There's a particular kind of quiet that comes after you upload a track and hit submit. You've spent weeks inside a project automating filters at 2am, second-guessing a kick, bouncing the same eight bars until the words stop meaning anything. Then it's out of your hands.

So this one means something to write: Northern Soulmates is #1 in Progressive House on Spinnin' Records' Talent Pool, and Top 10 across the entire pool regardless of genre. For an independent, self-releasing producer, topping the Progressive House chart at one of dance music's most influential labels is a milestone I don't take lightly.

What the Spinnin' Records Talent Pool actually is

For anyone outside the production world: Spinnin' Records is one of the biggest dance labels on the planet, home to a huge slice of the artists who've defined modern progressive and big-room house. Their Talent Pool is where unsigned and emerging producers submit demos, ranked by community engagement and label attention. Reaching the top of a genre chart is one of the clearest signals a track is connecting beyond your own headphones.

Northern Soulmates leading the Progressive House chart and sitting in the global Top 10 puts it in front of exactly the audience I made it for.

The story behind the track

Northern Soulmates is built around the feeling of distance the idea that two people can be tuned to the same frequency without being in the same place. Musically that meant pairing a warm, rolling progressive house groove with a melodic lead that sits somewhere between hopeful and a little melancholy.

I'd carried Northern Soulmates around in my head for years before a single note of it existed. The idea was always there that feeling of being tuned to the same frequency as one person, no matter the distance or the noise between you but it stayed an idea. It took my better half (now my wife :) ) finally pushing me to make my own music for the words to move from my head onto paper, and from paper into this track.

So this one isn't abstract. Northern Soulmates is for the person who gave me the support to start Orikle in the first place. We met in Manchester and ended up dancing through nights in Ibiza, and somewhere in between those two places this song quietly took shape. The "northern" is where it began; the "soulmates" is the rest of it.

Musically I wanted that to be something you could feel before you knew any of the story a warm, rolling progressive house groove under a melodic lead that sits between hopeful and a little aching, the way it feels to be apart from someone you're completely in sync with. The drop is the moment those two threads finally meet. If you've ever had one person who feels like home regardless of where you actually are, this one's for you too.

Listen to Northern Soulmates

Northern Soulmates - Orikle - Spotify

Northern Soulmates - Orikle - Beatport

What's next for Orikle

Melodic, emotionally-driven progressive house, released independently that's the direction. More music is already in progress, and the best way to hear it first is keep checking here and on our social sites.

Thank you to everyone who liked, shared, and pushed Northern Soulmates to the top of the chart. It genuinely moves the needle, feel free to contact me here too

— Orikle