usual…

Thank you for the support and stay tuned!

Ps: The next installment of the “Treats series” is up next and it will be a special one!

Session Victim – Two man house band EP – RTR17

RTR_Label-17After last month’s »Busted Moniker« EP from Quarion, Retreat is thrilled to announce a new 12″ courtesy of house music’s most energetic duo, the incomparable Session Victim! The aptly titled »Two Man House Band EP« is the lads’ first record since their 2014 magnum Opus »See You When You Get There« and perfectly transcribes the energy that Session Victim pour into their incendiary live show. Tailormade for a night out in the club or a joyous day at the festival, the »Two Man House Band EP« once again prooves that Session Victim are unstoppable in their pursuit of the ultimate groove!

»Summer Games« is an ode to that most festive of seasons and could easily hold the claim of being Retreat’s »biggest« track so far. Built around an Hypnotic organ loop, »SummerGames« completely blurs the lines between house, funk and soul : rolling breakbeats, catchy vocal snippets and a very groovy bassline are the core elements of this anthem that could rock any party. Yet Session Victim add a slight twist in the form of a melancholic string motive that appears in two chiseled breakdowns. It’s a little reminder that summers do not last forever and that one should enjoy them while they last …

Flip the record in order to dive into the deeper realms of »Black Cream«, a more reflective track for the late hours. With its jazzy (almost broken) beat, guitar licks, rhodes pads, subtle percussion and ethereal vocals, »Black Cream« is the soundtrack to an exciting underwater trip with Matthias and Hauke at the controls. Thanks to the captains’ lively drum programming, the track flows effortlessly and we’re treated with many surprises along the way before a gradual rise brings us back to the surface.

»Finderlohn« is a smokey downtempo workout which finds Session Victim digging deep in their collection to demonstrate their prowess in manipulating samples. Beginning with an instanly classic guitar and piano loop, »Finderlohn« allows a shuffly breakbeat to take center stage, sometimes reinforced with double-time hihats for a more dramatic effect. The tune is definitely a headnodder’s paradise and the listener is taken that little bit higher thanks to a mystical flute solo that concludes »Finderlohn« in a psychedelic way.

A1 Summer Games
B1 Black Cream
B2 Finderlohn

Release date: September 18th 2015
(RTR17_Releasesheet)

Communication Restored

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Slipmat 1: “Hey, let’s take a selfie with the Tokyo Skyline in the background!” Slipmat 2: “Have you grown a pair of hands?”

« The Rise And Fall Of Retreat »: what appears to be the title of a cheap gangster movie is actually the script that Hauke and I seemed to have unknowingly followed in 2014.

The rise was gradual and smooth : the label reached the small milestone of being five years old, we put out a compilation on double gatefold vinyl with exclusive music from some of our favorite artists and we went on tour around Europe to celebrate Retreat’s 5-Year anniversary. But the fall was sudden and abrupt : our distributor Intergroove filed for bankruptcy in july and this struck an almost fatal blow to our finances…

So for the first time in the label’s history, we took its name literally and folded back. Retreat moved away from the spotlight in order to heal and calmly prepare the next move.

Thus after consolidating our relationship with a new distributor (Word And Sound), sanitizing our finances and most importantly spending countless hours in the studio, Hauke and I are thrilled to announce that Retreat will be back in the summer of 2015 with the help of not one but two releases!

RTR16 by Quarion will be available in July while RTR17 by Session Victim is expected to drop mid-august. As you can imagine, there are still a few details to finalize but we thought it was important to get back in touch with all of you and announce that Retreat will be introducing year n°6 with a double summer slam!

More information to follow of course but in the meantime, thank you for your support and please stay tuned!