This summer, Push returns to the album format with ‘Known Universe’ – the eighth longplayer in his eminent career. That ‘known universe’ specifically is the hardware-driven studio world that shaped his earliest work. The one that Mike Dierlickx painstakingly reassembled in order to reconnect with the tools, challenges and workflows of his original environment. In doing so he’s nailed an album that’s “the truest reflection of Push to date.”
‘Known Universe’ releases July 3.
‘Keeping it real’… It was a thing back then and something that lies at the very bedrock of what – production-wise – Mike Dierickx did … and still does to this day. Over his studio lifetime, he hasn’t mutated, changed-to-order or had his sound knocked off course by fleeting trend. Not even the once. Being true to the craft has quite literally been his be-all and end-all.
At points that might’ve cost him ground, but Mike had an oracle-like idea of what the long game looked like. Impactful music, made with heart, belief and integrity .. well, that finds a way of living forever … and further has an even greater tendency to return to the public consciousness.
Case in point, twenty-five years after their original release, both his ‘Strange World’ and ‘Universal Nation’ classics surged back into Beatport’s All Genres Top 100 last year, propelled by renewed listener interest and a new generation discovering their enduring appeal. Tiësto lent a helping hand too by debuting his re-edit of ‘Universal Nation’ during his Dreamstate Southern California set, introducing one of trance’s landmark records to fresh ears. Yet chart resurgence and high-profile deck endorsements ultimately bely something more significant than simply ‘throwback’ or ‘nostalgia’. It was about the timeless quality of Push’s music and its continuing ability to bridge whole eras of electronic music.
Few artists can claim such lasting relevance; fewer still would be able to base the concept of a new studio album around it.
By the millennium, just two years after he started producing, the ‘Mike/Push sound’ was a recognised deal for DJs. It’s one that’s hard to put into words but is as easy to translate as a single listen to ‘Known Universe’. Mike builds his productions around elegant harmonic frameworks, guiding expansive chord progressions through deft modulations before releasing them at pinpoint moments of maximum club-striking impact. His signature remains unmistakable: intricately layered leads and subterranean basslines, patiently shaped by evolving filter work and resonant flourishes. Anchoring everything is a flawlessly tuned low-end pulse, one that intensifies the drama forged throughout ‘Known Universe’s melodic architecture.
What Mike wanted from his eighth album was an ultimate distillation of Push. So, his method of approach became one of authenticity over convenience. Or, to put it another way, he produced it in just about the most painstaking (and sometimes painful!) manner possible, as he goes on to explain.
“The idea behind ‘Known Universe’ was to revisit the world that shaped me as a producer. Not just the sounds, but the tools, the creative environment and the trials that defined electronic music making when I first started releasing records. For this album, I challenged myself to work exclusively with the same generation of hardware that helped create tracks like those on my first album, ‘From Beyond’.
Machines that were ground-breaking at the time, but also far from perfect. Back in the day, technology had a personality of its own; equipment could be unstable, boxes could overheat, projects could be lost, and every studio session came with an element of unpredictability. Returning to that ‘known universe’ reminded me how much patience, problem-solving and instinct went into making music before everything became immediate and infinitely editable. In a strange way, those imperfections became the album’s greatest strength, because they brought back a sense of authenticity that’s difficult to recreate in a modern workflow.“
Having blitzed the front end of the year with its vanguard singles, ‘Known Universe’ arrival means it’s main event time! The album releases July 3 on streaming, and is also available through digital download, CD and a very limited-edition triple vinyl pressing, featuring expanded artwork and full album sequencing across its three heavyweight discs. [blackhole.lnk.to/KnownUniverse]
Tracklist: Push – Known Universe
01. Drive By
02. Back When We Believed
03. Echoform
04. Breakpoint
05. Trance-Fixation
06. Tronesque
07. Future Fall
08. Known Universe
09. Perceived
10. Feel the Underground
11. Activate Vortex
12. Night Circuit
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