Mikael Johnson, “Omnisphere”: Focus on the groove, captain!

Disclaimer: This track is signed and released on our label, Beatradar.

So, this post marks the first occasion where I enter the obvious minefield it is to write about one of our own releases. That calls for a little bit of extra attention around that obviously problematic scenario.

But more about that later. Now: The track!

Omnisphere is the title track from the impressive debut EP signed by the Norwegian producer Mikael Johnson. A track that essentially captures the atmosphere that I seek in my techno: A dark, damp, stomping and mechanical atmosphere, but without losing the groove. Cause that’s where I think many techno releases fail: They can be stomping and brutal and industrial as fuck, but the groove is lost along the way. And without that groove it becomes a pure bash-fest. By all means, if that’s your thing then enter the pit and go mad. But for me, regardless of genre, if a track is built for the dance floor I will always – always – be on the lookout for that groove.

And it’s found here. In spades. And it so elegantly, so confidently, rest on that groovy frame. With good reason.

The techno tracks on this release are dipping their toes into the progressive house pool too. And that may be part of the reason I love this release, since those two genres are both huge favourites of mine.

It’s also worth noticing how well it is mixed. How each element is so well and clearly defined, nothing is ever fighting against each other. It’s a natural, beautiful flow that makes room for the mentioned groove to really come forth and MOVE you.

And coming from a debut artist with as little experience as this producer it is just plain impressive. So Mikael Johnson is a name worth taking note of, regardless if he continues to release his music via Beatradar or not. 🙂


… And that brings me to the subject of promoting our own releases. We will only, without exception, sign artists we have a profound belief in based on the quality of the music produced. We are not into this for the money, we’re not one of those who churn out releases en masse to fetch small profits.
Our philosophy with the label is much like with this music blog; To seek out new, undiscovered artists that we find to be particular in their work, and help them a little bit to take those first few steps towards the limelight. Simply because they deserve it.

But that also means that those we do sign will have material that I would have reviewed anyway. That’s a given. If it doesn’t excite me enough to want to write about it, why should we sign it? And in this particular case I were submitted a track (the title track of this release) for review, where I had to stop and say to myself, “ok, wtf, only released on Soundcloud?! This is so bloody strong that he NEEDS a wider distribution. That must be taken care of“. Luckily he agreed.

But I will always clearly state when I cover our own releases. And then you can consider for yourself if I am coloured by that or not.

Hopefully, in this case I hope you agree that this EP is the real deal.


This track is added to our “The Techno Club” playlist along with the other dark, deep and groovy techno tracks reviewed on this site. Well worth following if you like the groove of today’s pick!