Offering a tour of Liverpool’s long-lost landmarks set to a soundtrack firmly rooted in the present, God Colony’s new EP North West Tonight has two eyes on the past and two ears on the future. Cast inside ever-so-slightly rose-tinted glasses, the shadowy arch on the project’s cover is a replica of the real-life arch that once stood outside The Paradox club in Aintree – now a Sports Direct. Another track, “Rhyl Sun Centre” references a large indoor pool just over the Walian border, also long gone. “We were thinking about the freedom of that time and wanted to capture that on our own terms, without relying on sonic nostalgia,” one half of the duo, Thomas Gorton, tells Dazed. “We wanted this record to sound like a night out in Liverpool, now.”

Alongside other half, James Rand, God Colony has embarked on an extensive journey since these hedonistic beginnings, recently executive producing south London rapper Flohio’s third album Out of Heart, and a film soundtrack with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. “[These were] both sick projects to work on and artists we respect a lot, but we knew after Covid that we wanted to work towards a sound that was totally ours,” Gorton explains of the process behind this latest release. “In thinking about that, we went all the way back to where we met, going to see DJs like Marcel Dettmann and Ricardo Villalobos in Liverpool, and throwing parties that lasted a weekend.”

I think it’s awful that [clubs] aren’t taken seriously and knocked down in favour of soulless, cheaply assembled flats with a Waitrose at the bottom. Clubs mesh people together and blocks of flats often do the exact opposite – James Rand

These experiences are written all over the project – from colourful bass lines that feel lifted straight out of an 80s rave mix to soaring synths that arrive like a sunrise through the windows of a dingy warehouse. These elements speak to a freedom that is fast dissipating in UK club culture, punctuated by rapid venue closures, skyrocketing costs of living and the crushing impact of the pandemic. “When we were growing up in Liverpool, nearly every building in the city centre seemed to be a nightclub or a venue. Now, that’s changed and clubs are shutting constantly,” Rand explains. “I think it’s awful that these places aren’t taken seriously and knocked down in favour of soulless, cheaply assembled flats with a Waitrose at the bottom. Clubs mesh people together and blocks of flats often do the exact opposite.”

However, it’s also these experiences that set God Colony apart today. In the lyrical dexterity of collaborators like FLOHIO and west London rapper Jelani Blackman, the production duo has carved out a sound that feels equally representative of both the industrial raves of the past and contemporary British club culture. “Putting rappers on techno-adjacent beats just sounds good and you’re seeing it happen a lot more now,” Rand explains, adding that their upcoming track with drill rapper PS Hitsquad is set to be similarly genre-bending.

“We discovered while making North West Tonight that we wanted to tap into a bit of psychogeography,” says Gorton, and nowhere is this nostalgic return to eras gone by more apparent than in Liverpudlian poet Roy’s (AKA PJ Smith) feature on closing track “The Paradox”. Having lived on the same street in Toxteth, Liverpool, for more than 25 years, Roy’s disembodied meanderings on “Valentino tracksuits” and “skinheads lecturing your nan about 15-minute cities” feel like the sort of cultural commentary that goes beyond any specific medium, travelling through time and space itself. It’s a fitting – and emotional – ending to a project that straddles both.

North West Tonight is out now