Feature | Label Spotlight – Trusted Rhythm

Embracing the more soulful sound of the underground, Trusted Rhythm is a label that is making the right kind of noise. We sat down with the David and Lee from the label for a quick chat.

Brighton-based label Trusted Rhythm is a label with soul, vision and emotion at its core. With a string of fine releases already under their belt, names like TONEPOEM, Latch, Michael Oberling and Ron Headback have all joined the TR family with releases and now under the guiding watch of David Morpeth and Lee Garrett, it’s the turn of Tokyo producer Yuu Udagawa.

David’s history lies in a vast career spanning dancefloors across the UK, Ibiza and India whilst Lee is recognised as one of the stalwarts of the Brighton house music scene. From record stores to residencies to radio, Lee has been involved in promoting & playing at some of the most memorable club nights Brighton.

We sat down with the gentlemen for a quick chat about the label, it’s future and what drives the pair, here’s what went down.

KOTT : HEY GUYS, THANKS FOR JOINING US. WHAT’S THE NAME OF YOUR LABEL, AND WHO RUNS IT?

Trusted Rhythm Records is managed by the two of us, David Morpeth, and Lee Garrett

KOTT: WHEN & WHAT ARE YOUR INSPIRATIONS FOR STARTING THE LABEL?

Music is everything to both of us. We relentlessly consume so much of it, across all genres but with house music – primarily deep house – sitting at the top of the tree. We first met about a thousand years ago at BPM records, a record store Lee worked at in Brighton in the early 2000’s. Lee would put records aside he knew I’d like, and we played on the same local circuit. We’ve spent the last +20 years DJing since, with residencies at places like Turnmills, Pasha London. We still bump into people from gigs from all over.

The reason for starting Trusted Rhythm was to purposely submerge ourselves back into deep house culture, going beyond just DJing and get back involved with the broader music community. We love establishing connections, meeting good people, and having good times with those good people, so this just seemed like a logical move for us. We want to improve the experience for our artists by making them feel part of something. We’re a growing music family, and we always ensure we communicate regularly with everyone especially when it comes to planning a release.

KOTT: GIVE US A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU’VE RELEASED SINCE THEN….

We’re predominantly a deep house label, with music representing producers from multiple countries and cultures; South Africa, Sweden, Tokyo, UK, Ireland, US, France. Most are under-the-radar producers with so much talent and innovation. Our philosophy is to represent music from the underground, not the common ground.

KOTT: WHAT QUALITIES ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN THE MUSIC YOU RELEASE?

It’s primarily based on a feeling. It always has been. We enjoy and appreciate music with depth in the musicality. It’s always great to hear a track that features a kind of sonic signature of the producer, where you say ‘ahh I bet this is so-and-so’ because of the way they’ve used a particular sample, or a drum pattern, or the instrumentation etc. Ultimately, it’s got to be something that moves us. In a way, we like that this genre has spent a bit of time going back underground, as it drives people to really flex their creativity, and we see that with the demos we receive and the artists we approach.

KOTT: WHAT KIND OF VISUAL IDENTITY DOES THE LABEL HAVE (ARTWORK, VIDEOS ETC) ?

It’s interesting as we both talk about this a lot. When we were buying vinyl every weekend, there were records you’d automatically take to the listening station based on the sleeve. You saw a D on the sleeve – that’s Defected. That’s going in the bag. Subliminal Soul logo? The Soulfuric squiggle? In the bag. The cartoon bloke on a yellow background. That’s Nervous, that’s in the bag.

We feel the TRR logo has a recognisable identity, and the artwork is bright, engaging, simple, different. We’ve got some excellent graphic designers who understand what we want and are good at delivering that to us too.

KOTT: WHICH OTHER LABELS DO YOU ADMIRE AND WHY?

We’re huge fans of Freerange. Their output is always on point; they’ve got a great catalogue; they curate excellent events [we were recently at The Drop in Omeara, London, and it was packed full of people that were there for the love of music]. We’d also point to Yoruba Soul because everything Osunlade touches turns to gold. Ocha Records is a favourite, Phonogramme in France who do everything so well [shout out to Blaise that runs Syncrophone in Paris – that bloke’s knowledge and generosity is incredible]. Kevin Yost’s i Records delivers hit after hit. Selville Records, Nu Groove, Soul Quest’s London fella’s Max Sinal & Slxm Sol who are making waves. We’ve got to call out what Stay True Sounds and Kid Fonque have done in pushing the South African house scene to a global audience.

Man, there are so many to talk about!

KOTT: WHAT CAN WE LOOK TO FROM YOUR LABEL NEXT?

We’ve just released Yuu Udagawa – Spectral, which has had a great feature on Mixmag Asia. We have a 2-track single from South Africa’s KVSA coming shortly, an EP from Scotland’s Ron Headback, and an exciting remix pack featuring Abacus and BTWN SPKRS. We’re buzzing about what’s coming.