Oliver Heldens and Kryder Reimagine Freeez’s ‘I.O.U.’ as ‘AEIOU’
Oliver Heldens has teamed up with Kryder and The Young Punx to rework one of dance music’s most sampled records. ‘AEIOU‘ takes Freeez’s 1983 hit ‘I.O.U.‘ and rebuilds it for modern club floors, out now via Heldens’ own Heldeep Records.
Heldens has made a habit of digging into dance music’s back catalog and giving old records new context, and this fits squarely into that lane. Kryder brings his own brand of energetic, festival-ready house to the collaboration, while The Young Punx round things out with a production style that leans heavily on their own appreciation for dance music history. It’s a three-way combination that seems designed to respect the source material without just coasting on nostalgia.
The finished record splits the difference between eras pretty deliberately. There’s still warmth and funk carried over from the original disco DNA, but it’s filtered through a contemporary house lens that’s meant to work whether it’s dropped at a summer festival, a late-night club set, or a sunset slot at somewhere like Ushuaia.
Who’s Behind It
Heldens has racked up more than 4 billion streams and multiple No. 1s since breaking through in 2013 with ‘Gecko,’ the Becky Hill-featuring track that went triple platinum in the UK. He operates on both sides of the genre spectrum, running his own name alongside the darker HI-LO alias, which has become a fixture on labels like Drumcode and Filth on Acid, including a run of collaborations with Reinier Zonneveld. Between the two projects, he’s worked with everyone from Nile Rodgers and Kylie Minogue to David Guetta and Tiesto, and remixed names ranging from Dua Lipa to Depeche Mode.
He also runs Heldeep Records along with OH2 and HILOMATIK, labels that have put out music from Alok, ZHU, Green Velvet, Chocolate Puma, Eli Brown and James Hype, among others. In 2025 he headlined Ultra Miami, Tomorrowland, Creamfields and ilesoniq, plus played the Indianapolis 500 and F1’s Dutch Grand Prix weekend. His Heldeep Radio show is up to nearly 600 episodes now, syndicated across 180 stations in 55 countries and reaching an estimated 80 million listeners a month.
Kryder, born Chris Knight, has one of the more grounded origin stories in UK house music. He bought his first vinyl record in 1991 with money earned working a market stall in North London, was DJing by eleven and producing by fifteen, and eventually became a resident at Gatecrasher during the peak of the UK club scene. His breakthrough came when he handed ‘K2’ directly to Judge Jules, a move that led to six straight weeks of BBC Radio 1 support and eventually a signing to Tiesto’s Musical Freedom label. Since then he’s played Tomorrowland ten times, delivered a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, and co-produced the Tom Staar & Kryder remix of Swedish House Mafia’s ‘Don’t You Worry Child,’ which has racked up more than 120 million streams.
This year has been an unusual one for Kryder. He stepped back from touring to support his partner, Spanish DJ B Jones, through cancer treatment and recovery, and redirected that time into the studio instead. The result was his busiest creative stretch yet, sixteen records in seven months, including ‘Eivissa’ on Size Records, which hit No. 1 on the overall 1001Tracklists chart. Every one of those releases got a vinyl pressing, setting up what he’s calling a full return to touring on wax in 2027.
‘AEIOU’ arrives alongside a packed run of tour dates for Heldens, including stops at Tomorrowland under the HI-LO alias, World Pride Amsterdam, Smukfest, Medusa Festival and a Red Rocks date in November.
‘AEIOU’ is out now on Heldeep Records. Stream it below.
