Ewan Hoo’s Army is an exciting new musical project from legendary electronic dance masters Dave Seaman and John ‘Quivver’ Graham. A duo whose musical influence has been heard far and wide, they’ve released music on many leading major and indie labels over the last three decades and their highly in-demand DJing skills have led them to visit over one hundred countries, frequently playing the world’s leading clubs and festivals.

The first single released on 17th May is titled Voice Recognition, a brooding, emotive electronica cut that cleverly traverses breakbeats, futuristic soundscapes and effects and fuses them brilliantly with a huge shifting bassline which underpins the track. It’s all juxtaposed with an anthemic and brazenly electrifying vocal by singer/songwriter Leo Wood delivering big hooks, deep resonating soul, and ethereal levitation. Her melodies and unique lyricisms flow fluently with a distinctive, nostalgic, soulful elegance conjuring shades of Florence Welch versus Kylie via Clementine Douglas.

Leo has racked up over 20 million streams on Spotify alone on collabs with Marsh, Denis Cruz, Harry Romero and she has featured on many highly respected labels such as Anjunadeep, Defected, Spinnin’, Hospital, Crosstown Rebels and Insomniac. Her voice is now instantly recognisable to dance lovers with her trademark style, power and charisma which delivers again here with a mood enhancing, captivating widescreen vocal which is a marked deviation from the underground dancefloor moments the guys usually specialize in.

Lyrically, the track touches on some interesting themes. It’s no coincidence there are references to the unstoppable impact of Artificial Intelligence on the creative industries and the ability computers have to recognise, synthesize and adapt voices via neural networks and LLM’s. But this is also coupled with strong themes around one’s ‘inner voice’ and the mental pressure our internal monologue can place on ourselves. It’s a powerful lyric with undeniably positive feel good vibes but also a somewhat poignant dark undertone in the message.

Voice Recognition in it’s original form started life on the Beatport Chart Topping album Balance Presents… Dave Seaman & Quivver released earlier this year following such DJ royalty as Danny Tenaglia, Hernan Cattaneo, Kolsch, Joris Voorn, James Holden and Lee Burridge to name but a few. The pair added five exclusive collaborative productions to the project and included the lead single ‘Make This Disappear’ featuring lead vocals from John and Dave making his debut behind the mic contributing backing vocals; a distinct nod towards this project being in the works.

Born out of the enforced lockdowns of the pandemic where the duo were speaking regularly, they started collaborating on new music. These sessions began deep in club music and culture. However, they soon spread to wider shared passions and their love of a much more broader and diverse musical palette and something altogether more experimental and eclectic emerged, with John laying down early demo vocal ideas.

“We’ve known each other as friends for many years. We share a similar musical outlook and have moved in the same circles for longer than we care to remember, and so with this project we made a conscious effort to go in directions we don’t normally go. We just can’t wait to start getting it out into the World now.” – Ewan Hoo’s Army (John & Dave)

The idea of a much bigger project that the pair will eventually tour and perform live with guests embracing these wider shared passions, influences and peer networks is now coming to fruition as Ewan Hoo’s Army is born. John Graham is an accomplished singer having previously performed, collaborated and written electrifying songs for the likes of Hybrid, Sasha, Planet Funk and The Low Highs and will now bring his talents to future singles. This vision was shared by the forward thinking label Music To Die For who signed the project in an instant and an album project is now well underway.

New material from right across their smorgasbord of musical inspirations fusing a wealth of experience across club and mainstream music scenes is coming soon. The project has strong ambitions to develop a more mature sound away from the bright lights of the dancefloor that aims to channel a more mature listening experience taking in their influences from Blues, Soul, Indie, Electronica, Shoegaze, Synthwave, Folk and more. Early mentions in media have begun to surface already, including Progressive Astronaut, Electronic Groove and The Night Bazaar along with When We Dip running a pre-release exclusive of ‘Voice Recognition’.