Cross to the Dark Side with Gab Oliver’s Menacing New EP on Zero Tolerance

Zero Tolerance 2021 ain’t messing about. Label chief Gab Oliver’s new Drowning EP on the revived imprint is magnificently brooding and menacing. The highly respected progressive house producer tapped up artists long-associated with the label to rework his original – and the remixes are equally dark and fierce. 

A home for deep dark progressive house, Zero Tolerance was founded in the late ’90s by Phil K and Andy Page. Australia’s finest released on the label, from Gab to Deep Funk Project, Ivan Gough, Jason Digby, Nubreed and CJ Dolan. The label, consistently favoured by some of the biggest DJs of the era, shut shop in 2004. Sadly, Phil K passed away late last year after a brave battle with cancer. Oliver stepped up to resurrect the Zero Tolerance label earlier this year.

Beautiful Moment

Phil’s memory played heavily on Oliver’s mind when he was writing Drowning. “When I was writing this record all I could think about was Phil saying to me, ‘That’s deep as f***’, like the days when we would road test our own records at Sunny Side Up/Sunny. No-one was doing what we were doing at Sunny, not in the early days anyway. There was nothing better. l threw everything I could at that crowd, the darkest records I could find. And the atmosphere, the crowd, the sound was like nothing else. A truly beautiful moment in time and history.”

Oliver’s Original Mix is dark, moody and perfectly captures the non-obvious mood Zero Tolerance is renowned for.

Future Sound

No stranger to the label, Danny Bonnici turns in a forward-thinking breaks mix doused in his trademark energy and spirit. Stuart Mckeown and Darius Bassiray make nods to the “Precision” style of progressive breaks pioneered by Oliver and Kris Beats, while adding their own twist on the Mckeown & Bassiray Breaks Mix. The Depth Institute Sunnyside Remix rounds out the EP. An Oliver, Mckeown and Bassiray collaboration, it’s awash with subtle deep textures. It pays homage to the golden era of dark progressive house while simultaneously showcasing the future sound of Zero Tolerance.

Passionate

Oliver outlines three reasons why he considers the Drowning EP particularly special. “I’m writing music again and re-launching Melbourne’s Zero Tolerance,” he says. “Also, I am reuniting a collective of artists I am passionate about who are all writing a modernised representation of where we left the sound in 2004. Our legacy has truly reached people from all over the world. There is a specific group of current artists releasing music in the progressive house world who are all very excited to join the Zero Tolerance roster and contribute their interpretation of the sound.”

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