for the past seven years kornél kovács has been busy rocking dancefloors and boomboxes worldwide as one third of stockholms studio barnhus alongside axel boman and petter nordkvist. the label and dj trio is spearheading a new era of fearless swedish off-centre dance music, straddling the line between the cute and the menacing. anticipation for kovacs debut album has been rocketing following stand out releases like 2014s wistful szikra, last years mad party anthem pantalón on glasgows numbers imprint and the late night groove of space jam on smallville records.

it seems somehow surprising that its only now that james zabiela enters the fold of balances compilation selectors. a perfect fit for the series, his unfeasibly intricate approach to djing shinesthrough on this sprawling two-parter, created through a back-and-forth process between his pioneer ddj-rz and ableton and featuring two exclusive new productions from the man himself.

for the past seven years kornel kovacs has been busy rocking dancefloors and boomboxes worldwide as one third of stockholms studio barnhus alongside axel boman and petter nordkvist. the label and dj trio is spearheading a new era of fearless swedish off-centre dance music, straddling the line between the cute and the menacing. anticipation for kovacs debut album has been rocketing following stand out releases like 2014s wistful szikra, last years mad party anthem pantalon on glasgows numbers imprint and the late night groove of space jam on smallville records. on the bells, kovacs pops open his trunk full of sounds nicked from the lost and found bins of nightclubs all over the world. from the distorted organ chords of bb to the stripped down trancehall beats of joseys tune and sziv utca and the title tracks cinematic romanticism, its all of the bells and all of the whistles - further positioning kornel kovacs as one of the most characteristic producers of modern house music. the record was completed in an intense two-week session with kovacs great friend and great studio engineer matt karmil in the cold winter of 2016. another close friend, artist malin gabriella nordin, has created the album artwork together with her brother jonas.

it seems that there is an overabundance of artists today who have reached a level of success from their work, but very few of them come close to the level of output and range as butch. equal parts producer extraordinaire, dj, gentleman, and comedian, butch has everything deserving of a star in todays dance music arena. which is why, we here at watergate are extremely pleased to present him as next in line for our watergate mix series