On his first full-length record in more than three years, world-building experimentalist Iglooghost goes overboard on a collection of maximalist tracks with the most notable use of his own vocals on any Iglooghost project to date. This time, he speeds up the tempo, sifting through other-worldly glitch, elements of dubstep and IDM, and even the vague abstractions of post-punk on each of his vocal-led tracks. As per any Iglooghost project, this record is full of character and deconstructed elements that play into his creative, colourful world, packed with synths, grimy textures, and distorted bass.

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On his dreamy debut album, Dublin’s SLOUCHO takes inspiration from Irish folklore and mythology across nine stellar tracks. Driving, percussive cuts melt into bass-forward breakbeat anthems featuring vocals and production from a myriad of Irish talent including Rory Sweeney, Rhoshi, and Emby, who delivers luscious lyrical flow to the record’s standout track, grime-tinted number ‘Brand New’, alongside k-caz.

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Amity co-head Mulholland supplies peak-time goodness on his latest record, ‘Operator Crack’, with four new club weapons. From destructive, tear-jerking depths into 140 on opening track ‘trip3’ to the downtempo, Jersey Club-inspired closer ‘Glint’, this four-tracker rattles through a heavy load of deep, percussive club bangers.

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Fears around Big Tech and the AI takeover are all too real right now, so a project like NikNak’s new album ‘Ireti’ is a welcome ray of light. Following a narrative theme of mankind clawing back its soul from machine dominance, the LP opens on a cascade of haywire, alien bleeps and gradually shifts towards a a sublime, cinematic close, with nostalgic sax notes from Cassio Kinoshi and enchanting vocals from Chisara Agor fuelling the sense of harmony with the harsher machine tones found on the record. On the way there’s impactful breaks, shimmering ambient, shredded sound design and other evocative textures.

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“The industry is so boring,” say Berlin boys FJAAK in our latest cover feature. Their new album ‘FJAAK THE SYSTEM’, their first as a duo, is fuelled by a desire to get back to the core of why they’re in the music biz in the first place: for the love of creating, and to have fun. The artwork depicts them amid a head-spinning array of hardware and wiring, which seems to be their happy place, and there’s a real sense of jammed-out joy in these 23 techno bangers (made across the course of five years and whittled down from more than 300). Opener ‘Unity’ sets the tone with synth haze and stirring spoken word from Red Eye, ‘Redemption’ delivers furious acid, Skee Mask collaboration ‘Black Ice’ melds screwface textures and punchy percussion, while ‘Scoop’ is all transcendent pads and breaks. Elsewhere there’s licks of drum ‘n’ bass, 2-step and more. Consider the ‘fun music’ objective delivered.

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Verraco’s releases to date have placed him firmly among the most exciting electronic music producers in the world. He’s showing no signs of slowing down: this debut on Timedance is another breath-taking release from the Colombian. ‘Godspeed >’ was picked out for best tracks of the year, but in truth, every cut here stands out. He blends up-front UK techno dynamism with rudeboy bass and lashings of Latin rhythms, from raptor house to soca, forming a hybrid club sound that’s so exciting it will make your body tremble. Opener ‘0∞’ powers into a galloping beat, with synths blaring like a nuclear power plant alarm warning of meltdown and stifled percussive hits adding to the palpitating anxiety. Then suddenly at the halfway mark it all gives way to collapse into a dizzying breakdown led by a whirring bassline that feels designed to provoke a kind of dancefloor delirious smirk that, in turn, makes the beat driving back in all the more impactful. ‘Climaxing | Breathe’ surges through an adrenaline-charged opening before sucking you into invitingly thick bass, while closer ‘Sí, idealízame’ glides upwards on a sublime ascent to dancefloor euphoria.

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James Massiah will be a familiar name to regulars on the London underground circuit: the DJ, producer and poet is an NTS resident, often found bringing his free and easy narration to tracks by the likes of Joy Orbison and Dean Blunt, including as the voice of DJ Escrow on the latter’s Babyfather project. On ‘True Romance’ he firmly takes centre stage, self-producing the six tracks and telling confessional tales about debauchery and heartbreak over hybrid beats that lean into darkness but bubble with an inviting sense of dynamism, exploring styles from grime to dancehall. If you’re not familiar with the sound and feel of London nightlife, James Massiah serves up a fully-formed snapshot of the murk you can expect.

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In Biblical symbolism, snakes are a symbol of evil — the bringer of temptation that banished humankind from paradise. But for Nikki Nair, they’re a symbol of protection and life-force. “The snake has been a very important part of my life,” the American artist explains. “The ethnic group that my family is a part of worships snakes, and there is a mythology of the Nairs being descended from them.” It’s a reminder that not all perspectives and interpretations are the same. On ‘Snake’, Nikki Nair dives into the DIY and punk scenes he grew up in, drawing on that inclination for an intense outpouring of personal emotions, but don’t expect thrashed guitars and shouting lyrics. The perspective he pulls forward is a no-fucks-given energy and approach, which manifests in six raucous dance bangers that take their cues from no one but their own creators’ internal feelings being unleashed. From the scuzzy bassline of ‘333333’ that squelches purposefully above breaks to the jagged sound design of ‘Worm’, this is dance music at its most visceral.

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They say less is more. When you’re Maurice Fulton rolling out a new Syclops album, that certainly rings true. Surprise released with very little fanfare (a simple Bandcamp upload and accompanying “Out now” tweet), it set the dance music community ablaze with news spreading fast and the buy-on-sight crew firing into action. Their faith was rewarded: this 11-track LP is an eccentric, experimental and utterly brilliant record. At-times funky, at others angular and deranged, occasionally dubby and always intriguing, it’s uninhibited in all the best ways.

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Jawnino represents UK rap in its many different forms on his debut mixtape ‘40’. Influence from styles spanning from grime and drill to jungle and garage is melded into the coolly put-together productions, which complement his nonchalant bars. ‘It’s Cold Out’ is a standout, with a gently euphoric melody and Jawnino sounding his most emotionally engaged, while a closing trio of remixes from evilgiane, One Bok and Airhead offer up interesting new dimensions for his sound.

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There is so much joy to be taken from I. JORDAN’s debut album. It arrives at a point in their life and career where they’ve accepted all the things that make them unique, from their upbringing to music tastes to identity, are exactly who they’re meant to be. All of that is chanelled into this poignant and propulsive LP. The music is fast-paced and fun, hitting serotonin high moments like ‘Real Hot n Naughty’, with chiming organ house and playful raps from Felix Mufti, or the sunset euphoria of ‘Close To You’, as well as plunging to heads-down murk like the speed garage throb of ‘Round n Round’ or the hardstyle-infused ‘The Woodpecker’. And there’s also personal moments of self-exploration and documentation, such as the sampling of their voice gradually deepening during their transition on ‘People Want Nice Things’. We do — and ‘I AM JORDAN’ delivers.

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Listening to Kamasi Washington records often makes us feel like we’re being blasted on a cosmic jazz trip through the higher realms, but on his latest album ‘Fearless Movement’ he aims more towards the ground — specifically, the dancefloor. There’s still next-level instrumentation and soaring saxophone notes, but the frameworks are faster and funkier. Where previous albums took you to higher vibrations, this one is full-on vibes.

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Like your breakbeats rough and rude? Then you’ll love this link-up between Manchester hardcore duo Demdike Stare and Beautiful Swimmers member Dolo Percussion (AKA Maxmillion Dunbar, real name Andrew Field-Pickering). The opening cut ‘DOLO DS 1’ hits like a pneumatic drill to the temple, powered by aggressive drums but given that uncanny DDS quality with strange samples and heavy breaths pushed out around the robust centre. ‘DS DOLO EDIT 1’ is even more erratic, with an asphyixating intensity to the rapid-fire percussion and watery droplet sounds dialling up a sense of drowning. Closer ‘DOLO DS 2’ is more skewed, with an angular, collapsing feel that’s akin to dancing on grinding tectonic plates.

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The first full-length album from New York duo Musclecars is one of those albums that you have to sit down and listen to in full the moment you get it. Four years in the making, their attention to detail is unparalleled, with live instrumentation and different styles of vocalists adding colour throughout. Released on BBE records, the album contains its fair share of soulful house; however it also traverses the sounds of jazz, soul and ambient in an ambitious but refined project.

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The latest mixtape from the LA-based Soulection contains everything needed as the temperature goes up, with tracks inside from Juls, Karen Nyame KG, Vanyfox, Rosey Gold, Wilfy D, Shaka Lion and more. In a continuation of their legacy as a “borderless, genre-bending, musical movement”, the mixtape features a wide range of sounds, from UKG and jungle, to amapiano, kuduro and deep house. Available on Bandcamp, this is a must have for the USB.

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Reek0’s club-focused EP lands on Rinse FM, complete with a number of collaborations from BXKS, Bella Barbe, Brighter Days Family and MaxRP. ‘Tell Me Some More’ touches on a number of areas of dance music, from the broken rhythms of ‘Assassin Riddim’ and ‘Had A Loose Tempa’, to the four-to-the-floor driving kicks underneath ‘7am’ which pay homage to old school house music, showcasing the versatility of the North London rapper.

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As Bristol’s foremost purveyor of all things bass and techno, Livity Sound honcho Peverelist wraps up his ‘Pulse’ trilogy with four tracks signalling the glory days of rave and a far-flung club Utopia of his design in equal measure — pulling in nods to heavy dub, electrifying house, bleep techno and more. While ‘Pulse IX’, ‘Pulse TEN’, ‘Pulse XI’ and ‘Pulse XII’ vary greatly tempo, there’s a consistency within the minimal percussion and otherworldly synths; each track takes its time in stretching out its elements without ever losing your attention, isolating individual drums and keys before mashing and combing them in different, sometimes clashing formations — creating an experience that feels as evocative as it does eye-opening.

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For the second edition of the Borne Fruit’s ‘Club Entry’ series, London-based DJ and producer Amaliah’s imprint packages up another love letter to the UK club circuit; turning the focus from fabric in ‘Vol. 1’, to the previous iteration of The Cause in Tottenham. While ‘Club Entry Vol.2’ varies in genre and mood, mostly due to the diverse selection of producers who have contributed tracks to the compilation - see: NIKS, Zaltsman, Dusty Dan, Kitsa and more - the record’s theme is omnipresently consistent for anyone who made it to Ashley Road. It’s difficult not to remember the feel of those cast-iron cage bars in the depths of Mullholland’s ‘L4YERCAKE’, or the feeling of sweat dripping from that low ceiling in the throes of Riva’s ‘Symbiosis’ ft. Tommy Khosola — or even the coloured lights from Grow filtering into the Greenhouse while quickly finishing a cig to get back to the action during Zaltsman’s ‘Reacting’. While The Cause 2.0’s completion is something to celebrate, this compilation feels like a fitting tribute to its former home — and a testament to its impact on a generation of London’s dance music appreciators.

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