CTRL ESCAPE- john summit

Happy Tax Day to all who celebrate, today we're going through a first listen of John Summit's new album CTRL ESCAPE. For those who are not familiar, John Summit (also known as John Schuster if you check out his linkedIn) is a DJ known for his tech house hits, and his evolving sound that occasionally dips into dubstep and old school Chicago house (an homage to his home town and where he got his start). He rose to stardom with songs like 'Where you are' featuring Hayla, which has become a festival anthem, used in after movies and instagram reels alike. It’s a song with vocals that evoke a sense of sun drenched whimsy and a beat that makes you want to move. ‘Shiver’ is another song off his debut album Comfort in chaos, is full of jumpy beats and an undeniable energy that breathes something new into you, whether it's full blast in your car or at a live show.

Photo belongs to John Summit llc.

It's hard to say whether this truly counts as a first listen since he's been dropping tracks off the album every other wednesday since February of this year and I have been faithfully listening while at work, dreaming of climbing out of the drop ceiling in my office, into a bright blue sky myself. Pair that with his recent Ultra Miami set and his pop up shows to promote the album and we’re left with an excitement that unfortunately had to be put aside for a day or two until I could give this the full listen through that it required.

Jumping in off the bat with ‘Status:Away’, you get the unsettling tone of an office line ringing in what seems like a blur of background office chaos (if you know, you know). He speaks, echoing sentiments a lot of office workers tend to feel. Insane, automatic, looking for something more. The beat builds slowly, until it’s ready to drop. It gives way into a very melodic mid tempo rhythm. It’s very stable, which at its core, this song is. It feels like the epitome of stability. A good--boring--job that pays well, but provides nothing to interest or engage you. In a way it feels like the perfect opening track to an album all about escaping the norm, escaping the ‘simulation.’ The song closes out with the sound of keys clacking, the phone ringing, and a female voice saying “the clock doesn’t move, it repeats.” It’s a song that in a way feels unbearable. It hits way too close to home for me. The monotony, the boredom that so many people feel going in every day and only having that brief glimpse of freedom (the weekend) and for this song (that central section) that feels lighter before trending back down into the hum of fluorescent lights.

There are a few tracks on this album like ‘Shades of Blue’, and ‘Don’t believe it’, that don’t really stand out to me the way the rest of the album does. This is not to say that I don’t like the songs, in fact listening to them a second time driving in the next morning had me bopping my head along to the beat. They have the makings to be house classics that would perform well at shows and festivals, which is likely his intention with them. In these songs you do get a mix of collaborators from Devault and Julia Church to our first Absolutely Collab on the album. Though there is a noticeable stylistic shift from his first album to this album, he has definitely found collaborators that work well with him, and you get a strong sense of each person's style in the music they create. This is another key piece to the album that can be felt throughout each song distinctly. In some cases it can make tracks like ‘Shades of Blue’ and something like “Time with you” feel very disjointed, but I think it works well here.

If you’re looking to bring something a bit more Miami, a bit more out of the office into your world; you’ll love ‘Sata’ and ‘Chica 305’. These songs bring more drum and bass and latin pop into the mix, creating something out of the usual for John Summit. In these songs we sway away from the idea of escaping the mundane and step into a world fueled by the desire to dance. The focus here is creating music that makes people want to move, to get lost in the energy and feel. Both songs were part released ahead of his album debut, and though they are a little bit outside of what I usually listen to (big dubstep and techno gal here) I think their inclusion on the album makes a lot of sense and when they come on, I don’t want to skip them. It does make me wish I was listening to this album on a beach though, rather than in an office chair. 

We’re going to jump a little bit here in terms of the order of things, but I wanted to talk about ‘Lights go out’ and ‘All the Time’, two singles from the album that blew me away. I first heard lights go out and was immediately sold on the whole album, from the concept, to the music video, to the marketing he did for it towards its release. It was something that was relatable and the beats were stuck in my head for weeks. The moment where the beat breaks down and we get some keys and a bit of an isolated drum beat before switching into synths that carry the track forward, before the build up into the drop where everything turns to chaos. When we talk about chaos, we can’t forget the high energy hit that is “all the time.” Now I’m a big fan of the chain smokers anyways, so seeing them on a song together already had me hyped, but the song itself is a lot of fun. It’s got a very nostalgic house vibe to it, with lyrics talking yearning for someone that they’re still sort of in contact with, but life got in the way. With lyrics like, “there was a time where I thought I had everything I ever wanted. Now I'm going to sleep, just to dream, waking up and I see your eyes in the light, so belonging.” which paints a picture of just how badly they miss this person. This one, I can see being a staple piece of his set for the next few years with the potential for it to become a new festival after movie anthem. 

On the album there were two tracks that stood out to me as hidden gems, from the beat to the ear worm lyrics that have me singing along under my breath while I'm at the gym, or working on projects. ‘Mess w/ me’ with Nija and ‘Time with you’ with Kilimanjaro, have taken those spots. Mess w/ me starts a bit slower but has a distinct R&B quality to it that feels a bit sexy with breathy moments and sensual lyrics that make you feel like you’ve just met a beautiful stranger at a club. It has a beat that feels a bit more circular if that makes sense, almost like a hair toss or a hip circle. It feels slinky and smooth with a consistent mid tempo beat that begs for you to play it one more time. While Time w/ you has a much more intimate after the club vibe. I was a bit surprised by how much I liked this song. While I'm not shy about finding new artists and new genres to dive into, this very much sent me down his entire discography, which is quite different from the sound I usually gravitate towards, but I very much enjoyed everything I found. This song leans more into a jungle house blend, with a deeper tone that grounds the song and takes it to a more sensual place. It plays with speed, a clever play at the name of the song, speeding up sections of the lyrics and slowing down others to emphasize the time spent together in this song's story. It pulls a lot of inspiration from Kilimanjaro’s usual, with his accented vocals and a slower and more intense sound. 

‘OOO’ is a short and slightly melancholic interlude, seemingly played on a piano that sort of reminds me of being in transition. I was super intrigued by the intro, thinking this had the potential to build into a more progressive house sound than we usually hear from John, but rather we got a bridge that connected us from the light of reality into the next track, Shadows.

‘Shadows’ and ‘With me’ sort of fall into the same category for me, which is, "I needed a listen or two to really vibe with it but now I love it.” it’s just that they fall very much into an expected John Summit sound, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever, and I think they would go absolutely insane to hear live, I was just slightly underwhelmed when they dropped after ‘Lights go out’. I do really like both of these songs though, and I think the vocals from both Lavinia and Julia Wolf are stunning. I enjoy the way ‘Shadows’ transitions from ‘OOO’ like stepping into a club and transforming into a new person, free from the restraints of work. It’s about the rush of hiding away with someone, exchanging feelings, and pleading the other person to live in the moment. With the beat breaking away and giving dominance to the vocals, it’s creating that same moment she’s talking about living in. ‘With me’, like I said, didn’t immediately strike me BUT I did really like the music video. I think it was an interesting continuation of his ‘lights go out”. Video. It’s the first time we hear her on a John Summit track, and I think the song is really catchy and will definitely get an audience moving not to mention I can’t hear this song without making me wish I was under the strobe lights where everything feels a little too cinematic.

‘Cyanide’ in a way is the perfect closing song for this album. It feels like a reluctant goodbye at the end of a great weekend, it feels like the culmination of what I had expected from ‘OOO’. If this isn’t the closing song to one of his shows (maybe pre encore?) then I don’t know what to say. It swells and has this lush bassline that just exists in the background, creating layer after layer of atmospheric music pleading with the listener to stay and be connected. It has a very intimate feeling that would bring people together in the crowd, with lyrics like “Can't stay on the ground, baby, I don't mind. Tonight gravity is cyanide.” It feels sad but there is something heartwarming at the same time, like a bone deep yearning that takes you back to being younger and experiencing music for the first time. 

 “Can't stay on the ground, baby, I don't mind. Tonight gravity is cyanide.”

CTRL ESCAPE, is exactly what it promised it would be, it’s an album for all the weekend ravers and casual festival goers alike that feel trapped in their boring jobs and find their escape in the music that brings together hundreds of thousands of people globally. It’s an album that has something for everyone, from soaring progressive house, to deeper jungle beats. You still get the hyped up tech house that John Summit is known for, but you also get a deeper, more introspective look at his life before becoming a DJ and a mirror held up to reflect the life he lives now. It’s a story that hits close to home for a lot of people who have gone through career transitions or life transitions but always find a way home.