December: 7 bass & club music releases you need to hear this month

Mechatok 'See Thru' (Staycore)

There’s a particular benefit to the current iteration of underground club music: the internet allows certain sounds to gain traction across the world in a way that wasn’t possible before. Mechatok, the 19-year-old Berlin-based producer who’s part of Stockholm’s Staycore and London’s Bala Club crews, masterfully blends together present-day pop phrasing, dramatic timbres and heavy swathes of bass to imbue club music with an emotion not found in any other producer’s work. Some of the most compelling songs he’s put out have been backing tracks to crying-in-the-dance earworms helmed by fellow Bala Club member Uli K, and ‘See Thru’ finds him capitalising on what he does best. It’s warm, glittery and beautiful, swelling and falling back in just the right places; it’s bound to facilitate visceral dancefloor experiences for even the shyest of partygoers.

9/10

Katie Gately 'Tuck' (Tri Angle Records)

Los Angeles-based sound designer Katie Gately has a knack for cobbling cacophonous sounds together. Though she’s released previously on Blue Tapes and Public Information, new LP ‘Color’ finds Gately working with her own field recordings in a slightly different context. The entire record is a swirling behemoth of dissonant pop, but ‘Tuck’ is a standout: layers of percussion, horns and Gately’s own vocals orient themselves around a reverberated house beat, as witchy burlesque vibes abound.

8/10

Jubilee 'After Hours' (Mixpak)

Miami DJ Jubilee has made a name for herself in Brooklyn over the past few years. She’s constantly on the cusp of the next big thing in dance music, due to her status as a veritable club chameleon – her past EPs for Mixpak span various genres and geography, but she’s able to masterfully tweak known motifs to her advantage. Now, with her debut album, we finally get a full-length of Jubilee-infused club sounds. Smoothly veering from both Miami and UK bass to soca to rap, she’s created cuts that every DJ will be able to play in their set. Genre crossovers are her strength; the first single from the record, ‘Wine Up’, features Bronx rapper Hoodcelebrityy and meshes Jamaican rhythms with thick Miami-tinged bass, while ‘Stingray Shuffle’ takes inspiration from the Detroit techno great but is guided by wubby UK rhythms. The mood shifts rapidly and dexterously: this is music for the build-up, the party itself and the comedown, too.

7/10

Dedekind Cut '$uccessor' (NON / Hospital)

Dedekind Cut, aka Lee Bannon, is perhaps the most quietly prolific producer around right now. He’s dabbled in d’n’b, jungle and hip hop beats in equal parts, and is currently exploring large-scale, ambient pieces under the alias he’s held since September of last year. His exceptional rate of creativity is apparent, with this record coming on the heels of his recent ‘American Zen’ EP. The tone of that release was sprawling and seemed to focus on liminal spaces, serene at times and ominously bubbling at others, while ‘$uccessor’ finds Dedekind Cut working with harsher textures and overlaying them with bright aural revelations. The music is now taking you directly to a place on its own time, telling you where to stand and how to hold yourself, as opposed to letting you revel in your own space. The effect is haunting and magnificent, and makes the LP some of his most effective work yet.

8/10

Mina 'Satellite' (Self-released)

A few months after her debut EP was released on Enchufada, London DJ and producer Mina has returned with another stellar collection of sunny, infectious tracks influenced by dance rhythms from all over the world. Along with Tash LC and DJ Chin, she runs a club night called Boko! Boko!, which highlights Afropop, kuduro, dancehall and other generally funky genres. ‘Satellite’ takes inspiration from the music mentioned above, and you can’t help but move your hips at first listen. It’s Mina’s fullest and most fleshed out body of work yet, with steelpans galore and vocal features from two members of the Sierra Leonean youth community engagement organisation WAYout. Single ‘Mama’ and ‘Body Good Riddim’ use deep, undulating synths to propel the melodies forward, whereas ‘Balafon Bata’, featuring Sillati, samples a range of Sierra Leonean percussion to keep the mood going. When it comes to beatmaking, Mina always knows which exact sound to utilise at which moment, and this tight approach to production is what sets her apart.

8/10

Abyss X 'Mouthed Halcyon Veil' (Spooky Mediterranean)

Halcyon Veil’s influence on club music today is not to be underestimated. Eric Burton (who produces as Rabit) and his label have developed a discordant strain of sounds that combine to thoroughly recontextualise conventional electronic and noise tropes. It’s fitting, then, that it would sign Cretan-born, New York-based experimental producer Abyss X for its latest release. ‘Mouthed’ takes musical themes from the artist’s Minoan heritage and reworks them into collages of hazy, high-stakes compositions, replete with mandolins, choral samples and sweeping sonic crescendos. In contrast to her debut EP, which came out last fall on Extasis, this record finds Abyss X taking more overt risks production-wise, showcasing the versatility of her range. The risks pay off, though, and the sinister moods subtly alluded to on ‘Echoes’ are fully developed here. The air is murky and humming, the light is dim and you’re deliciously enveloped by the trembling emotion contained within the record’s five tracks.

8/10

DJ Lag 'DJ Lag EP' (Goon Club Allstars)

London-based label Goon Club Allstars first put itself on the map with the release of melancholic grime producer MssingNo’s debut EP in 2013. Since then, it’s been able to spotlight some of the best offshoots of well-known electronic sounds, most recently gqom, the genre of house music local to Durban, South Africa. Last year, the Rudeboyz EP helped to spark the international conversation around gqom, and now GCA are back with a massive record from one of the genre’s pioneers, DJ Lag. After a particularly fierce Boiler Room set in September of last year, the 20-year-old producer has finally given us an EP. It’s four colossal tracks of stripped-down, suspenseful house music, punctuated by throbbing kicks (the eponymous ‘gqom’ sound), relentless drum patterns and cavernous soundscapes. Taxi drivers in Durban have been known to play gqom while driving partiers around the city at night, and it’s easy to see how the music transcends low-quality recordings and soundsystems – all you need to get you going is the vicious momentum of the kick.

9/10