Four years ago, Trevor Jackson was deep in samples, remixing somebody else's high profile track in his home studio. After 60 odd remixes for the likes of U2, Massive Attack, Unkle and Death in Vegas, he began to realise that the gap between the music he loved, and the records he'd play out during a dj set, bore no relationship to the music he was creating as a remixer. 'I'd want to play positive records, up music,' he recalls. 'I didn't want to play dark, fucked-up and intense music anymore'. At that point he resolved to make an album. 'I was 31, I wanted to create an album that truly reflected all the forms of music I was into."I wanted to make arecord that was immediate, sexy and fun, and I wanted to enjoy what I was doing again. I was fed up of working alone, eyes on a computer screen laboriously shifting soundwaves for weeks on end. So I locked myself away and wrote 150 basic tracks in the space of a few weeks. Hundred of hours down the line, FedEx packages criss-crossing the Atlantic, collaborators from all corners of music pulled on board, decisions made and scrapped and mad again, the album was completed, scheduled for release and given the title Playgroup.
Robert Johnson, Offenbach am Main
WMF - Nachtbar Moskau, Berlin
Vooruit, Gent