September/October 2022 Standouts
The transition from summer to fall has flashed by with the blink of an eye. Sustain Release at the beginning of September was such an inspiring party (and the YouTube track ID playlist is as incredible as one would expect). If the lineup says anything about the ‘underground’ electronic scene I would say it exudes it an enthusiasm for UK sounds like DnB, jungle, and left leaning bass. Speed is still in but NYC artists and DJs seem to be making a turn towards more hypnotic, heady sounds as the leaves continue to fall. Bossa Nova Civic Club is back in business joining Paragon, Mood Ring, and Market Hotel (with some more consistent booking lately) to round out the incredibly dense Myrtle Broadway Bermuda Triangle.
There is far too much electronic music to keep up with but here’s our attempt at highlighting some of the best EPs, Singles, Albums, Comps, and Mixes from the last two months.
Selections skew towards the incredibly vibrant Brooklyn scene because that's our home.
We're always looking for new contributors because we'd love to bring some life back into this site, if your interested just click this link to send me an email or shoot us a message on Instagram!
If you're here for the first time check out our monthly roundups from rest of the year.
Allow a few seconds for bandcamp/soundcloud embeds below to load (they’re a bit heavy) and check out our lists on Buy Music Club to support these wonderful artists! Skip to our playlist of Soundcloud mixes here.
Singles and EPs
Call Super - Swallow Me [New Focus Recordings]
Mnemonic Deejay - Cut!
Nikki Nair - Renormalization Support Group [Astrophonica]
Pangaea - Fuzzy Logic / Still Flowing Water [Hessle Audio]
Shadow Child - Empire EP [Shall Not Fade]
Second. - Rasuba EP [TEMET]
Sleep D - Freak of Nature Vol. 2
Australia’s notoriously prolific duo are celebrating all things bass, the 3 tech-tinged party starters are a force to be reckoned with, an official warning of high voltage (and speed). Close your eyes, strap in and surrender control, Sleep D once again showcasing what they do best; modern dance from down under.
A+A - 060 [AD93]
Avalon Emerson and Anunaku certainly aren’t the first artists to dabble in trance during the past few years, but “North Star”—which appears on 060, their debut EP as a collaborative duo—should be held up as an example of how to tastefully (and effectively) engage with the genre.
Shantie Celeste - Cutie / Shimmer [Hessle Audio]
Amor Satyr & Siu Mata - HARD09 [HARDLINE]
Swimful - Rushlight [SVBKVLT]
Rhyw - Honey Badger [VOAM]
bastiengoat - Multi
Surusinghe - GOOD GIRLS // BAD GIRLS [Steel City Dance Discs]
Singles
Orca - Intalect Remix / Sample And Hold [Deep Jungle]
Hodge - Sub 100 [Two Moons]
Jabes - Ripples / Body Said No [Timedance]
The London-based producer delivers a couple of tried and tested peak time mind-benders. Both tracks are designed to encapsulate the feeling that the entire room is about to take off, speakers, dancers and yourself included.
Stratton - Never Bettered Always Battered
I. Jordan - Hey Baby
ASC - Black Rain / Sixth Sense
DJ Trax - Warped Minds [Transmute Recordings]
The Sauce - Bang Your Head / Grimiest Ever [ThirtyOne Recordings]
Albums and Compilations
33 - 33-69 [C.A.N.V.A.S.]
Disrupting disciplines and paradigms in each cut, they enact a ravishing rush of dancefloor drama and tormented cabaret that feels like the 1920’s rushing into the 2020’s, resulting in a time-sick and urgent avalanche of ideas from Leider or Baroque barbed in noise and hardcore rave alacrity, like a performance art piece held in the midst of Berghain or Kit Kat club’s most spangled, gloriously messy moments. [Boomkat]
Dana Kuehr - Basic Moves 18
Welcome to BM-18 the biokinetic realm created by Dana Kuehr, a lush audio environment where organic and synthesized matter coalesce. As we float disembodied above this verdant pixel plain, Dana offers us shifting repetitions and sequences in disguise, each track a landscape within a world created in the utmost detail, from the minute bleeps and chirps to the enveloping and bumping bouncy basslines.
Ariel Zetina - Cyclorama [Local Action]
Cyclorama is Ariel’s most impressive and all-encompassing work yet, showcasing her as a producer, vocalist and curator, pulling together an ensemble cast of her peers in Chicago (Cae Monāe, Mia Arevalo, DANNN) and some of the most exciting names in contemporary club music (Violet, Bored Lord). Conceptually, Cyclorama draws heavily from Ariel’s background as a theater writer and producer.
Floating Shrine - Growth and Decay [Decaying Spheres]
Ibrahim Alfa Jnr - Messier87 [Mille Plateaux]
Messier 87 is “a fine example of Hypercussion, which implies a new rhythmic A-logic when beats split or shoot each other off, or when they overlap and mutate into high-pitched hums and rattlesnake breaks; accelerating, before music again blurs into the grains of noise or calm science fiction landscapes and at the same time builds gigantic sound walls.”
V/A - It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature [Fever AM]
Rachika Nayar - Heaven Come Crashing [NNA Tapes]
Brooklyn-based composer Rachika Nayer injects the serene ambience of her past work with flashes of the club music’s emotionality - amen breaks, M1 piano stabs, warehouse rave synthesizers and more make for an experience that is utterly euphoric and incredibly emotive without a single word.
Kai Whiston - Quiet As Kept, F.O.G. [LUX]
A UK producer who’s arguably as well known for his pranksterish (some might say shit-starting) online persona as he is for his music, Kai Whiston has seriously leveled up his craft on new album Quiet As Kept, F.O.G., an autobiographical effort that explores his upbringing in the New Age Traveller community. Coming of age in the UK’s free-party circuit is enough to scramble any child’s circuits, which is perhaps why the LP is such a fractured listen, careening between high-end sound design, intensely hyperactive bangers, morose rap beats, pitch-shifted vocal mayhem and more, often within the span of a single track.
Loraine James - Building Something Beautiful for Me [Phantom Limb]
UK producer Loraine James joins Phantom Limb for breathtaking homage to vital NYC composer Julius Eastman, reinterpreting, reimagining and responding to key works for a brand new album.
Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay! [RVNG Intl.]
Lucrecia Dalt channels sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia on her new album ¡Ay!, where the sound and syncopation of tropical music encounter adventurous impulse, lush instrumentation, and metaphysical sci-fi meditations in an exclamation of liminal delight
Death’s Dynamic Shroud - Darklife
On a new double album, the experimental collective DDS continues its journey from vaporwave toward fractured, maximalist pop music.
Burial - Streetlands [Hyperdub]
Shygirl - Nymph [Because Music Ltd.]
Mixes
EQUISS B2B BORED LORD B2B BAHAR KHADEM - October 2022
Spontaneous Affinity #047: Nick Boyd
FM049: Teki Latex live at FM2022
Devoye at WRECKED
Debut BASEMENT set for Ron Like Hell and Ryan Elliott’s party "Wrecked". 3 hours of vinyl. Raw and funky.... Just how i like it.
x3butterfly | Boiler Room NYC: Paragon
Jossy Mitsu at Dekmantel Festival 2022
Downstairs J - Live from the Pool
FIST Live ~ Sterling Juan Diaz ~ 10.08.22
Lucid Dream With Nextdimensional And Ciringe B2b Evilo @ The Lot Radio 2022 - 10 - 15
XOXA BLEND 123 - Ron Like Hell
DJ Voices Live @ Nowadays // Opening before Two Shell - July 23 2022
The Early Bird Show w/ Gem&I 041022
Amelia Holt - lil nasty mix
ANY022: Aaron Clark
Motion Cast Vol. 84: Slunty at Super
On the last night of the Motion Ward Overseas tour, Pontiac Streator's alter ego "Slunty" appeared and played this set, which was recorded live at Super in Aarhus, Denmark.
