DISCOGRAPHY
*
Going Digital (2007- ?)
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Ross
Couch - Body Rhythm Remixed Vol.1 - Body Rhythm 010: June 2008
A
little over a year after the label began Body Rhythm reaches
it's 10th release. To celebrate several quality remixers in
the shape of Da Funk, Kirby, Christian Malloni and Andrew Phelan
& Origami were asked to choose a track from the catalogue
so far to remix. Troydon, an artist I've admired for a good
few years now was also initially on-board but unfortunately
computer troubles left him unable to get a mix done in time.
Two remixes from myself rounded of the EP. From the word go,
Kirby's deep tech remix of 'Playin' Jazz' was selling like hotcakes.
5 days later it was in the Beatport Deep House Top 10 Sales
Chart. A week later it had hit the No.1 spot in that chart and
had reached No.35 in the Overall Sales Chart. At the time of
writing the track has now been in the Deep House Top 10 for
6 weeks making it by far the most successful track on the label
to date.
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Ross
Couch - The Showstoppa EP - Body Rhythm 006: February 2008
This
EP featured another of the labels most popular tracks in the
form of "Rhythm Is Our Business". This track again
took sounds from olden days Jazz and brought them back to life
in the 21st Century. This one was a favourite on the dancefloor
and became the unofficial Body Rhythm anthem. The other tracks
on the release - 'Showstoppa' and 'The Look In Her Eyes' were
also popular, making this the best selling EP on the label at
that time (and 2nd only to the 'Body Rhythm Remixed Vol.1 release
today).
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Ross
Couch - Rising Up (Inc. Christian Malloni and Jevne Rmxs) -
Onethirty Recordings - January 2008
The
turn of the year saw what had now become a rarity - a release
on another label! Since I started the Body Rhythm label I had
focused all my attentions on it, using it as the single source
of output for my tracks. The Rising Up track however had initally
been signed To jevne's Onethirty label just before I made the
decision to start the label back in March of '07. Jevne had
initially contacted me when he first started Onethirty a few
years before and asked if I had any unsigned material (which
I didn't at the time) so when he got in touch about the availability
of 'Rising Up' it seemed like a good idea. It was a good choice.
Jevne's a good man and his label has been firing on all cylinders
in 2008. Getting Christian Malloni in to remix the track was
an inspired choice. It's one of my favourite remixes of a track
that I've done and sold very well on Beatport, climbing into
their Top 100 overall Sales Chart.
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Ross
Couch - Playin' Jazz EP - Body Rhythm 001: May 2007
Almost
a year since my last release it was time for the first on my
brand new Body Rhythm label. I had held off on starting the
label until I managed to ensure that the catalogue would be
available on Beatport. This was an important point since Beatport
were the major player in the dance music digital market. Traxsource
was another key retailer for me and at this stage I was doing
my promos via them. The title track 'Playin' Jazz' highlighted
my love of jazz samples that had first crept into my productions
with the 'Across The World EP', and has been an important part
of a lot of the early Body Rhythm releases.. Its proved to be
a successful formula with Playin' Jazz being one of the most
successful tracks on the label, selling well on a number of
sites including Juno Download where it went to no.2 in their
Deep House Sales Chart. The track would later go on to spawn
the hugely successful remix by Kirby on the 'Body Rhythm Remixed
Vol.1' release.
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* The last Seamless EP below marks
a turning point in my discography, my last (although who knows
what will happen in the future!) vinyl release. I had experienced
the slowdown in sales of 12" singles firsthand, both with
my own Tekstyle label which hit distributer troubles after it's
3rd release and with similar troubles experienced by other labels
I was dealing with. To make ends meet I spent much of the next
year working outside of dance music, writing 'Music For Media'
including tracks for internet sites, TV and the like.
In 2007 the dance scene was steadily
shifting towards the mp3 market and I was keen to get involved
and so in May of '07 I launched my new digital label Body Rhythm
Records. Since then I've been able to keep up a regular release
schedule. Above, I will highlight some of the key releases on
the label so far...
*The
Vinyl Years (2001-2006)...*
Ross
Couch - "Across The World EP" (Seamless) : June 2006
My
third outing on the Seamless label was fairly versatile with
three tracks covering ground from deep, tech, jazz and funk.
I think it was the best of my releases on Seamless and was a
fitting way to mark what might have been my last vinyl single.
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System
Check - 'Superfreak EP' (DTrax) : October 2005
An
impressive start for my first ever digital only release as it
reaches No.3 in the influential DJ Magazine Hype Chart! That's
my highest ever entry on their, and puts it shoulder to shoulder
with some of the biggest names in dance music. Dtrax and their
parent label DTPM made the bold decision to move with the times
and head down the digital only route for future releases, and
made me a really good offer under the circumstances to secure
this release which looks to have been well founded.
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Ross
Couch - "Late Nights, Early Mornings / She Said" (3am
Recordings) : June 2005
More
deep house business on Al Bradley's quality 3am Recordings imprint.
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System
Check - "Dirty Dancing / Set Me Free / The Way It Is"
(DTrax) : June 2005
The
first outing for my new System Check alias which will be focused
more on the dirtier dancefloor end of house music on DTPM's
new sister label DTrax. Good support from the mags and a wide
range of DJ's for this one. B2 track 'The Way It Is' was played
by Deep Dish on their BBC Essential mix.
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Ross
Couch - "See The Light EP" (Seamless) : May 2005
Three
tracks on this EP on Seamless, the new label from Ben Sowton,
the man who's been doing great things with his successful Bargrooves
mix CD's in recent times. The label is being distributed by
Pinnacle and has some top releases lined up so their definitely
a label to watch in the coming year. This release has made it's
way to No.21 on the Hype Chart and has had by far the best radio
airplay I've had to date with multiple plays on Radio 1, Galaxy
FM, Kiss FM, Beat 106, Key FM, Vibe FM, Nova FM, Viking FM,
Power FM & Solar here in the UK!
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Ross
Couch - "Groove On / Latin Fusion" (Freaked) : April
2005
"Groove
On" generated a lot of label interest and was eventually
signed to Freaked Records run by producer Alex Dean (AKA Souldoubt).
The label is going from strength to strength at the moment with
lots of great releases from talented dudes like Majik J, Tony
Thomas, Physics, Joey Youngman and of course not forgetting
Mr Dean himself! Groove On has also made it's way onto the excellent
"Nordic Trax presents : Many Shades Of House" mix
CD by label boss Luke Mckeehan.
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Ross
Couch - "Feel It / Desmet & Diesel remix" (Offset
Music) : February 2005
Sometimes
releases can take a while to come out for one reason or another,
in this case over a year after it was initially signed, but
I think this is one of my best releases to date so hopefully
it was worth the wait. I lost my bearings half way through making
this track and it almost got scrapped but thankfully I came
to my senses and it was quickly signed to the excellent Offset
Music label. I'm writing this only a week after the release
hit the stores but I can already safely say that this is amongst
the best supported singles I've had. DJ's like Miguel Migs,
Jay-J, Fred Everything and Chris Lum all had nothing but good
things to say about it and the feedback from the record buying
public has been terrific. The release also held out to become
the 3rd best seller (All genres) for the week on the mighty
www.juno.co.uk. The icing on the cake is that the title track
has also been selected to appear on the forthcoming Bargrooves
CD 'Manhattan' due around May time, as well as on Asad Rizvi's
covermount mix for European dance mag "1" and for
Ben Sowton's mix for 'Notion' magazine (AKA Klub Knowledge).
All in all a great start to 2005, let's hope it continues!
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Ross
Couch / Astro - "Seamless Sampler Pt 2" (Seamless)
: November 2004
This
is a release with several firsts for me. It's my first release
on the Seamless label, a new venture for the people behind the
Bargrooves Mix CD's. It's also the first time i've had a joint
release with another artist (my track "In Love" is
on one side, Al Johnston under his Astro guise has "In
The Moonlight" on the flip-side). It's also the first time
I've had a vinyl release with full cover artwork. It won't be
my last release on the label however, i've got an EP forthcoming
with them which should be out sometime in 2005.
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Ross
Couch - "The Shakedown (Dennis DeSantis remix / Original
mix)" (Tekstyle) : November 2004
2nd
release on Tekstyle, and it was a pleasure to be able to offer
Dennis DeSantis the chance to do the remix for this one as I've
admired his own productions for some time now. He turned in
such a quality mix that I felt it was only right that it took
pride of place on the A side of this release! Early support
coming from the main man Laurent Garneir so you know it's the
real deal.
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Ross
Couch - "Need Your Love / Souldoubt Remix / Mind Control"
(Tekstyle) : October 2004
An
historic moment for me, finally getting the first release on
my own label released! It's been a long time coming, I've harboured
an ambition to run my own label for over a decade, but the decision
to definitely go ahead came about at the tail end of 2003, and
it's taken almost a year since to get things underway. I'm glad
to now be able to get more involved with the business side of
the music industry and see how things work from the other side
of the coin. I sent a CD with "Need Your Love" on
it to Alex Dean (Souldoubt) to ask if he would be interesting
in remixing it, and also included my latest demo CD for him
to listen too as well. I got a response from him a couple of
days later saying yes he wanted to do the remix, and also that
he wanted to sign the demo tracks to his freaked label...which
was nice! Alex was also instrumental in getting the "See
The Light EP" signed to Bargrooves new Seamless label so
top marks to him.
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Ross
Couch - "Body & Soul EP" (Siesta Music) : June
2004
I
recieved quite a bit of label interest for this 3 track EP,
but Siesta were very quick of the mark in signing them up. The
title track has already been road-tested at the Miami Winter
Music Conference by Hipp-E to great effect and is getting strong
support worldwide.
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Ross
Couch - "The Deep End E.P" (Red Melon) : May 2004
Another
big change here - the first tracks I wrote after leaving the
Bellboy / Panther stable (Aquatrax is also another of their
sub-labels). As i mentioned earlier I was really keen on "La
Musica" so set about writing a couple of new tracks to
go alongside it on a new demo. "Hearts And Minds"
followed on in the style of my Panther releases whilst "The
Deep End" was something a little different for me - tech
house orientated but a bit darker and more dancefloor orientated
than I had written before, with a trumpet riff playing the lead
role. I hadn't sent out demo CD's for quite a while since all
my output was heading to Bellboy - Panther so I was a bit anxious
but it all worked out well in the end with some great responses
and the release was signed to Red Melon pretty quickly.
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Ross
Couch - "On And On / Feel The Music" (Kinky Vinyl)
: November 2003
Written
shortly after the tracks that feature on the Blaktrax release
this is another house based selection, with "On And On"
veering more towards the techy side of things whilst "Feel
The Music" goes for all out funk! Kinky Vinyl is a label
doing great things at the moment so I was delighted to be involved
with them. Early support has come from none other than Carl
Cox and 'The Beloved' frontman Jon Marsh for this one!
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Ross
Couch - "In The Night / Big Business" (Blaktrax) :
August 2003
Without
a doubt my funkiest release to date, this release marks a clear
change in direction for my sound. It reached No.24 in the Hype
Chart and has proven to be my best supported release so far
with DJ's right across the board picking up on it from the likes
of Pete Tong and Smokin Jo (both playing it on Radio 1), through
to Tom Stephan (on his Kiss FM), Omid 16b and Hernan Cattaneo
to name just a few!
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Ross
Couch - "Instant Access / DJ Lucca rmx" (Bellboy)
: April 2003
My
fourth and most recent release on Bellboy. Slight change from
the norm here with me only having to provide one track instead
of the usual two (hurrah!), with up and coming Czech techno
star DJ Lucca giving her take on the track on the B side. More
good feedback for this track, check out the 'Press'
section to see the comments, including another thumbs up from
Mr Garnier.
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Ross
Couch - "Melt / The Way" (Panther) : April 2003
Another
release on Panther that I guess helped to reinforce the soulful,
techy sound the label is becoming known for. As with "Soulstrings"
i've had a lot of nice feedback from people which is always
great to hear as I really enjoy making these kind of tracks.
There was actually a third track called "La Musica"
vying for a place on this release which I was (and still am)
really into and had considered to be the natural follow on from
"Soulstrings"...but for whatever reason the guys at
the label decided to go with the other two this time round and
there wasn't space to fit it on as a 3rd track. I think Panther
had marked it down as something for a future release but several
other labels became interested in it and as a result it now
forms part of "The Deep End E.P" on the Red Melon
label.
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Dirty
Funk - "Dirty Funk / Fly By Night" (Aquatrax) : Feb
2003
As
I mentioned earlier, "Seismic Shift" marked the end
of a spell of writers block and i've been quite prolific ever
since which has been a relief as it really get's me down if
things aren't going well in the studio. My debut release on
Aquatrax marked the 3rd release i'd had in a month. To stop
things getting too crowded the decision was made to release
this track under an alias. Although Aquatrax is known as a techno
label my release was fairly diverse, with the A side sounding
like a mixture of techno and tech house whilst the B side featuring
my first excursion into the breaks sound with quite a deep,
moody track which I was quite happy with.
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Ross
Couch - "System Check / No Return" (Bellboy) : Feb
2003
Following
hot on the heels of "Soulstrings" was another techno
release on Bellboy. By this stage I had drawn a clear line between
the Bellboy and Panther stuff and so this one, like "Seismic
Shift" was aimed fair and square at the dancefloor. It
seemed to do the trick and a few months later it was still kicking
around with Phil Keiran playing it on his essential mix.
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Ross
Couch - "Soulstrings / Liberty" (Panther) : Jan 2003
This
marks another important development for me I think. I was always
keen to return to the Panther label to explore a more soulful
sound than I could get away with on Bellboy. "Liberty had
actually been lying around for quite a while, it was probably
written not long after my first Panther release but I had got
caught up writing in the techno style since then so had never
got round to writing a partner for it. When I did finally get
time, "Soulstrings" emerged and was an obvious A-side
for the release. It's definitely one of my personal favourites
to date and I've received lots of great feedback for it too
(you can read some of this in the 'Press'
section). My proudest achievement with this one was that Laurent
Garnier liked it and was playing it. That meant a great deal
to me since I'm a huge fan and really respect his opinion. It
gave me confidence that I was moving in the right direction.
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Ross
Couch - "Seismic Shift / Never Give Up" (Bellboy)
: July 2002
I
always look back at "Seismic Shift" as a real turning
point for me. I had been suffering a bit from writers block
for a few months before-hand but getting this track in the bag
put an end to that and marked the point where I finally got
into the techno sound properly. Having said that this seemed
to appeal to progressive DJ's as much as techno ones which was
fine by me! I got another airing on Radio 1 with this one when
Chris Cowie played "Seismic Shift" on his essential
mix.
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Ross
Couch - "Backforce / In Motion" (Bellboy) : Feb 2002
My
first release on Bellboy. I was still wrestling with the techno
style at this stage....it's really a mixture of dark progressive
/ techno on the A side, and definitely the most melodic track
i've done on that label taking up the B side. Apart from being
my first release on the label it's also notable for giving me
my first Radio 1 play when Seb Fontaine played it on his Saturday
night show. "Backforce" was also featured as the opening
track on techno legend Thomas Schumacher's CD "Perlen 3"
which showcased "the pearls of his record case"...which
was nice :-)
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Ross
Couch - "The Rhythm / Feel Good" (Panther) : Dec 2001
My
first vinyl release was in a funky / tech house style. At this
time writing techno was still new to me and for some reason
my early attempts always ended up sounding nothing like I had
intended - this release being a prime example! It wasn't until
"Seismic Shift" a few months later that I finally
felt like I had got a grip on the techno sound. The Panther
label was reborn for this release after lying dormant for a
year or two. unfortunately the release slipped under most people's
radar's, though the likes of Ralph Lawson did chart it.
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SELECTED
COMPILATION APPEARANCES:
I've
managed to track down artwork for a good few of the compilations
I've appeared on over the years including Perlen 3
mixed by Techno legend Thomas Schumacher - the first
compilation I ever appeared on!
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