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Music

Meet the Dark Side of Erick Morillo

On "I Want You," the dance veteran returns to underground sounds.

Erick Morillo is doing dance music stardom backwards. The career arc of many DJs finds them making their names in the underground before then turning their eyes and ears towards the mainstream. Morillo, on the other hand, took on the pop world early in his career during the nascent years of the 1990s with Reel 2 Real before turning his attention back to clublife. He's spent the past two decades flitting in and out of both worlds by maintaining strong ties to the likes of DJ Sneak and Junior Sanchez on one hand and collaborating with P.Diddy and dropping Madonna remixes on the other.

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The tones radiating from Erick Morillo these days are all about the underground. He relaunched his Subliminal Records imprint with a release from Harry Romero in September, and now Morillo has entered the fray himself with the Limitless EP. The sonics on "I Want You" and the b-side "Trapped" are miles away from Billboard charts and entirely focused on the dancefloor.

We've got the premiere of "I Want You," a more upbeat techno tune that gets straight down to business with a driving beat and jarring saw synths that pull you deeper and deeper over the track's 6-minute duration. The frenetic percussion makes allusions to Morillo's latin influences, but pop has definitely taken a back seat in favor of uncompromising dancefloor utility.

"The Limitless EP is a representation of my sound at the moment," Morillo tells THUMP. " 'I Want You' is a techno banger that has been working great on all of my recent sets. It's backed by 'Trapped' a thundering, tech house club jam slated for release November 2nd. Both sides of the EP show the label's musical direction."

Erick Morillo is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter
Subliminal Records is on Facebook // SoundCloud