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After five years spent largely confined to the United States, Ron Trent is set to return to global touring in 2025. To mark the occasion, he’s partnered with Rush Hour to release Lift Off, a brand-new album of music recorded at different points over the last decade.

Arriving almost 35 years since he wowed the world with his game-changing debut, the Afterlife EP, Lift Off was inspired by Trent’s desire to ‘let the imagination speak for itself’ while exploring the diverse influences that have shaped his unique musical perspective. A departure from his previous album, 2022’s downtempo masterpiece as Warm, What Do The Stars Say To You, the 10-track set features a mixture of epic instrumentals, inspired collaborations and vocal cuts whose music was written with certain singers in mind.

 While it features music that ripples with the experienced producer’s familiar aural trademarks – rich rhythms, warm chords, impeccable instrumentation, inspired arrangements, and lashings of heady hand percussion – it also consciously explores a variety of sounds and tempos, in the process blurring the lines between the past, present, and future. It’s a vision, in his words, of what dance music can become.

For proof, check the five tremendous tracks on Part Two. There’s the AM radio-ready warmth, guitar-flecked looseness, and eyes-closed bliss of ‘Just Another Love Song’, where Trent’s own multi-tracked vocals catch the ear, the slow-motion, head-nodding deep space bliss of ‘Juice’ and alternative Balearic love song ‘And Fly Away’.

Part Two of the vinyl edition also includes two superb collaborations. Fellow Rush Hour artist Lars Bartkuhn lends his virtuoso guitar skills to ‘Street Wave’, a future house classic laden with nods to jazz-funk and fusion, while regular collaborator Harry Dennis (best known for his work as part of early Chicago house outfit Jungle Wonz) adds a poetic and emotion-filled spoken word vocal to the equally inspired ‘Her’. — (via Label)

Ron Trent’s artistry is rooted in sounds that transcend time and space, and Lift Off is a supernova all its own. Via two parts and drawing from a decade of recordings, the Chicago visionary constructs a psychedelic jazz club among the stars. To arrive, listeners must embark on sonic detours through instrumental panoramas that defy modern algorithmic norms, each fueled by Trent’s intention to “let the imagination speak for itself”. Consequently, the album’s 10 compositions embrace well-deserved room to breathe — like Pt. 1’s ‘Woman of Color’, for example, an 11-minute odyssey of lively percussion, lilting keys and expansive synths that make for a trippy ride through Trent’s musical mindscape. More soulful vocals add dimension in Pt. 2 with ‘And Fly Away’ and ‘Her’ fueling a final ascent from which, frankly, we may never come back down. — (via DJ Mag)

Part Two // Vinyl tracklist:
A1 Just Another Love Song
A2 Juice
B1 And Fly Away
C1 Street Wave
D1 Her

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Label: Rush Hour 
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Released: 2025
Genre: Electronic
Style: Deep House, House

File under: Electronic 
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