Reverie

For its fifth album, *Reverie*, North London dance music duo Gorgon City had a specific vision in mind. Booked to headline Coachella’s iconic indoor club stage, the Yuma tent, for its 2024 edition, Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott set about crafting a special selection of tracks to play during their slot. “We decided to make a record with the intense vibe of that space in mind,” Gibbon tells Apple Music. “All the tracks had to be primed to deliver a massive, club-room sound.” Since the release of their debut EP, *The Crypt*, in 2012, Gibbon and Robson-Scott have crafted a globe-trotting, dance-floor-focused sound that blends thundering basslines with earworm vocal melodies. On *Reverie*, the duo delivers a darker, amplified version of this sonic signature, traversing everything from growling drum ’n’ bass synths to ’90s acid house and sun-filled soulful breaks—a combination guaranteed to make you move. “When we got to Coachella and played the first masters of the album, it blew the roof off,” Robson-Scott says. “This is instinctual music made to be played loud.” Read on for Gorgon City’s in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. **“Are You Feeling It Too?”** Kye Gibbon: “Since we wanted to make *Reverie* a clubbier album, we decided to experiment more with sampling tracks, rather than our usual process of writing with songwriters and vocalists. On ‘Are You Feeling It Too?’ we sampled the hook of a song by \[LA singer-songwriter\] syd B \[also called ‘Are You Feeling It Too?’\], since it felt so euphoric and uplifting, and it perfectly fit our production to create a big club moment.” **“Breathe You In” (with NORTH)** Matt Robson-Scott: “We collaborated with the songwriter Paul Harris a lot on this album and he brought us a song by the singer NORTH that we were just blown away by. We decided to create a completely new track around their mesmerizing vocal and it was a challenge to honor such an amazing performance in the final edit. When we played it at an Elrow show in Dublin \[in March 2024\] it connected so well, we knew we had done it justice.” **“All That You Need” (with Caroline Byrne)** KG: “We wanted to throwback to the older Gorgon City sound on this track and the summery piano house music that was on the scene when we came up in 2012. We had to get back into our old mindset of making music when writing this, and then we added a modern twist with the hard edge of the unexpected drop that really catches audiences off guard. We also love how Caroline’s vocal sounds just like a processed sample.” **“One New Change”** KG: “This is one of the main tracks made with Coachella in mind. We were experimenting with analog synths like the Moog Sub 37 and trying to make a tune where everything fell into place, rather than overthinking or planning how it would sound. Sometimes, it’s important to not have a plan in the studio because it takes you away from your usual formulas. The song became a beautiful, atmospheric moment at Coachella that really got people going.” **“Biggest Regret” (with Bbyafricka)** MR-S: “We both grew up on drum ’n’ bass from the ’90s and love the growling synths on those tracks. We had a lot of fun incorporating that sound into this song and, when it came to recording with \[US rapper/singer/poet\] Bbyafricka in LA, since she hadn’t done much dance music before, her performance came out so interestingly. It helped make it another track where the drop takes people by surprise.” **“How Do You Love?” (with Mougleta)** KG: “We wrote ‘How Do You Love?’ just after ‘Biggest Regret,’ and we decided this would be a good point in the album to take a step back and add some lightness to make it a proper summer record, something we could play on our Ibiza residency. We loved the tone of Mougleta’s voice, and it was really enjoyable to write a song that counteracts some of the darkness on the rest of the album.” **“Make It Happen” (with DJ Pierre)** KG: “We’re massive fans of DJ Pierre as a pioneer of acid house and techno. We came across a remix of one of his tracks 10 years ago that really stuck with us. When it came to writing this song, we decided to sample the original and then give it a modern twist by making it more of a big-room sound, as well as adding in an acid feel. This is a huge one to play in the club and it’s an honor to have DJ Pierre’s seal of approval on the record.” **“Landslide” (with Poppy Baskcomb)** MR-S: “Poppy is an amazing artist we have wanted to work with for years. She came up with this super catchy melody that is emotional without being over the top and we just fell in love with it. It has similar production to our track ‘Voodoo’ from the last album, *Salvation*, and it was fun to revisit those sounds when we were writing, along with lots of vocal chopping. We’re really happy with the finished result.” **“Keep Your Head Up” (with Harry Romero)** MR-S: “The analog synth sound on this track reminded us of The Chemical Brothers and made me feel like I was in the middle of a field in Glastonbury! We built the track around that classic feel, along with a sample from a house record that Harry Romero released in the early 2000s \[‘Keep Your Head Up’ (as Harry Choo Choo Romero)\]. He rerecorded the original vocals for us to deliver a modern take.” **“You Know It”** KG: “We have worked a lot with the amazing singer and producer Poté in the past and ‘You Know It’ stemmed from a vocal idea he sent us five years ago. It’s been a staple of our DJ sets ever since and, when it came to making *Reverie*, we realized it would be a perfect fit for the album, so we redesigned it from scratch to make it another big clubby moment on the record.” **“Dreaming”** MR-S: “It can be a real challenge to keep a track deliberately simple and not overcomplicate things. With ‘Dreaming,’ we wanted to go back to our older sound, which is filled with disco drums and bright, clean instrumentals to match the vibe of the vocals. It comes full circle back to the sound of one of our earliest releases, ‘Real’ \[2013\], and this was the last track we finished on the album. It’s an ideal, uplifting moment to finish the record on.”