Call Super: Biography, Discography and More | EDM Encyclopedia

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Introduction

Call Super is the recording alias of Joe Richard Sherwood, a British electronic music producer and DJ whose work operates within the IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) tradition. Based in the United Kingdom, Sherwood adopted the Call Super name for his first release in 2014 and has maintained an active presence through 2024. His output spans studio albums, DJ mixes, and live performances across Europe’s electronic music circuit.

Operating primarily through the Houndstooth label, Call Super emerged as a distinct voice in the UK electronic scene during the mid-2010s. Houndstooth, associated with the fabric club in London, provided a home for Sherwood’s work, and the relationship between artist and label has remained consistent throughout his career. This partnership yielded four studio albums and one DJ mix compilation over the course of a decade.

Sherwood’s dual role as producer and DJ informs his artistic identity. His DJ sets, which blend techno, ambient, and experimental electronics, have taken him to clubs and festivals across Europe. The invitation to contribute to the Fabric mix series in 2017 recognized his standing as a selector capable of constructing extended, genre-fluid sets.

Beyond the Call Super project, Sherwood’s engagement with electronic music extends to broader concerns about sound system EDM culture, the politics of club spaces, and the history of dance music. These interests manifest in his music’s attention to spatial detail and bass frequencies, elements that reflect a deep understanding of how sound functions in physical environments.

The Call Super discography favors the album format over individual singles or EPs. Sherwood’s five major releases between 2014 and 2023 each represent extended artistic statements rather than isolated tracks. This approach aligns with the album-oriented tradition within IDM and experimental electronic music, where artists construct full-length works meant to be experienced as cohesive units.

Genre and Style

Call Super’s music resists easy categorization within a single genre, drawing instead from IDM, techno, ambient composition, and the broader history of UK bass music. Sherwood’s productions incorporate the detailed sound design associated with IDM while maintaining enough rhythmic drive to function in club contexts. This balance between intellectual engagement and physical response defines his artistic approach.

The IDM Sound

The Call Super sound prioritizes texture and atmosphere alongside rhythm. Sherwood works with hardware synthesizers and analogue processing equipment, choices that give his tracks a tactile quality often absent from purely digital productions. This preference for hardware extends to his live performances, where the imperfections and spontaneity of analogue instruments shape the music in real time.

bass frequencies serve as a structural element in Sherwood’s work rather than mere decoration. Drawing from UK bass music traditions, including dubstep and its descendants, Call Super tracks use low-end information to anchor arrangements and create physical presence. However, Sherwood applies these frequencies with restraint, avoiding the aggressive drops associated with some club music in favor of subtle, evolving bass movements.

Melodic content in Call Super’s productions tends toward fragmentation and suggestion. Rather than presenting clear, hummable themes, Sherwood deploys short phrases and harmonic fragments that appear and dissolve within the mix. This approach creates a sense of constant evolution, where listeners discover new details across repeated listens.

Tempos across Sherwood’s work vary considerably. A single album might move from beatless ambient passages to tracks approaching 130 BPM. This range reflects Sherwood’s background as a DJ who must navigate between different energy levels across a set. In his studio work, this flexibility allows for albums that journey through moods and intensities rather than maintaining a single rhythmic baseline.

The integration of field recordings and environmental sounds into electronic frameworks adds an organic dimension to the Call Super palette. Sherwood positions these found sounds alongside synthesized elements, creating contrasts between the digital and the real. This technique grounds his abstract productions in recognizable sonic reality, giving listeners entry points into otherwise challenging material.

Key Releases

Call Super’s debut album, Suzi Ecto, arrived in 2014 on Houndstooth. The record introduced Sherwood’s production approach to a wider audience, establishing core elements of his sound: detailed textures, unconventional rhythms, and an emphasis on atmosphere over straightforward club functionality. As a first statement, it positioned Call Super within the lineage of British electronic artists who treat the album format as an artistic end in itself.

  • Suzi Ecto
  • Arpo
  • Fabric 92: Call Super
  • Every Mouth Teeth Missing
  • Eulo Cramps

Discography Highlights

2017 brought two significant releases. Arpo, Sherwood’s second studio album, expanded the sonic territory established by its predecessor. The record introduced greater emphasis on melodic fragments and extended atmospheric passages, suggesting an artist becoming more confident in his working methods. The same year, Sherwood released Fabric 92: Call Super, his contribution to the Fabric London mix series. Unlike his studio albums, this release showcased Sherwood’s skills as a DJ, weaving together selections from other artists into a continuous mix that reflected the range and eclecticism of his club sets.

Every Mouth Teeth Missing arrived in 2020 as Sherwood’s third fl studio album. The release continued refining the balance between rhythmic intensity and textural exploration that had characterized his earlier output. Three years on from Arpo, the album demonstrated continued development in Sherwood’s production techniques and compositional approaches.

Sherwood’s fourth studio album, Eulo Cramps, appeared in 2023. By this point, Sherwood had accumulated nearly a decade of experience working under the Call Super name, and the album reflects an artist with a fully realized approach to electronic music production. The record maintains the attention to detail and structural sophistication present from the beginning while incorporating new sonic elements developed across the intervening years.

Together, these five releases chart a coherent artistic trajectory from 2014 to 2023. Sherwood has avoided repeating formulas or retreading familiar ground, instead pushing his sound forward with each new release while maintaining a recognizable identity. The Call Super discography demonstrates a sustained engagement with electronic music’s possibilities across a decade of activity.

Famous Tracks

Call Super’s debut album Suzi Ecto (2014) established a distinct voice within British electronic music. The record introduces layered rhythmic structures and textural depth that would become hallmarks of his production style. Tracks balance percussive complexity with atmospheric sound design, creating compositions that function on dancefloors while rewarding closer headphone examination. The attention to frequency placement and spatial positioning sets a standard that subsequent releases would build upon.

The 2017 release Arpo expanded this foundation with more ambitious arrangements. Where the debut explored the possibilities of his sound, this sophomore effort pushed rhythmic interplay further, introducing denser percussion patterns and a wider range of sonic textures. The album demonstrates a producer becoming more confident in technical abilities while refusing to simplify his approach for broader accessibility. Individual tracks develop across extended running times, allowing ideas to unfold gradually rather than resolving quickly.

Every Mouth Teeth Missing arrived in 2020, reflecting three additional years of refinement. The EDM production achieves greater precision in the relationship between individual elements, with each component occupying a deliberate space in the mix. Rhythmic programming grows more intricate without sacrificing clarity, a difficult balance that fewer producers manage successfully than attempt it.

The 2023 album Eulo Cramps continues this trajectory of evolution. The record introduces fresh textural elements while maintaining the detailed approach to rhythm and arrangement that connects it to earlier work. Across all four studio albums, Call Super demonstrates a commitment to treating each release as a distinct statement rather than a reiteration of past successes.

Live Performances

The 2017 release Fabric 92: Call Super documents his capabilities as a selector and programmer in a club context. Part of the respected Fabric mix series, the compilation places his original productions alongside material from other artists, revealing the broader musical ecosystem that informs his solo work. The sequencing demonstrates an ability to construct long-form musical arcs across multiple tracks, a skill that translates directly to his DJ performances. The mix operates as both a standalone listening experience and a window into the thought process behind his club sets.

Notable Shows

His live sets incorporate both hardware and software, enabling real-time manipulation of rhythmic and textural elements. This configuration allows for a degree of improvisation that differentiates live performances from standard DJ appearances. Material from studio sessions gets restructured and reinterpreted on the fly, creating unique versions that exist only in the moment of performance. The approach prioritizes spontaneity without losing the structural coherence that characterizes his recorded output.

The flexibility of this setup suits a range of environments, from intimate venues where subtlety and detail come to the forefront, to larger festival stages where physical impact takes priority. This adaptability reflects a producer who understands how context shapes reception, and who adjusts his approach accordingly rather than delivering a fixed set regardless of setting. Performances across the UK and international venues have reinforced his capacity to read and respond to the specific conditions of each room.

Why They Matter

Call Super represents a particular strand of British electronic music production: technically detailed without becoming sterile, rhythmically complex without losing physical impact. His catalog demonstrates that functional club music and experimental sound design need not exist as separate concerns. The integration of these elements across five releases creates a body of work that rewards both immediate engagement and sustained attention.

Impact on IDM

The willingness to evolve between releases distinguishes his output from producers who find a successful formula and repeat it. Each album introduces new techniques and aesthetic concerns while maintaining enough continuity to feel like the work of a single artist. This balance between exploration and identity gives the discography a sense of purpose and direction that accumulates meaning when the records are considered in relation to each other rather than in isolation.

The dual role as producer and DJ informs both activities. Studio production benefits from the practical understanding of how music functions in a social, physical context. DJ sets gain depth from the technical awareness of how sounds are constructed and combined. This crossover between creation and curation positions Call Super as someone who shapes electronic music from multiple angles, contributing original material while highlighting connections between existing works through his selections. The result is a practice that operates with intention across recording, performance, and curation.

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