Pura Pura & Gipsyan  - Nocto Vea [Nehza]

Dipping into trance, breaks, acid, dubstep, bass, and jungle, Pura Pura and Gipsyan co-produce four slinky, dancefloor-driven tracks that explore themes of nature and the pair’s musical roots. RONI’s Nehza label is quickly becoming one to watch for innovative club music that blends and fuses genres with a common thread of sub bass.

LT - Verb​—​0 [Tech Startup]

Sparkling, floaty, beautiful, dubby ambience that I could see working functionally in so many settings as a DJ. ‘Verb — Z’ cradles you like a forgiving goddess of bass, luring you into a floaty trance before turning off the lights about 2/3rds of the way through for a more muted and broken outro well suited to the EP

Mercy System - Dials EP [Different Intel]

Four massive tracks blurring the lines between techno, broken beat, and dubstep with a distinctive intricate and textured style. Released on the day of dweller dubstep night at nowadays and any one of these tracks would have rocked the floor that night.

FLVXXX Feat. A-Tweed - Murdah / Chant [Local Knowledge]

A double drop of hi-detail, lo-hertzing corkers. ‘Murdah’ twists half-time drum-and-bass into a weaponised wall shaking mutation. B-side, ‘Chant’, is a tripped out 98bpm Dembow beat with expansive FX, rocked by heavy low-end and XL ballistics.

Ethel Cain - من النهر

No words needed for this one, a breathtaking track from Mother Cain

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Tapir! - The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain

Living somewhere between Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Black Country New Road, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tapir craft a beautiful and lush fusion of electronic, rock, pop, chamber, and folk instrumentation on this impressive debut. The album follows a three-act structure – telling the story of a solitary traveler, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape of eerie forests, stormy seas and unholy mountains populated by beasts.

Brittany Howard - What Now

What Now is a thrilling mix of jazz, R&B, soul, house, and metal from former Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard. It's a sprawling, sometimes chaotic, exploration of sounds and histories, not always hitting its mark but undeniably driven by a defiant and exuberant spirit.

Erika de Casier - Still

An idiosyncratic mix of luxuriant electronica and moonlit R&B drilled further into the one-of-a-kind sound of Erika De Casier. Her songwriting is as masterful and universal as ever, and her proficiency as a producer heightened as she produces other voices (They Hate Change, Shygirl, Blood Orange) for the first time.

Erika de Casier is playing at Warsaw (NYC) on March 30th.

Compilations

VA - no pare, sigue sigue 2 [TraTraTrax]

TraTraTrax’s latest compilation presents 18 explosive cuts, club-ready bangers at different tempos and rhythmic structures but with one thing in common: hi-tech sound design.

V/A - Bay Area Renegade Trax [NO BIAS]

24 tracks from the bay area’s finest for just $7. Usually riding 140 - 160bpm and banger after banger with highlights from Bored Lord, Farsight, and Swap Meet all mastered by the brilliant Bastiengoat.

V/A - Fast Fists Fest [ANSIA007]

'Fast Fists Fest' bridges footwork and left-field UK sounds, presenting a thorough selection of mind-bending club weapons spanning the 150-160 bpm while staying true to label's signature, unconventional approach to techno.

We have an ongoing lists of our favorite mixes and sets from the year here but these are a few that particularly caught our attention this month.

New Year's Nonstop - Jan 1 2024 by DJ Voices

THE MORE THAT PEOPLE DONT TALK ABOUT WHAT'S HAPPENING IN GAZA, THE MORE DANGEROUS IT BECOMES FOR THOSE THAT ARE SPEAKING OUT.

THIS IS HOW THEY ARE

SYSTEMATICALLY INTIMIDATED AND SILENCED.

A good dj set should tell a story and many have tried but few in recent memory tell such a vivid and legible journey. It was halfway through the month hearing this mix that finally kicked my ass into gear to start on this February newsletter as I had promised in year-end content on the site.

DJ Voices kicks off the set with the first of many computer generated voice loops reading various pro-Palestine statements (see above) which she blends masterfully into a Palestinian track and then a steppy, uplifting track welcomes us into DJ Voices sonic world for what you can already feel will be something special

dBridge B2B Ehua at Draaimolen Festival 2023

Titans in their own right, this pairing exceeds expectations with a live recording from Draimollen, a festival in the Netherlands known for interesting b2bs among immaculate lineups (e.g. Blawan b2b Skrillex & Darwin b2b Mala). The pair deliver a particularly lethal second hour as they take a turn towards darkness and really lock in.

NTS: ERIKA DE CASIER 230224

Excellent selections from the artist behind my favorite album of the month. About 10 minutes into the mix, an unreleased ML Buch tune is blended into a dubby edit of the best track on the album, “Lucky”, and the vibes don’t let up for the hour of beautiful r&b, ambient, and techno.

Unsound Podcast 100: phil in a maze

Phil In a Maze’s set at the Unsound Closing Party harnesses the power of tech-inflected dnb and the impressionistic sophistication of dub. It's a game of tempo division and multiplication, featuring stuttering drum patterns and sludgy dancehall.

Distant Signals: Como Se DJ

A transmission not far from the mix above from a theoretical Martian future with a short story written by Paul in the description to set the scene.