Ahead of his sold out headline live show at Corsica Studios tomorrow night, enigmatic UK producer Love Remain today announces his forthcoming EP Is What It Is, due for release on Feb 9 2024 via Black Butter Records. Alongside the release, Love Remain has shared the EP title track, so named for the vocal phrase that loops around a lolloping 4/4 garage infused beat, a common expression that takes on deeper resonance for Love Remain as he explains: “for me this properly represents everyday life, I hear people say this every day and now it has subconsciously embedded itself into my language. It says so much yet with so little, so It just made sense to turn that into a song.”
Love Remain’s music explores the geography of everyday life. The UK producer makes transfixing and poetic dance music that’s suffused with the sounds of people and place: field recordings of London life, birdsong from the city’s green spaces, nightclub conversations that fade like embers. The vibrant and the vulnerable, the miraculous and the mundane – these all appear in Love Remain’s music with the quality of a dream or mirage. His productions are primed for dancefloors and festivals, but through the use of atmospheric space, he also leaves room for reflection. He describes ambient music as “a blank canvas for your memories”, able to evoke the personal recollections and individual desires of the listener in a way that is both extremely specific yet evocative enough to feel universal.
Soul – in all meanings of the word – is at the heart of Love Remain’s work. Growing up, he would hear classic Black music playing around the house: soul, 1960s pop, Motown. Later, he dug into reggae and lovers’ rock, disco and funk, the early and more spiritual side of acid house, and the atmospheric melodic work of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. Having a foundation in the music that informs UK rave culture’s sound system tradition led Love Remain to start DJing during his teenage years, and eventually to producing the UK garage, house, and techno-infused music that he makes today.
The project has been greeted with affection and high praise from the electronic music community, receiving support from Radio 1’s Sarah Story, Sian Elari, Danny Howard, Pete Tong and Lauren Laverne. Moments from 2022 were celebrated with regular London Introducing spins from Jess Iszatt and mixes for both BBC Introducing London and Clash Magazine and he has been supported by the likes of RA, Mixmag, Notion + more. Alongside his DJ sets, he is already building recognition as a live artist, with his first two headline live shows both selling out. He has supported Four Tet at his Finsbury Park takeover and performed at The Warehouse Project alongside the likes of Skrillex, Ben UFO, and Sherelle.
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