Debut release from Mizu Records

Based in London, Mizu Records is a brand-new UK label founded by three artists with an exciting musical vision. The electronic imprint has been created around a shared love of deep, driving club music and a belief in carefully selected tracks with character, originality and impact. Mizu Records is interested in exploring the spaces between genres, building a catalogue where ambient, electro, progressive sounds and dub-influenced textures can move within the same current.

The label is ultimately built on a simple but compelling idea, to share a selection of some of the deepest and hottest tracks arising from Europe and surrounding regions, bringing those sounds together with elements of dub. It’s a deliberately broad remit but that gives the imprint room to explore more musical sphere as opposed to forcing its artists into a predetermined shape.

Now making an official entrance, Mizu Records brings us their first release with MZ001, an especially important introduction that presents an emphatic statement of intent. The four-track EP maps out the label’s identity through music from all three of its founders, Everestt, Human Bureau and Tomo, alongside a fourth contribution from Terms of Service, a live duo that the label touts as one of the most thrilling it’s encountered. Together, the four tracks open an initial window into the sonic world Mizu Records intends to occupy.

Ambient, electro and progressive influences form part of its fabric, with the tracks connected less by genre than by an underlying understanding of space, movement and club-focused energy. Mastered by Ben Pest, the EP’s emphasis is not simply on releasing music, but on creating a selection with a sense of wider ambition. Its philosophy is framed through water; a tide powerful enough to be mistaken for a flood and the idea of becoming formless and shapeless like water. A picture painting metaphor for a label that appears intent on moving around genre borders, allowing different sounds to coalesce and reshape one another.

“4 Years” by Everestt kicks off the release, opening the EP with the soft swirl of airy textures, intricate tones and distant percussive elements, crafting an immersive scene that develops with the pulse of deep bass notes. Flowing with hypnotic rhythmic sway and transportive atmosphere, the track progresses with the rustle of metallic drums and bubble of synth leads before dropping with the punch of shuffling beats and woozy instrumental elements, forming an engrossing electronic music experience unlike any other.

Tomo then serves up “Granverk,” where the shimmer of stuttering synth tones is met by rattling timbres and sweeping textures while powerful low-end energy fills out the mix. Jumping with the lively patter of slick percussive patterns, the hazy arrangement flows above the driving beat to forge an enthralling jam that’s unique, energising and mesmeric all at once.

On “Nasty Habits,” Human Bureau brings rumbling bass energy and crisp percussion as smokey vocalisations and softly zapping synth shots create a spacey, bass-heavy outing. Drifting synths and rolling energy collide to deliver a soundscape that’s at once enveloping and charged with forward momentum while stacks of shifting instrumental flickers keeps the track in a constant state of flux.

Closing the EP, Terms of Service lays down an atmospheric scene on “Skylight,” where the contrast between dreamy synth textures, mechanical bleeps and misty vocal shots casts a thoroughly enticing scene. Developing with the pulse of percussion, the track swells throughout to present an exhilarating dance music moment that’s uptempo and truly euphoric.

On MZ001, four tracks, three founders and one guest duo provide the first taste of a musical world that’s designed to keep moving. With its focus on deep club music, experimental edges and dub-inflected atmosphere, Mizu Records is setting out to create a catalogue that’s guaranteed to win over listeners and light up dancefloors across the UK and beyond.

Listen to MZ001 below