Bleep

As with most things born on the internet, 100% Galcher seemed to come out of nowhere. Originally uploaded in the beloved Blowing Up The Workshop series from a (relatively) unheralded DJ, it quickly ping ponged around the dance music world, leaving awe-inspired takes in its wake. Galcher Lustwerk suddenly had the world’s attention.

Ten years on from its humble original release, the collection now feels positively elemental, a cornerstone of a certain, well, stoned strain of production that continues to be a primary influence on the dancefloor in New York and the world around it. As if it was music that always existed within the framework. Structured, in Lustwerk’s words “like a Datpiff mixtape” 100% Galcher is lovingly roughshod, but bursting with ideas, motifs, and intimate scenes. From Cleveland to Providence to Brooklyn, the sound realized here was the result of years spent hustling in and out of various music scenes. Built from a bare bones setup of one synth, one drum machine, and a cassette recorder, Galcher takes the listener on a journey from at home listening to the club and back again. Folding in influences from house, techno, hip-hop, and various touchpoints in between, the music had a purposefully intoxicating and sleep deprived feel, as much a document of the nightlife he and his friends were soaking up as it was an opening statement of purpose as an artist.

As we’ve since learned in preparation for this anniversary physical reissue on Ghostly, 100% Galcher nearly didn’t happen at all. Lustwerk lost the masters due to water damage on his computer shortly after its release, all but guaranteeing it would remain in its roughly exported and unmastered state. The tracks have miraculously resurfaced, and this fresh coat of paint pulls new things out of a record that’s been digested and appraised by all the blogs and publications Lustwerk obsessed over as a shy but curiously minded teen music nerd. New life is breathed into tracks like ‘Outside The Club’ and ‘In The Place’, revealing even more depth and movement in his production that the man has taken even further in the proceeding decade. It sounds just as fresh now as it did then.