John Summit releases CTRL ESC on Experts Only

“I am not the same person I was five years ago,” John Summit said days ahead of the record’s arrival. CTRL ESC is out now via Experts Only / Darkroom Records, a thirteen-track collection. The release date is Tax Day. Summit practised accountancy in Chicago, and he abandoned the profession for dance music.

CTRL ESC ranks among the most anticipated dance albums of the year, and it follows Comfort In Chaos, the debut Summit released in 2024. The record amounts to a self-portrait of Summit’s present circumstances, registering the relentless demands of international touring alongside the intimate rooms that keep his audience close. He released a new single every Wednesday through the weeks preceding it.

The album’s first single, LIGHTS GO OUT, landed in late January, accompanied by a video that follows a cubicle workforce from strip lighting to a club floor. Julia Wolf features on WITH ME, Devault and Julia Church appear together on SHADES OF BLUE, Rohaan takes SATA, and Absolutely receives credits on DON’T BELIEVE IT and CYANIDE. Ilsey accompanies The Chainsmokers on ALL THE TIME, and KILIMANJARO turns up on TIME WITH YOU.

Feid, the Colombian singer, created CHICA 305 with Summit in Miami. The collaboration routes a Latin strain through the club machinery Summit ordinarily assembles, and the vocal supplies an after-hours mood above a rhythm he holds firm. Summit introduced it unannounced during his Ultra Miami mainstage set, where he brought Feid onstage beside him.

A sequence of album launch pop-ups preceded the release, among them a three-hour solo performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, one of the most storied stages in electronic music. Reframe Studios in Los Angeles hosted another, and on April Fools’ Day Summit performed in professional dress for a private New York audience. He delivered a surprise set at the Do LaB stage at Coachella before the album arrived. Summit has previously sold out the O2 Arena and headlined Madison Square Garden, while Experts Only has developed into a label running its own festival alongside an Ibiza residency.