New York-residing breakout star Sophia Stel has been quick to occupy the new age shoegaze-meets-alt-pop scene that feels like it’s been bubbling underground for the past year with the likes of Oklou and Saya Gray at its forefront. Following the release of her recent EP ‘How To Win At Solitaire’, which featured the softly-sung ‘All Seven Seasons’ and indie spectacle ‘Everyone Falls Asleep In Their Own Time’ soundtracking a slightly more downtempo shift from her last record, Sophia enlists Mura Masa, Tommy Genesis, and Cecile Believe to put their own spin on a string of its standout cuts as part of a new deluxe EP. Mura Masa’s stripped-back rework of ‘I’ll Take It’ comes in contrast to Tommy Genesis and Cecile Believe’s hyperpop-edged remixes at its finale. 

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Following the release of her award-winning record ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’ in 2023, Icelandic producer EVA808 is back with a new conceptual album on her GLER label, produced as the fictional soundtrack for a film. Based around her experiences of living with bipolar disorder, EVA808 interprets her emotions in a flurry of experimental tracks made using hardware to pitch and stretch vocals, add foley sounds, and play with distorted granular samples. The end result is a visceral, 14-track journey into the “distinctive sonic world” of EVA808. 

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New York’s Baltra is back on his 96 & Forever imprint, this time with the deftly romantic and delicate new EP ‘In The Afterglow’. Across five tracks, Baltra explores what it feels like to be yearning in nostalgia for the dancefloor, combining gauzy breaks and deep, meditative house. 

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DJ Ramon Sucesso rewired our brain chemistry with his viral emergence upon shockwave-inducing DJ clips and the ‘Sexta dos Crias’ mixtape back in 2023, geared towards blowing the cones out of subwoofers with gnarly bass power. The sequel sounds every bit of explosive, if not more, accelerating and escalating through a cacophony of layers. Furious vocals, offbeat melodies, harsh bass textures, rattling percussion — crashing into each other like they’re being mixed in the Large Hadron Collider and producing results more eye-opening for mankind. Protons of Brazilian funk smashed into smithereens, an array of sampled sounds, forming something uncategorisable and intoxicating. 

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A creative rebirth is at the heart of the debut album from Sassy 009, the solo project of Sunniva Lindgård since 2019. Though she agonised over the record’s creation for four years, the sounds within are slick, coherent and fantastical — themed around the romantic fallout of fictional, fated-yet-doomed lovers who meet in a “dreamlike forest”. From the opening excitement of ‘Butterflies’ in the stomach to the closing sombreness of the ‘Ruins of a Lost Memory’, it’s a swirling, mesmerising record that’s thick with emotions and the blurry edges of shogaze, alt-pop and electro. 

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“Bound” as a noun can mean a restraint or enclosure, but as a verb it implies leaping forward and bypassing limits. Shackleton’s music feels more attuned to the latter meaning —  unconstrained, exploratory, evolving — though it’s a style that’s simultaneously distinctive enough to be a signature, enclosing entirely around his work and his work alone. No one is doing it like Shackleton, and his new album ‘Euphoria Bound’ sees him at his boundless best. A hypnotic, textural journey that palpitates and groans, simmers and grooves, builds and disintegrates, it feels endless in its ambitions and uncharted even upon every relisten. 

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It’s been an emotional month for the European community of Chicago footwork lovers, with the late DJ Rashad’s son DJ Chad crossing the Atlantic for his debut shows, carrying forth an almighty legacy of cross-continental music love and sharing. In the same month, Moveltraxx - the first European label to release music from DJ Rashad - put out a new instalment of its ‘Street Bangers Factory’ series opening with a DJ Chad cut. His contribution ‘Get It Evryday’ is built around infectious, twisting vocals that are grounded by ominous bass throbs and dynamic percussion. The five-track outing also features the label’s founder Big Dope P, laying an eerie beat over which MiaDMP unleashes urgent bars and shouts for London’s footwork pushers; Chicago dons Traxman and DJ Manny exploring '80s-inflected footwork and a fast-paced flip of Cajmere’s ‘Brighter Days’ (a cut previously sampled by Rashad); and a pumping Detroit collision with DJ Godather remixing hip hop duo Dastardly Kids. 

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After a spree of singles last year, Daphni has released a fully-formed project with ‘Butterfly’, his first album since 2022 under the alias. Including the already well-loved tracks ‘Sad Piano House’ and ‘Waiting So Long’, these uplifting, emotive vibes are paired with the likes of the bubbling textures of ‘Caterpillar’ and ‘Hang’. There’s also subversions within the flow of the LP with the 47-second-long interlude of jazz with ‘Napoleon’s Rock’ and the slower twangs of ‘Miles Smiles’. Overall, ‘Butterfly’ welcomes back the harmonic, emotive and colourful sounds of Daphni.

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While it has been curiously described as an “ambient” EP, it would be a mistake to assume ‘Kora’ would be a welcome addition to the chillout room. Teaming up with collaborators Varg2™, Siiickbrain, Whitearmor, and swedm2 across a mind-bending three tracks, Skrillex flits between chaos and brief moments of reprieve on his new three-tracker. While the title-track dances on the edge of downtempo with its balmy, atmospheric synths in its opening throes, Skrillex seemingly rediscovers his brostep instincts by the mid-point, packing in skittering percussion and an emo pop hook. On the Sacred Family-featuring ‘Yo Yan’ there’s a face-off between piercing synths and guitar strums to carry the track’s melody, underpinned by booming bass; ‘Someone Said’, on the other hand, consists of a stripped-back look at the hyperpop-angled intensity heard on ‘Fuck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!!’, pairing moody, fragmented drums with SOPHIE-esque pitched-up vocals.

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“Whoo hooo, Lets go!” Ever think you’d hear a track from Two Shell opening like that? Well this month dance music’s enigmatic duo decided to try their hand at floorfiller 4x4, with their confetti cannon-eliciting double-single ‘The Nightmare’. While the title-track utilises Utah Saints-esque euphoria with its catchy vocal hook and piano stabs, ‘Follow’ delves headlong into fidget house territory, centered around a cataclysmic drop that will have your arm spinning at the elbow like a helicopter blade. Are bangers… back?!

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Spending a decade as the go-to for the discerning techno crowds in Berlin, you can rest assured that Herrensauna knows its stuff when it comes to hard-as-nails sonics. The legendary party’s fourth compilation showcases the genre’s versatility with a diverse cast of new school producers and party residents. Whether it's through Yazzus’ bounce-laden ‘Jupiter Signal’, KAVARI’s bristling breaks on ‘Ash Rounds (Vulture)’, or SPFDJ’s full throttle pounding on ‘Worship My Pink (Liturgical Club Edit)’, this 10-tracker highlights the most exciting shifts in modern techno — and it's harder and faster than ever. 

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