TuneLab
Sheppa
Keep Hush Manchester: SOUP Takeover
For those of us who still get a shiver down the spine at the first chords of a trance anthem, Sheppa’s set at the SOUP Takeover for Keep Hush Manchester is a welcome, unashamed embrace of the euphoric. This is music for wide-eyed, 4am connections, where the BPM (averaging 137) and the key (heavily 12A) are designed to lift spirits, not just feet. The vibe is classic underground rave, lasers piercing haze, hands in the air during every predictable but perfect breakdown. Technically, it’s a lesson in progressive energy building, using that dominant 12A key to maintain a harmonic through-line across genres.
The energy is mid-range focused at 0.51, allowing those iconic synth melodies and vocal hooks to soar over a solid, four-to-the-floor foundation. Sheppa’s tracklist is a hit parade for the sentimental raver: opening with the iconic piano house of ‘Roger Sanchez - Another Chance’ is a bold, lengthy statement. ‘TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)’ is a deeper, dubstep-inflected moment, while ‘Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 Remix)’ is pure trance artillery. ‘ATB - Don't Stop! (C.L.U.B.B.
Mix)’ and ‘Armin van Buuren & Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye’ are textbook peak-time weapons. The journey begins with the 17-minute journey of ‘Another Chance’, reaches a hands-in-the-air climax with ‘Opus Interstellar (Angemi Remix)’, and winds down with the atmospheric pulse of ‘French II - Frequency’.