The forthcoming ‘Transformations’ album dropping this year on Liquicity from producer Maduk documents his path to becoming an accomplished figure within the dance music world. Already supported by the likes of UKF and Radio 1, ‘Transformations’ is looking to add to the previous success of his journey.
The pseudonym of Dutch producer Mark van der Schoot (30), Maduk first came to prominence via the YouTube channel Liquicity Drum & Bass in 2011. Van der Schoot had started producing just a year before and had given his friend Maris Goudzwaard — who ran Liquicity — a copy of the track ‘Avalon‘ which was promptly uploaded. The track’s liquid drum & bass sound was the perfect fit for the burgeoning channel and was released on their new label of the same name. The Liquicity channel has since gone on to amass millions of streams, a result of that poignant passing of music.
Joining forces with Goudzwaard in 2013 to set up the label and their Amsterdam-based club nights, Van der Schoot continued to release on Liquicity and multiple other labels. With his brand of music becoming increasingly popular and winning both the coveted Best Newcomer DJ and Producer categories at the Drum & Bass Awards in 2014 and 2015, Maduk released his debut album ‘Never Give Up’ on UK based label Hospital Records in 2016. Nevertheless, his DJ support was just as important to his growing career, which included household names such as Pendulum, Sub Focus, Camo & Krooked, Netsky, High Contrast, Matrix & Futurebound, The Prototypes plus many others.
The years after the album’s release Maduk focused mainly on his label and events, with Liquicity Festival becoming one of the biggest drum & bass festivals in the world and the Liquicity community still steadily growing with sold-out club shows all over Europe. In early 2019 Maduk announced he was back on the Liquicity roster and released a brand-new album single ‘Go / Coming Down’ soon after. Later singles ‘Go Home (NCS)’, ‘Colours / Still In Love [UKF10 x Liquicity]’, ‘Company’, ‘Everytime’, ‘Back To Life’, ‘Go Back To The Jungle’ and ‘Come Back To Me’ followed, all providing potential building blocks for his forthcoming 18-track album ‘Transformations’ in 2021.
His live streams over lockdown, where he premiered various album exclusives, garnered over a million plays, whilst his DJ set over New Years Eve amassed 22k viewers alone. Anticipation is growing around the release of ‘Transformations’, something which can be seen through the peaked interest around his appearance on Dutch radio station 3FM, one of the first times in recent history where the station played a mix of 100% drum & bass on national airwaves. Although, whilst he’s the genre’s most-streamed artist in the Netherlands, he’s seeping his influence across the world, with extended all-night Maduk sets on the horizon across Europe’s major cities around the album’s release. There’s more to come from Maduk in 2021 and ‘Transformations’ only stands as a marker for his exploding profile.
