The full skinny on the Mancunian boy wonder’s latest

Juno Daily favourite Loz Goddard is back with a new EP, ‘Are We Ever Leaving Here?’ via Turkey’s Oath label.

As well as three cracking new original tunes from Goddard, he’s enlisted OCB – fresh from an acclaimed appearance on Juan Atkins’ Metroplex label – and Boulderhead to join him, on remix duties. It’s a corker, so we asked the Manucnian DJ and radio presenter himself to talk us through the tracklisting.

A1 – Are We Ever Leaving Here? 

This track was pretty much the result of listening to pretty much exclusively LTJ Bukem mixes from the late 90s and early 2000s for a few months. I was massively late to the party with the Progression Sessions mixes, so those were a lovely discovery of 2022. I remember driving home from somewhere and turned off my phones bluetooth which kicked the radio in, and I heard a really nice section of a track that seemed to fit with the LTJ mix I’d just been listening to, so I played back the sound over and over in my head until I got into my apartment and did my best to recreate it. That’s what you can hear right at the beginning. 

From there it was just a combination of break samples and live drums from my electronic kit that sat with it, along with some chords from my Juno 106. The bassline was one of the last things I added, again from the Juno. Everything sat together on top of some ambient pads I’ve been using loads lately, and once I had it sounding like some sort of deep breakbeat thing, it was done.

It’s probably one of my favourite tracks I’ve ever made, and one I actually listen to now and again because it didn’t take hours and hours of arrangement and endless hours of over-listening in the studio!

A2 – Are We Ever Leaving Here? (OCB Remix)

To get Driss on the record was something I’ll always be mega happy about. I’ve been playing his music for years at this point and I think he makes some of the best music out there. As I was finishing up the originals and I realised that it was a fairly break-heavy record, I started thinking about remixers that would add something different but also remixers that dabble in Breaks and Electro. I knew OCB would bring one (or both) of those styles, and he turned the original on it’s head into a proper piece of club tackle. He took things away from the deepness of the originals which I loved, as contrast is important to me on an EP – especially when asking remixers to get involved.

He quickened the pace, added a bit of funk with that bassline and created something that wouldn’t sound out of place on PS1’s Wipeout. Which lets face it, is exactly the kinda stuff you’d expect from him. Belter of a remix!

B1 – Parallaxing

Had loads of fun on the TR-8 jamming around with this one! It started out as a bit of a drum workout and just had me adding touches from soft synths, the Juno and my old microKorg. This was the last track of the three originals that I finished, so given that I’d already made a couple of Breaks ones I felt this needed to be a bit different, hence the use of the drum machine. 

I typically like to add some of my own drums to make the overall feel of my music more organic, but in this case it felt right to keep it a bit more rigid & digital. It’s definitely a sound I’m exploring more in some of my recent finished tracks too, with a few recent bits sounding ready for the club – a bit more Techno and even Progressive.

B2 – Space Nugz

Aptly named because I was in the middle of finishing a 20 nugget sharebox in the studio while I was arranging this one. This was probably my favourite track of the three to make as it came together so easily and is actually real simple.

The chord at the very beginning is a really old chord sample which to be honest, I have no clue of it’s origin. It formed the start of the track anyway along with a shaker sample. The bassline and arpeggiator followed and throughout the track it’s pretty much just an interplay between the bassline, chord and drums. There’s a bunch of live drum fills with live ride cymbal parts that were more or less added because of the fun I was having in the studio with it. Proper prancing about trying different sounds on the soft synths, and different live kit sounds. It was a fun jam, and one I thought fit really nice with the deeper A1 track. Space Nugz offers a bit of relief from shit getting a bit too serious ‘n that.

B3 – Space Nugz (Boulderhead Remix)

Luckily enough, Boulderhead was the second remixer I had in mind after OCB so once he confirmed, the record was done. I was absolutely buzzing that I’d got the remixers I had in my mind for the release and knew Henry would bring his techy bouncy style to Space Nugz, which he did, brilliantly! I’ve been a big fan of his recent productions, and play them out loads. This remix is definitely the one that I’ve been playing out most at gigs as it fits perfectly with the Tech house/Techno and Proggy stuff I’ve been into lately. 

Again, it’s moved away slightly from the deepness of the other tracks and sat itself firmly in outer space.. and making music that sounds like something Aliens might dig is always a plus. Go on Henry for providing a solid remix! 

To buy your vinyl copy of ‘Are We Ever Leaving Here?’, click here