UNIVERSAL NATION 428

01: ROMAN MESSER & DIANDRA FAYE - WHY SO SERIOUS (EXTENDED MIX) - SUANDA MUSIC
02: AIMOON & DMITRY RUBUS - NITROGENIUM (EXTENDED MIX) - MOLEKULAR SOUNDS
03: NORD HORIZON & SARAH RUSSELL - NOT A SOUND (EXTENDED MIX) - AMSTERDAM TRANCE
04: BIXX - WEATHER THE STORM (EXTENDED MIX) - NOCTURNAL KNIGHTS MUSIC
05: MAJAI - PHORIA 23 (ALEX M.O.R.P.H. EXTENDED REMIX) - HARDWIRE PRODUCTIONS
06: ROBERT NICKSON - TRANSCEND (EXTENDED MIX) - PURE TRANCE NEON
08: MIROSLAV VRLIK & SPY - SWITCH (ORIGINAL MIX) - ALTER EGO 
09: YORK & ALEX M.O.R.P.H. FEAT ASHENI - REACH OUT FOR ME (ALEX M.O.R.P.H. EXTENDED REMIX) - ARMADA MUSIC
10: WILL REES & RHYS ELLIOTT - DEFECTOR (EXTENDED MIX) - FSOE
11: JARDIN - ILLUMINATE (EXTENDED MIX) - FSOE

MASTERPIECE OF THE WEEK:
12: ALEX M.O.R.P.H. & JOHN MEVA - CASSIOPEIA (EXTENDED MIX) - DREAMSTATE RECORDS

Alex M.o.r.p.h. - Universal Nation 428

ALEX M.O.R.P.H.: “Music is the Key. Melodies are the Path. 
Beats are Universal”.

Since the mid 90s Alex M.O.R.P.H has set out to shapeshift within the dance scene as per his alias, leaving no facet of trance unturned and showing the top of the tree is a position that he’s grown rather fond of. Even in a time where stats and streams, followers and figures are pushed to the front, the maths behind M.O.R.P.H’s staying power are frankly mind-boggling. ‘Not All Superheroes Wear Capes’ said the man on his 2016 album – but M.O.R.P.H. is deserving of honours fit for a king. “Passion, discipline, a lot of hard work, and most importantly the love for music”, ensure his crown never slips.

From collaborations with Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren (both of whom have always repped M.O.R.P.H. to the fullest), to remixes of Dash Berlin, Gareth Emery, Aly & Fila and Faithless, M.O.R.P.H. is the epitome of can’t stop-won’t stop, earning VIP entry to the globe’s most in-demand clubs and arenas as he continues with the energy and passion of his 1996 self when the Seelenlandschaften imprint came calling. It’s telling that M.O.R.P.H. being the first and only German DJ to play New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden, puts his touring and gig commitments in a different league considering his knocking-out-the-park performances at Cream Ibiza, Mayday, Ultra Music Festival and the ubiquitous A State of Trance spectaculars. Godskitchen, Ushuaia Ibiza, Space Miami, his own HeavensGate takeovers – all mega-scale spaces the German has commanded with ease and never taken for granted, delivering shows and sets living long in the memory while leaving you fiending for his next throb of beats. 

With M.O.R.P.H. still on a high-riding rollercoaster after all these years, cruising through ‘Sunset Boulevard’ while keeping the vibe at ‘Maximum Overdrive’, he has never lost sight of the true goal in life: “find your personal balance, keep things in line – and don’t risk your health!” A true exponent of knowing the scene never sits still, M.O.R.P.H.’s longevity and get-up-and-go overlaps into his handling of the Universal Nation label and podcast series: the man eats, sleeps and breathes music. Global lockdown may have forced a temporary timeout, but it only stirred creativity and tapped into other production processes, ready for when the world was good to go again.

Anyone with a keen ear for the High Contrast label over the last 18 months or so will have heard M.O.R.P.H. hiding in plain sight with a surefire supply of thrills and spills, adding to his reputation as a master of sounds under multiple names maintaining both melodic and attacking instincts. Again it’s all about balance and the right way of going about keeping things simple: “it’s just so important that all elements fit together well: that’s how you keep the atmosphere instead of just adding some big and loud synths in the break that rips the audience in two. It might work fine on the dancefloor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not how I do things”. Always an in-demand remixer, if you’re given the keys to take on hall-of-famers such as ‘Madagascar’ by Art of Trance and ‘Carte Blanche’ by Veracocha, you know you’ve been doing something right. “One thing has never changed – a heart beating for music”.
 
Back to those statistics. M.O.R.P.H. is an all-time trance bestseller on Beatport and has twice entered the fabled DJ Mag Top 100 list. With a calculator-smashing amount of productions, remixes, compilation mixes and single of the year awards, M.O.R.P.H. has proved time and again his music is for the masses, with streams for favourites such as ‘An Angel’s Love’ and ‘The Reason’ racing into the millions upon millions. On top of being A State of Trance go-to guy and a Vandit Records MVP, he has released on major movers such as Ministry of Sound and Armada. And M.O.R.P.H. isn’t done yet. “I want to get trance back there where it belongs - to the main stages, to more people, sharing with them how gorgeous our music is, and how essential it is to experience it together”. With two new singles reflecting his worldwide adventures - ‘Calling Berlin’ and ‘Calling San Francisco’ – and another album in the pipeline, you believe Alex M.O.R.P.H. is still the man to make all these things happen.