Holloway marks the first release of his new label, Waylo, with four delicious cuts of two-step and 4x4 garage. The soulful ‘State Of Mind’ offers hints of jazz, ‘Selecta’ and ‘Move Yourself’ evokes the best of bassline within 2-step and 4x4 frameworks respectively, and ‘Can’t Stop’ is an irresistibly groovy number punctuated with catchy vocal samples and noodling synth lines. The South London-based producer has declared it “no-nonsense club-ready music” yet that belies the record’s slickness, consistency and precision. In a year where he has already put out a vicious VIP of Benga’s Skank and impressive EPs with All Centre and Rinse, it says a lot that this is his best work yet.

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DJ JM returns to Nervous Horizon with the ‘Abnormal’ EP, a bangers-only balance of psychedelic melody and slick low-end pressure with a Lithuanian edge. In the London-based-label’s own words, each track serves its own “wtf was that?!” moment. ‘Syze’ is a destructively dissonant belter which shouldn’t work, but really does, abetted by an irresistibly groovy arpeggiator bassline. DJ JM lets rip on ‘Pepper’, which is dominated by distortion amidst his trademark vocal chants. The final song, ‘Erazer’, is another exhibition of barraging bass, combined with sporadic, detuned synth lines chiming in, conjuring elements of Basement Jaxx’s ‘Fly Life (Extra)’. The title-track stands apart from the other three in that it is not dominated by its lower frequencies. Make no mistake, there is still a powerful sub and kick involved but the focus is on eerie pads and the rhythmic work done at the higher end of the spectrum. All in all, the EP is a celebration of the weird and wonderful side of dance music. What else would you expect from a project titled ‘Abnormal’?

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Talik continues her strong 2023, which has already seen her release on Control Freak Recordings, with her return to Martyn’s 3024 label. One of the members in his first artist-mentorship cohort which began during COVID lockdowns, Talik had previously contributed to the label’s ‘It Was Always There Vol. 1’ compilation with her track ‘I See Faces in the Trees’. ‘Firefly’ marks her first EP with the record label, and it is a remarkable exhibition of mystery and experiementalism. The eponymous ‘Firefly’ starts with relentless drumwork and fades into atmospheric arpeggios and heavy reverb. ‘Snake’ features rattling shakers, echoed out vocals and piano-work, a subtle nod to how her creative process often begins on the instrument rather than on a DAW. ‘Serpent’ is another haunting number with a moody bassline while ‘Gloworm’ offers resolution in glimmering synths and charming chords. All in all it is a remarkably balanced and impressive EP.

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Melting between house and R&B, Tirzah has done it again. With the talented composer Mica Levi on production, this release intriguingly plays with variations of the same beat across each track, melding fluid piano lines over the same dark drums and trappy hi-hats. ‘No Limit’ is a looping masterpiece brimming with textures while ‘Promises’ is more dramatic as it plays with quiet and loud tones. Pouring her angelic vocals out across it all, Tirzah adds to the captivating hypnoticism of it all.

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After releasing the chaotic single ‘sulky baby’, yeule looked primed to dropp something special with this ensuing album, and they sure did. This cyber dream-pop from yeule is infectious as each track metamorphosises into a new form. Starting off with some more tender tracks, they work their way up into a dance music realm. The album ends with an ode to an icon with ‘aphex twin flame’, which has yeule reflect on a former lover. As a whole, the project is packed with reflection on sensitive topics from teenage trauma to heartbreak, yet is beautifully wrapped up as a perfect collection of art.

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Experimenting with trancey acid house, Octo Octa has assembled an enchanting three-track EP. Each cut refuses to stay in one lane as Octo Octa constantly adjusts what’s next. Kicking things off with the 11-minute-long ‘Late Night Love’, a jigsaw of sounds are pieced together over the length of the powerhouse slice of acid escapism. From there, ‘Let Yourself Go!’ builds up the tempo as a dancefloor filler before we ease into the more gentle ‘Come Here, Let’s Commute’. Performed live, this would be quite a show.

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Two years on from his last record, the ballad-packed ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’, James Blake returns to his club origins with an 11-track album made partly for the dancefloor - with an experimental touch. ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’ resuscitates a lot of Blake’s former dubstep roots while honing in on his own vocals, making the record’s most hard-hitting tracks such as ‘Loading’ and ‘Big Hammer’ feel enormously spacious and haunting, but confident in his new sound evolution.

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The anticipated debut album from Yussef Dayes, ‘Black Classical Music’, seamlessly blends elements of jazz, dub, and soul across an enormous 19-tracks. Reinventing the idea of what jazz can be - while at times dipping into the world of electronic - Yussef’s accomplished drumwork often meets the well-matched vocals of artists including Tom Misch, Jamilah Barry, or Masego, or a myriad of skilled bassists, saxophonists and other instrumentalists, bringing through talent both old and new.

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Coming in strong with the next release on Pariah and Blawan’s Voam imprint, Verraco’s ‘Escándaloo’ provides a more Latin-fusion take on the label’s usual techno offerings - a high-tempo, high-impact three-tracker leaning left of field. The record’s last track, ‘How is this even possible?’, borrows a sample from Authentically Plastic & Turkana’s ‘Diesel Femme’, providing a full-force finale.

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As the name suggests, be prepared to not only triple drop to Megan Leo’s two-tracker on Me Me Me - but triple triple drop. Opening with some deep, spine-tingling bass and hats so low-end they sound almost as if they are underwater - ‘Golden Eclipse’ pairs elements of good old fashioned chug with decadent electro bleeps. While ‘Whistlin’’ dishes out the atmosphere, pulsating and bending before breaking down into fast-paced, cavernous kicks. Both tracks weave in a multitude of elements that should feel overwhelming, but never do — instead they’ll be driving you to hit replay over and over again to identify each one.

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It’s rare that three artists from such disparate musical backgrounds get together to make music, but even rarer that they create a body of work that feels so concise - even with its myriad of inspirations. ‘In The Cell of Dreams’, which is a collaboration between Lancashire-born dubstep pioneer Shackleton, Polish avant-garde composer Zimpel and Indian classical vocalist Siddhartha Belmannu. really does just that. Shackleton and Zimpel work to create an eerie but complementary soundscape around Belmannu’s delicate vocals - forming a record that is as mediative and transcendental as it is hair-raising, and even uncomfortable at times. While ‘Your Love Pours Like Water’ errs on the side of soothing, even with its pitched down wind instruments and deep kicks, ‘Everything Must Decay’ weaves in syncopated rhythm that wouldn’t be out of place blown out of a soundsystem in a South London basement — deliciously juxtaposing a cacophony of delicate strings and Siddhartha’s voice, which in this instance is warped and overlayed to an almost trance-like state.

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Coming in at 12 tracks (plus four bonus tracks), Simo Cell’s latest record on his TEMƎT imprint feels like a Christmas present come three months early for the dancefloor-inclined — however, it would be doing the album a disservice to label it as simply a club record. Kicking off with a ‘prelude to a quest’, a nail-biting face-off between warped female vocals and a spectral bassline, the record delves headfirst into narrative, contextualising the French producer’s knack for deconstructive club sounds into an almost-linear journey; while there are elements of juke, bass, dubstep all interwoven within its depths ‘Cuspide Des Sirènes’ avoids lingering for too long on any particular rhythm or tempo, as soon as you have settled into the scattered percussion of ‘hypotized’ you are quickly swept away into the deep chug of ‘leave me alone’ and the eerie piano and effervescent synths of ‘erotica’. Simo Cell has never been one to be put in a box, but whatever boundary he existed within before this record - you better believe he has not only broken out of it here, but erased its existence completely.

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With her DJ sets, Laurel Halo fires up dancefloors, powering through bold techno, propulsive kuduro, punchy bass, and more. Her latest album ‘Atlas’ sounds and feels a bit like the aftermath of a big weekend. Every heavy night out needs a soothing soundtrack to see it off, but sometimes night terrors can’t be avoided, and the ambient soundtrack of the afters unfolds into anxiety. Across the album’s 10 tracks there’s gentle sounds drifting amid textures fraught with intensity, sounding like contrasting feelings of a human’s mind and body - such as contentment, weariness, unease - melding together.

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The industrious Loraine James delivers her third album for Hyperdub since debuting on the label in 2019. Her music has also had the power to move you: contorting minds with its unpredictable patterns or capturing attention with a vivid injection of her personality. ‘Gentle Confrontation’ is her most emotionally explicit offering yet. The album was introduced by lead single ‘2003’, in which she sings about the impact of her father’s death on her younger self: “When I was seven my dad went to heaven, possibly / I looked at the sky, uncertainty / It hurt me, uncertainty.” The full relase continues a theme of delving into her past, with the release notes explaining “this is the record a teenage Loraine would like to have made”. It merges teenaged influences such as emo, math rock and nu-metal with her own scattered, experimental electronic style.

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The title of ‘Sleepless in Brooklyn’ refers to WTCHCRFT’s habits of staying up all night to produce music during the pandemic, but it’s also packed full of the kind of rave fuel you need to soundtrack a weekend of hitting the dancefloor not the pillow, traversing sounds such as punchy breaks, addictive acid, palpitating rhythms and brash vocals. You won’t be tempted by bed when these tracks are in full flow.

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GAIKA holds nothing back on his Big Dada debut, channeling a multitude of influences into a sprawling record that explores as many dense themes as it packs in sonic twists. There is much to explore in its topics spanning the human condition to societal violence, and GAIKA’s uses of sounds spanning rap to rock to reflect the spiralling scope of existentialism is a fittingly eclectic soundtrack.

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Left, Right & Centre showcases another promising debut from a producer to watch in the North of England. Across four tracks, Manchester-based Everett shows a flair for the type of murky, bass-infused UK techno that sends dark basements delirious. The title-track ‘Orange Slices’ is an agent of chaos for the club. There’s plenty of low-end heft to rattle the system, while peculiar sounds jangle overhead before womping notes punch through, providing those WTF elements that transform a dancefloor from locked in to feral.

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