Darude 'Rush' album

It all started with a brilliantly engineered sound that's increased in frequency, until it sounds like an alarm following you through the track. It left no chance but dance for your life. The sound developed into a track, which has been one of the most popular dance tunes around the Europe this year.

The track was named "Sandstorm" and it started to dominate, first the Finnish dance- and single charts, and eventually it made people go wild even in UK. Darude performed in BBC's Top Of The Pops -program in June 2000 where he had the pleasure to play the track which was number three on UK's single chart, and this was just a beginning...

Darude ( his real name is Ville Virtanen) found dance music years ago through the radio. When he was still in school, about five years ago, he bought his first PC and started to put up German-style happy hardcore with tracker programs. However, the possibilities of the PC didn't satisfy Darude for long and soon he started to work with sound modules and samplers. He made music with the thought that someday his tracks would make it big time.

Ville's artist name Darude developed gradually during a long period of time. He was DJ'ing in a couple of school parties and he played one special track a lot. It was a big hit at the time and was called "Rude Boy" by the Swedish artist Leila K. Friends started to call Ville with the name "Rude Boy", it turned to "The Rude", then "Da Rude" and finally Darude.

It's very difficult to put Darude's music into a specific type of dance music genre. It can be seen as hard house or trance, you may even call it house; it's simply Darude. What is different in Darude's music is that it has been successful in the pop world. It can be heard on the radio, television and especially in the clubs - all around the world. Darude's music is universal, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are from, you can follow Darude.

Darude's career as an artist got started when he met a Finnish dance producer Jaakko Salovaara (JS 16) who is very respected both as an artist and a producer; JS 16 is the man behind Bomfunk MC's among others.
He received a demo tape from Darude and noticed that there was something special in "Sandstorm". At the same time Jaakko Salovaara established a record label called 16 Inch Records and signed Darude to his label. "Sandstorm" was the first single release from the label and the track was suddenly very popular among the Finnish DJs.
It went directly to number one position on Finnish Dance Chart and dominated the chart for 16 weeks. In Finland the commercial success of the commercial single release of "Sandstorm" has been enormous as well. "Sandstorm" has now sold platinum and the second single "Feel The Beat" will reach platinum status soon. International sales of the "Sandstorm" single are now about 400 000 copies even it has not been released in all major European territories.

Darude's massive success in Finland was noticed elsewhere too. An English dance label, Neo Records, heard rumors about the track. They found the song via internet and finally managed to get a CD of the track.
Neo loved "Sandstorm" and it was accepted and respected by DJs like Judge Jules, Pete Tong, Danny Rampling, Paul Van Dyk and Matt Darey. Song became a club hit and eventually playlisted in various highly important radio stations in UK.

The way to the British sales charts was wide open. In June 2000 Darude became the first Finnish artist ever to reach top 3 position on UK's single chart. "Sandstorm" is so powerful that it is still in top 20 after nine weeks on the chart. An amazing result from a song which is totally instrumental - and represents house music.

What are the sources of inspiration for Darude? Darude says himself that it may sound like quite a clich? but basically he takes ideas out of everything that he hears and sees; from trance and hard house, from artists like JS16, Faithless, Scooter, Armand Van Helden, Antiloop...In fact, Darude is now starting to be an inspiration for many others.

Darude makes dance music because he likes club music himself and he likes to dance. His own style is based on simple tracks, strong sounds and beats and last but not least -the speed. I can feel the beat...

Darude is not only a single project! His debut album is ready and it will released in Finland in the beginning of September 2000. The album is called "Before The Storm". It is a strong collection of different kinds of tracks.

You can find a lot of future hits in the album and Darude himself describes the album with the words: "there is something new, something borrowed, something blue...the Darude-sound is present very clearly but there are also pure house sounds and also a little bit of chill out".

Even if Darude's dreams are becoming true, there are still lot's of things to achieve; "and couple of weeks' holiday would do quite good as well..."

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Tracklisting

Darude - Rush