Calibre 'they want you' (Signature Recordings)
Closing out the year with a huge helping of the good stuff, Calibre does what he does best on his new, 12-track LP. Having landed on his imprint Signature Recordings this month, the Belfast-born 140 don pours out silky smooth liquid drum ‘n’ bass from start-to-finish, dripping through, delicate percussion, harmonious vocals, and enough big synth wallops to remind us that this isn’t the chill out room. Healing, while still packing an undeniable punch, ‘they want you’ is a reminder that no one can do it like Calibre.
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DJ Love, DJ Danz and DJ Ericnem ‘Budots World: 3-Hit Combo!' (Eastern Margins)
You could travel from one end of the earth to the other, visit every nightclub, bar, rave imaginable, and never encounter a sound that resembles anything close to the Philippines’ Budots; the zippy, lively, outrageous Davao City-born genre is having its moment, and much of that could be down to the expertise of its pioneers-stroke-innovators DJ Love, DJ Danz, and DJ Ericnem. So imagine our luck, that the trio teamed up to release the ultimate Budots manifesto this month, filling our ears with enough bells, whistles, and theremin jabs, to smack them clean off, and we mean that in the best possible way imaginable. Across 13-tracks, ‘Budots World: 3-Hit Combo!’ showcases the genre at its most idiosyncratic, tongue-in-cheek, rowdy best — Lady Gaga and The Prodigy edits included.
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Confidence Man ‘Active Scenes Vol One’ (Universal Music)
The energy never drops with Confidence Man. These hyperactive party-starters have dropped a new EP. Including some high-voltage remixes from Saoirse, bullet tooth and Chris Lake, the six-track project also includes the release of the highly in-demand track ‘17’. This particular track was first heard in the group’s Mixmag Lab, and since then has been teased and teased. We can now end the year feeling complete with new music from the one and only Confidence Man.
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Skin On Skin ‘Home Is True’ (Stay On Sight)
Skin On Skin has opened up in this new release. Known for his huge sets and fist-pumping bangers, this time, he is shining a light on a different side to his musicality. This EP is still providing that club-ready energy, yet with a more sentimental message that we haven’t seen as much from the South Sudanese-Australian artist before, including his vocals for the first-time-ever on the tracks ‘ أسرة (Family)’, ‘Where You Need To Be’ and ‘Let Me Say This’. Subjects explored span from culture to identity, but we are also delivered more of that quintessential driving beats, such as the track ‘Ooo’.
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N.A.A.F.I ‘TRIBAL 2025 Compilation’ (N.A.A.F.I)
In a whopping 20-track compilation, Mexican label N.A.A.F.I pay homage to the “reinvention” of Mexican tribal, a genre that has “collided coastal percussion, pre-Hispanic rhythms, and regional sounds with global electronic music” since the 2000s. Compiled by CDMX’s DJ Fucci and featuring glistening contributions from the likes of Debit, Entrañas, Ezya, and many more, this record journeys soulful percussion, nostalgic rhythms and powerful bass throughout.
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Jonny From Space ‘Swamped’ (IMPACTO)
Miami’s Jonny From Space dropped his first EP on IMPACTO this month, the label he runs alongside Nick León. With a six-track release that he spent the past four years working on, Jonny gets into his club element as dismantled techno meets dub and guaracha rhythms, with a healthy supply of soundsystem goodness.
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Amor Satyr, Fetus ‘Half Half’ (WAJANG)
‘Half Half’ brings together two of our favourite figures in the world of rowdy, soundsystem club music and delivers on our high expectations, with a swirling mesh of chaotic melodies, bass pressure, fraugbht percussion and a recongisable Pacific Loon sample for good moeasure, across two collabs, a solo track each, and one Amor Satyr remix of Fetus. These are producers who don’t do things by halves, but together they’re even more powerful.
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DJ Narciso ‘DENTRO DE MIM’ (SVBKVLT)
SVBKVLT’s final release of 2025 comes from Lisbon Príncipe affiliate DJ Narciso, and delivers on the type of dancefloor-destroying batida rhythms and disconcerting production flourishes we’ve come to associate with the jewel of the Portuguese capital’s club scene, Rexmies from Kop-Z and Swimful bring add the idiosyncrasies with some anxious atmospherics and breakneck chaos respectively.
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