Visionquest Run Us Through Their Favourite Releases So Far

Over the last few years, Visionquest have become synonymous with a certain strain of big room clubbing. The label, founded by Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss, Shaun Reeves and Seth Troxler, have put out 12" after 12" of the kind of techno that's custom built for cavernous clubs and massive festival stages, subtly maximal explorations of generic constraints that are always geared towards getting a room going.

Having released 50 records, they've decided to sit back and take stock for a bit, celebrating their accomplishments with a new three CD compilation that skips through the imprint's biggest smashes to date, and also includes a new mix from DJ Three that utilises the vast depths of the Visionquest catalogue to great effect. Having played host to the likes of Dinky, Maceo Plex, Rework, Chaim, and Tale of Us, the collection, titled Ultraviolet 1, is an alternate history of techno in the decade with no name.

To celebrate its release, we asked Crosson, Curtiss and Reeves to run through a few of their favourite releases to date. Here's what they had to say.

Lee Curtiss' Selections

Benoit & Sergio - "Walk and Talk"

This EP — Where the Freaks Have No Name — holds special regard for me, because it was the track that pushed us into making the label happen. Visionquest as a group, had been friends with Sergio for years, and always loved his music but once he teamed up with Benoit and sent us music, we knew it was something special. I love the tongue in cheek humor, musicianship, and infectiousness of this record. I remember when it came out and we would play it. I don't think there was a single time that someone didn't come up and ask, 'What the hell is this?'.

Footprintz - Escape Yourself

Have you ever seen the movie with Tom Hanks called Money Pit? This album was the single most expensive thing we've ever done with our label, and if you listen back, still sounds like it. We've done so much since then, but this record was a huge effort from all sides to make something beautiful. The fact that they split up straight after the release, and never recorded or performed together again, is neither here nor there. I still have a gut feeling that people will be able to put this double vinyl on in 5 years and hum along with it. Perhaps it wasn't the most indicative album for things to come, but it still sounds great to me, and represents a great 'footprint' in our catalogue, to where we've ended up.

Ryan Crosson's Cut

Butch Lullabyes to Paralyze EP and The Persistence of Memory EP

I'm combining these as one. I'm doing this because I feel both EPs have a certain signature about them that tie them together. He brings the most techno oriented releases to our label and fills them with an ambient dreaminess that isn't gratuitous. Certain tracks take people out into a very climactic space and others are straight forward and punchy. Butch has kept this aesthetic over the two releases and is the only one doing it on our label and captures the style perfectly for us. He also matches the tracks well together along with ambient bonuses to create well rounded journeys in just three tracks.

Shaun Reeves' Rewinds

Moreon & Baffa - A Mental Process EP

This is my first choice because it represents both a firm foot on a new path for the label and, at the same time, a return to the timelessness of our roots. These two Venezuelan transplants in Barcelona are churning out lots of dub techno goodness at the moment. The remixes really seal the deal here. Two of them, each from people that we've been craving to get remixes from for some time now, Deadbeat and Ion Ludwig.

Merveille and Crosson - "DRM"

The full album is also amazing but it's this EP in particular that immediately jumps out of our catalogue at me and is in fact still in my bag all this time later. "DRM" is the perfect after hour trip but still strong enough to drop pretty much anywhere.

Ultraviolet 1 is out now on Visionquest. Head here for more information.

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