Our Inflyte Radar has been attentively on form in recent months, highlighting the work of Joren Edwards , Tr One and Ivalyo. Now, it’s once again alerting us to another essential up ’n comer.
Romanian club specialist Dorroo is returning to Carl Cox and Jon Rundell’s Intec Digital label for the first time since 2013, and with him comes three new techno tracks that we can’t seem to get enough of.
The three track Cave EP will be Dorroo’s third outing with Intec, and to mark the occasion we got in touch to chat about the release, Romania’s club scene and more.
Hi Dorroo, it’s nice to be chatting with you today, how are things going at the moment?
Hi, thanks for having me. I’m good, in the mood for the few days of time off from my job that I’ll have very soon.
You recently came onto our radar after we heard the new release on Carl Cox’s Intec that features your tracks. Is this the first time you featured on the label?
No, it’s actually my third time on Intec. It’s true though that the previous release came out about six years ago.
Could you tell us a little bit about the tracks on the release and if there was a concept behind them?
Well, I sent The Cave to Carl and the next day he said that he loves the track and would like to release it on Intec. It needed another one to match and pair it with for a release and that’s when I started working on the 6F Warehouse.
Both of them were inspired by my trip to Time Warp a year before. It was my first time there though I knew about the festival for a long time. And it blew me away; the music, the production, the vibe, the scale – everything about it was really good and it made a strong impression on me, so I wanted to do something musically inspired by it.
The Undershow was sent even before these two and both Jon & Carl liked it a lot, so they decided to include it on the EP as well.
So how did you first make contact with Carl Cox, and did you have to wait long before getting confirmation of him signing this new EP?
My contact with Carl started more than ten years ago. He played in 2007 at a club on the seaside of Mamaia, Romania (where Sunwaves Festival takes place today) and I handed Ian (his tour manager) a CD with some demos. Then, a month later a friend called to tell me that Carl Cox had a track of mine as number one for his Top 10 that month on his MySpace page.
I was totally amazed – I almost forgot about the moment when I gave him that CD. There were no Facebook, Instagram or Soundcloud back then. It was the era of MySpace being the only social media where musicians could put up or promote their work. Actually, I was in disbelief until I got home and I was lucky enough to find a clip on Youtube from someone filming the moment Carl played the track at Space Ibiza.
As a funny note, I didn’t know back then that it’s not a good idea to hand over six demo tracks at a time – so, if that particular piece wouldn’t have been the first one on the CD most likely his continuous support since then or me opening for him in Bucharest a year later wouldn’t have happened.
Like I said, since then I’ve been lucky enough to have his constant support and he played regularly a bunch of my tracks over the years. And when he felt that the right tracks fit Intec he didn’t hesitate. Like it happened with this EP. It took a while to come out though due to their long release planning in advance.
Apart from Intec it seems most of your other releases came out via Crado Recordings, and I wanted to ask about how that label was going, as I understand you run it yourself?
Yes, I started Crado Recordings as a platform to release my music mostly and gain exposure. Tracks were stacking, demo sending wasn’t going anywhere (due to labels being flooded with tons of demos therefore rarely getting an answer or sometimes when I got an answer it was a negative one) and after I had a few talks with a friend which works for a well-known distributor regarding the whole label thing, I took the jump.
It’s mostly a labor of love. For example, I did the logo and EP covers too, as I work as a graphic designer. The aim is not to become yet another dance label out there but rather a meaningful platform that will stand out thanks to its quality underground, dancefloor-oriented output – I believe in quality over quantity.
That’s why in my opinion promotion and getting the music in the right hands is very important but also not an easy thing nowadays. But since I started to promote the releases through Inflyte a couple of years ago, I’m getting more positive feedback towards my music.
What’s the scene like in your local area, as I always associate Romania with the stripped back and minimal style of people like Raresh, but you make quite hard hitting techno?
I’ve always been drawn toward the more pumpy, harder or groovier side of techno or the more funkier, soulful side of house (I have a house side too) but like you said Romania is mostly known for this stripped back sound championed by RPR guys and others around them. Therefore the rest of the scene is quite fragmented in small groups.
In Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara there are a few places that are doing well when they have well known international techno artists invited to play. And festivals like Sunwaves, Electric Castle and Untold brought more and more techno and house DJs in recent years, so they have raised the awareness towards other sounds. But apart from these, there isn’t much of a scene really, away from the Romanian sound.
Do you have any other releases or big gigs coming up over the coming months?
I try to choose from what I already have and work more music to line up for the next two or three releases on my label. Other than that I’ll see what’s coming up.
Thanks for taking time out to chat with me today, do you have anything else you would like to add before we wrap things up?
Thanks a lot for having me, it’s been my pleasure. And keep up the good work you guys are already doing.