"I can make beats for the club all day long, that's what I do," says Hugh Pescod, better known as DJ, producer, and relentless remixer Redlight. Bred from the dance oasis of Bristol, England, Redlight has made a career out of tracks that thrive in their ability to tear apart any dancefloor they set their sights on.For example: In 2010, Redlight teamed up with acclaimed UK MC Ms. Dynamite for What You Talking About!?, an EP that birthed a feverish serotonin enforcer, aptly titled "MDMA." Tracks like 2012's UK charting singles "Get Out My Head" and "Lost in Your Love" boast a jumpy house vibe that sneaks inside your hips at full force. Last year's throwback, the energized bass jam "9TS (90s Baby)," was one of the standout tracks of the year, being rinsed by more DJs than one can possibly count.
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It's safe to say, Redlight's modus operandi, up to this point at least, has been to craft an arsenal of tunes that make you party your ass off to the morning light. Now, in 2015, the artist is changing his stride, for something way different, a debut artist album by the name of X Colour."For the last fifteen years of my life I've been making club music; twelve-inches that will go out and work on a large club system and make people dance," says Pescod. But working on an album is a whole different beast. "It's hard to listen to an album now and it's fucking even harder to make one," he laughs. "When I had some of my first sessions for the album I was like 'OK I'm going to make some hits,' and that was fun, but then I was like 'That's cool, but I don't want to be known just for that.'"Growing up in the vibrant 1990s raver era of Bristol, Pescod was enamored by immersive albums from such iconic artists trip-hop acts as Massive Attack, Portishead, and Tricky, as well as the drum & bass innovator Roni Size. "They all had albums, and when they were writing the album, they had a message that they would turn to for the whole record-that's what I want to do."On his forthcoming LP X Colour, Redlight is looking to emulate the legends he grew up with.He explains, "For me, music is like a visual representation-some of the tunes have to have videos, like "Gold Teeth," which is all about throwaway culture-it's about visual collages for me, that's how I make my music." "It's about having a thread between all of those collages, and keeping me interested throughout the making of the LP, even more that the listener!"While some might immediately assume otherwise, Pescod urges that X Colour won't be a concept album in the traditional sense of the word, but more along the lines of a narrative collage. "It's called X Colour because of the roman numeral X (ten tracks), and they all serve to represent different colors, moods and collages of sound," he describes. As he continues to describe the way the album will fit together (long story short-two kids, fall in love, become criminals, shits goes down, and terribly wrong) it becomes clear that Pescod is almost hoping to play a trick on his listeners, by instituting a sort of "sneaky narrative," one that you won't understand at the surface, but only if you dig deeper.Through his decade-plus career, Redlight's been toying more with a tactic of dance music "one hit wonders," tracks that go out, do their thing, and then linger on in the airwaves (and dance floors). On X Colour, Pescod will cure this type of frenetic, restless, nature as a 12" producer, and strive for something that listeners can engage with for years, not just minutes."Gold Teeth" is available for purchase on iTunes Redlight is on Facebook // Soundcloud // Twitter@DLGarber