Sono “Keep Control”

The birth of our underground brand, Factory 93, not only brought on an adrenaline rush reminiscent of the renegade warehouse era of raving—on which Insomniac was founded—but it also had us thinking back to all the people, places and parties that made this whole operation possible. And with that came a burning desire to crack open our collection and dust off the classic records we couldn’t live without. Through our From the Crate series, we’ll be breaking out both seminal and obscure cuts alike, imparting some knowledge in the process.

I like tech house. I always have. Tiefschwarz are still gods to me. I torment my disco-loving good friend by always bringing up the one random-ass tech house song Motor City Drum Ensemble did for 20:20 Vision.

Saying that you love tech house is a more complicated affair, however. That implies longevity. As any old-school trance fan can attest, some genres mutate into the bottom-rung, creatively vacant genre that everyone with talent simultaneously gave up on.

It’s weird to me that tech house entered into an insidious affair with brohamdom. It was always the forgotten in-between for us nerdy kids who liked a sinister bassline but still needed some soul and swing.

Yet here we are, all boomptied out.

While the rich, layered, early fusion of techno and house drowned at the bottom of so many Vegas pools and champagne bottles full of glossy-eyed chatter, it’s a fun exercise to look back at genre origins with today’s knowledge.

Up there with Exit Planet Dust, “Insomnia” and the first Tyrant mix from Lee Burridge and Craig Richards, I’d put hearing Sono’s “Keep Control” into that seminal song bucket.

In 2001, Erick Morillo’s wildly successful hands-in-the-air house imprint Subliminal was about to launch a darker alter ego called Sondos. Morillo himself foreshadowed the label’s coming by opening one of the two discs of the first Subliminal Sessions double-disc mix CD with a Terry Lee Brown Jr. remix of “Keep Control.”

The original topped the Billboard club charts that year and was made in the pre-Ableton era, meaning its maker Sono was actually a three-piece band from Germany who were largely characterized as pop.

“Keep Control” was their first single, and though they had a hard time repeating the success it brought them, it is certainly an entrenched icon of a track that is still getting remixed today.

And what a track it is.

That opening scrawl of a sound is hypnotizing and threatening at the same time. Context is important here: You didn’t hear those types of sounds over what sounded like a hipster Alexander East.

The off-kilter arrangement of the lyrics, which at the time was just weird and different, is now actually catchy by modern standards, making this a piece of vinyl that has never really left the rotation in 12 years. And of course, there are the repeated reminders to “keep control,” right as I was becoming an expert at kicking it to the curb.

It was a serious track back in the day, dark and moody, yet still firmly in the realm of house music. It hooked me. I quickly preferred the original over the Terry Lee Brown Jr. remix (despite my undying love for that man). You have to remember, kids: Back then, 128 was like 121 is now.

Go back and listen to that Doc Martin Essential Mix from 2000 or thereabouts, and you’ll be shocked to hear how fucking fast every song is. It’s still a mystery when the first dose of ketamine was given to someone with a synth, causing the Great Slow Down of 2012.

Sono’s track sucked me in. It made me a Morillo fan for years, even though we’re all still waiting for him to drop the goddamn bass. But most impressively, it has endured—so much so that I got trainspotted playing it a month or so ago.

So effusive is my love for not just this track, but anyone who loves this track, I immediately found the guy after I was done and gave him the record. Make someone’s night: Take this gem out of this old man’s hands and put it back into proper rotation.