Review
Genre and Mood
Tube & Berger and Ghost Loft’s Set Free - Original Mix, as the yearbook names it, is deep house with one foot in indie electronica: Music Is 4 Lovers described it as dancing between the lines of the two. The same review heard a dark, melancholic mood in it, and that is the feeling of this page.
Song Summary
Set Free is a single by the German duo Tube & Berger with the Los Angeles electronic producer Ghost Loft, the alias of Danny Choi, as its voice. Kittball Records released it in March 2016 under the catalogue number KITT112. The credits name Arndt Rörig and Marko Vidovic as composers and Choi, Lewis Hughes and Nicholas Audino among the lyricists. The yearbook’s copy is the original mix as it appears on the compilation Deep City Grooves Ibiza, Vol. 17.
Musical Breakdown
Main Section
No source we found follows the track section by section, so this page describes less than usual. Music Is 4 Lovers named its materials: smooth basslines, psychedelic strings and synths, and a dark, melancholic atmosphere around Choi’s voice. Listen for how those three layers share the space with the voice.
Concepts in Focus
A <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist is a guest credited on someone else’s track, here with the “ft.” of the single’s title. Tube & Berger are producers; Ghost Loft comes from another corner of electronic music, with a background in electronica, nu-disco and R&B, and releases on the French label Kitsuné. The feature brings his voice and his writing into their deep house.
In deep house the bassline carries much of the track: it sits under the kick, sets the groove and often holds the melody as firmly as the voice. Music Is 4 Lovers put the smooth basslines first in its description of Set Free, before the strings and synths that tint it.
The track then lived in the dj mix. MusicBrainz lists it inside Ministry of Sound’s mixed compilation Chilled House: Ibiza 2016, released in June 2016, and the yearbook found the original mix on another Ibiza compilation. Mixes and compilations are how a club single reaches listeners who never bought the single.
Artistic Context
Tube & Berger are Arndt Rörig and Marko Vidovic, alias Lou Berger, from Solingen, who have worked together since 2000 and have released on Kittball since 2005. Their Straight Ahead with Chrissie Hynde reached number 29 in the United Kingdom in 2003, and Set It Off with Juliet Sikora number 21 in the Netherlands in 2014; their second studio album, We Are All Stars, followed on Kittball in May 2017. Ghost Loft, according to Music Is 4 Lovers, was known for the singles Seconds and So High and had worked with Wiz Khalifa and Two Door Cinema Club.
Impact and Reception
Set Free’s reception is written in compilations rather than charts: within months it was on a Ministry of Sound Ibiza mix, and it kept appearing on deep house collections after that. It is here as one of the owner’s songs of 2018. Play it when the evening turns dark and stays warm.
