How Green Velvet Helped Push Eskuche's Career Forward

House and techno would be nothing without Curtis Jones, a.k.a. Green Velvet (a.k.a. Cajmere). Coming up in Chicago when house music first took its name from parties at the now mythical establishment, The Warehouse, Jones has shaped house music from the beginning.

Today his unmistakable green mohawk continues to bounce above DJ gear at clubs and festivals everywhere in the world, and his record labels—Cajual Records and Relief Records—are still sharing the best music from both established artists and rising talents sure to be the next big thing.

In his 30 years representing the roots of the scene, Jones has likely crossed paths with every prominent member of the global house and techno community, and he first made contact with Eskuche in the summer of 2018 on the island of Ibiza.

The meeting was simple enough. They were both at the party, and Eskuche made sure to introduce himself to Jones.

Just a couple of months later, Eskuche was mulling over a track that had been sitting on his computer for over three months. No label seemed like the right fit. At that point, it was destined to remain a weapon for his own sets and his peers with whom he shared it.

That track was named “Concentrate,” and on a whim, Eskuche decided to send it to Jones. What did he have to lose?

Within 30 minutes, Jones was telling Eskuche how much he loved the track and proposed to release it the following week. Usually, tracks take months from signing to release, but Curtis Jones doesn’t waste any time.

He shared “Concentrate” via Relief Records in November of 2018, and by the beginning of 2019, Eskuche was playing La La Land parties alongside Jones.

With his kind of experience in the scene, Curtis Jones knows what’s going to work and what isn’t. He knew Eskuche would work, and four years into their creative relationship, it’s clear he was right beyond a reasonable doubt.