CCL has long been building their own distinct universe with their exploratory DJing, producing and subglow event series, and now the latter aspect expands with the launch of a label arm. The debut release comes from Bristol’s georg-i, serving up a five-track release which includes a remix each from B. McQueen and Metrist alongside three original tracks. subglow is a queer party that plays myriad sounds but with an emphasis on bass music styles (put simply by CCL “all music that makes subs glow”) and ‘Rebuild’ carries the torch for its MO in style. Opener ‘Torn in Two’ launches into a thumping pulse before introducing collapsing bassweight, sprays of pneumatic percussion and off-kilter tones that ramp up from eerie to slamming; ‘Bridging the Gap’ goes full-scale delirious, with a screamo-coded vocal roaring the track title in an electro-meets-punk soundsystem production; while ‘Communication’ is the most agitated, spearheaded by jittery rhythms and unstable tones. Mettrist remixes the latter into more taught dancefloor territory, while B. Mcqueen takes on ‘Torn in Two’ and locks it into a dubby house groove.

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For years Polygonia felt boxed in by the tag ‘deep techno’ that followed her around and limited the places she was booked in or sounds she could explore at gigs. But lately she’s broken free of those confines and feels able to express full creative freedom — which her new album ‘Dream Horizons’ attests to. Made from a range of organic instruments, vocals and electronic production, it dips and dives between tempos and textures in a dizzying array of head-spinning sounds, spanning psychedelic freetek, d’n’b, ambient, dubstep and more. 

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LA-hailing, New York-based Introspekt cements her status as a bass-loaded hybrid genre genius with ‘Moving The Center’, her debut album on seminal dubstep imprint Tempa. The 10-track LP is a masterfully arranged exhibition in cross-genre production, rooting the record in dubstep’s heft but fusing styles spanning frisky Baltimore club and dancehall to future-gazing techno and into its potent expression of Black Atlantic diasporic styles. It’s at-once scholarly and sexy, drawing on musical expertise and channeling it into her own femme-forward vision.

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You can always count on James Holden to create ecstatic, mystical music that feels like your soul is being pulled through a dimension of colours you didn’t even know exist. His new collaboration with Polish clarinetist and composer Wacław Zimpel hits upon that folkloric vibe of ritual delirium with chaotic melodies, glistening tones, palpitating beats and more merging to make you feel like you’re dancing around a maypole or stone circle in tribute to a pagan god.

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A rave-ready double hit from DJ HEADRUSH on London imprint Posh Defects. A-side ‘APEX’ has the feel of a slightly pitched-down slice of old skool hardcore, with shuffling percussion, a throbbing bassline and stretched vocals. ‘WARRIOR’ on the flip is raw and bassy, rattling through a grainy opening into seismic wobs. 

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As someone who’s been flying the flag for 30 years, Detroit techno don DJ Bone is among the best placed in the game to represent the genre. His fifth album (part of a six-release run lined up for FURTHER RECORDS) is emblematic of a master at work: raw, groovy, pulsating, hypnotic, delirious, mystical — the eight tracks run the gamut of all the diversity that makes the timeless style special.   

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On February’s ‘LV Sandals’, EsDeeKid, fakemink & Rico Ace dropped one of the rowdieest rap tracks of the year, with the former showcasing his drug-addled bars and unmistakable Scouse twang. Now dropping a full-length mixtape, he asserts his rank as one of the most exciting rappers in the UK.  The opener ‘4 Raws’ has an rage rap type beat but turned on its head with half rhymes like “I'm a scumbag, I was raised in Liverpool slums, lad” in distinctive nasal tones instead of Atlanta mumbles. ‘Phantom’, another preceding single, still sounds as fierce as the day it dropped, while fresh cuts such as ‘Cali Man’ merge gruff lyricism with more shimmery production tones, and closer ‘Tartan’ featuring Nigerian-born, South London and Kent rapper Fimiguerrero is another best of the year contender with a light-headed beat underneath their punchy flows.

‘Hymnal’ marks another unique release from magic-weaver Lyra Pramuk, who blends vocals, instrumentals and production into intensely mystical compositions that make every cell in your body feel like it's vibrating. From start to finish it’s transcendence squared, hitting your body and soul in a way that only music can. Moving and manic, psychedelic and sublime, all these notes are hit and more across a breath-taking listen. 

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Hamburg’s finest Helena Hauff and F#X revived their Black Sites project this month for a first album in over 10 years. It’s a very welcome comeback for any fans of rough and ready electro-punk sounds. Recorded mainly off the cuff on analogue hardware without many amends in post, the raucous release ranges across scuzzy, crunchy, moody, tough textures at varying tempos. 

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The Cure follow their recent Number One album ‘Songs of a Lost World’ with a remix album with plenty of dance music greats. Among the highlights is a strung-out Orbital take on ‘Endsong’, Daniel Avery drawn to ‘Drone:Nodrone’ and making the bassline extra rugged, Four Tet bringing trademark shuffling percussion and dreamy synth tones to ‘Alone’ while Shanti Celeste brings more a wintery sound with a “February Blues” remix, and Sally C pushing ‘A Fragile Thing’ into a gently euphoric pumper.

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Impérieux debuts on Hessle Audio with ‘Fena’, the most jazz-coded record on the label to date, as playful synth melodies scribble across the track like a Charlie Parker improvisation, before being spliced by saw synths and seemingly random distortion. The rest of the EP is just as eccentric, yet mesmerising, as tracks like ‘Cawuso’ exude warm textures and shrill synth leads, making each song on the Bulgarian producer’s EP have its own distinct taste.

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On ‘Metamorphic’, Blumitsu double down on their distinct Siri-style vocals and throbbing sub-bass from their last two tracker ‘Blueprint’. The powerhouse duo, consisting of Jossy Mitsu and Bluetoof, continue to cosplay as meticulous rave scientists, while the listeners serve as their lab rats, testing out various frequencies on us. Tracks like ‘Atom’ really show the microscopic detail in the EP, with water samples being layered amongst acidic gurgles with a side of zip-zapping laser FX. Definitely an EP Nikola Tesla would’ve loved.

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Everyone loves an Oklou edit, and the ‘blade bird’ singer encourages it as she often releases the stems of her songs to the public. So, when an official remix pack of her songs drops, you know that fans are in for a treat. This release affirms that promise, as the listener is actively transported to the heart of Ibiza, with jamesjamesjames, Nick León and Aaron Hibell headlining the summery soundtrack. Malibu, in a big tone shift, perfectly encapsulates the feeling of traveling home after a long night with her transcendent and ambient take on ‘Choke Enough’, and highlights the wonderful chemistry between Oklou’s vocals and Malibu’s warm synth pads, which collide to create the audio equivalent of a big hug.

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In the days following Addison Rae’s highly-anticipated debut album landing on streaming services, it’s entirely possible that you could have heard her wispy vocals dancing across an array of dreamlike synths more than your own thoughts. While irrefutably catchy singles such as ‘Diet Pepsi’, ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘High Fashion’ had already foreshadowed an LP of pop greatness, album tracks such as ‘New York’ and ‘Money is Everything’ proved just as moreish. While Rae’s girly-yet-meta persona is part of ‘Addison’’s draw, so too is the fizzling production courtesy of Swedish duo Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser - inspired by Madonna’s groundbreaking 1998 album ‘Ray of Light’. This is one of those pop records that will stay with you, with every listen providing something new. 

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After we declared her as a defining producer of 2024, gyrofield is continuing to make a definitive mark on electronic music moving into 2025 and no doubt beyond. Fresh off a spine-tingling double single on FABRICLIVE, the 22-year-old Hong Kong-born, Utrecht-based musician debuted another knock-out EP this month: ‘Suspension of Belief’. Landing on Objekt’s Kapsela imprint, this four-tracker maintains gyrofield’s pared-back, sparkling take on drum ‘n’ bass, while showcasing its versatility — utilising DJ Marky-esque rhythm on opener ‘Vegetation Grows Thick’ and frenetic snares on ‘Bolete’ to create a simultaneously divergent-yet-consistent soundscape. While the Flo State-featuring ‘Rorschach’ utilises deep and bass-heavy breaks, closer ‘Brinjal’ leans into all-out chaos with its clashing and colliding symbols and kicks. All-in-all, it’s difficult not to surmise that we are witnessing the rise of a production master.

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While many have been waiting eagerly for Nick León’s debut album since it was first announced in May, others have been impatient for the Miami-raised producer to expand on the flowing, sunshine-tinged sonics heard within the Erika de Casier-featuring single ‘Bikini’ since last July. Described as “Arquitectronica”, this soundscape is dripping across very element of ‘A Tropical Entropy’; bubbling above the moody bass surface of the Jonny From Space-featuring ‘Metromover’, lapping at the delicate, melodic shores of ‘R.I.P Current’ and the silky percussive stabs on ‘Broward Boyy’. Though León's dedication to filling out the sonic universe within the record ensures an undeniable consistency, there are still surprises to be found within its depths. Opening track ‘Entropy’ edges towards trance-like euphoria with its fractured vocals and transcendental build up, while ‘Ocean Apart’’s bristling bass and twinkling rhythm echo sugary hyperpop. ‘Millenium Freak’ offers perhaps the most whiplash-inducing departure, ploughing through breakneck rattle and electro-adjacent, fizzling synth stabs — while much of the record offers to warm our face with the sun, this track goes ahead and melts it clean off. 

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Deep and brooding experimentations in 140 are a RONI forté, and following releases on labels like Rhythm Section and Borne Fruits, she’s back with her first full-length EP, ‘celestial’, this time bringing her cutting-edge sound to an assortment of bass adjacent tracks. On it, there are features from the likes of Dj Babatr, Bitter Babe, Ma Sha, and more, making up a hefty nie-track release, out via RONI’s own Nehza Records imprint. 

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Facta is back on his Wisdom Teeth label with a new “mini album”, ‘GULP’, comprising a tightly-wound concoction of club mutations. Said to be influenced by ‘00s minimal, UK soundsystem culture, and ambient electronica, this release sounds like one from the future – its ambiguous and distorted cuts warping, melting, and transforming throughout – informed by a period on-the-move for Facta in late 2024 where a creative spell was channeled into these seven oddball tracks. 

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Across four bass-heavy tracks on her latest EP ‘angel 777’, Newcastle’s melba lays down a selection of well-crafted synths and 160 BPM rhythms that continue to surprise with each play – a furious, unapologetically fast-paced journey through bubbling breaks and squeaky clean jungle. 

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Of course Shygirl can call in some of the biggest DJs at the moment to remix her album. George Daniel’s take on ‘Wifey Riddim’ - a track that already has features from Jorja Smith and SadBoi - swaps its deep bassline to bounce throughout the track. Meanwhile, Merca Bae liquifies ‘Flex’ from a punchy, drill-inspired beat to an echo chamber of textures. Switching up her already dancefloor-centred EP, Shygirl takes this remix project to the next level.

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Moulding yet another EP with her own Caribbean influence alongside her experiences of what the queer scene of Toronto gets moving to, BAMBII has returned to serve up ‘INFINITY CLUB II’. Once we pass the eerie entrance of the EP’s intro, we are met with ‘Remember’ featuring Ravyn Lenae and Scrufizzer - an injection of d’n’b and jungle adrenaline. The EP doesn’t stick in one direction, as ‘Mirror’ ironically reflects a different side of BAMBII, as she calls in Jessy Lanza and Yaeji, who change the tempo. There aren’t many artists who can keep up the momentum of a recurring project with fresh surprises on top, but BAMBII can.

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Described by Isabella Lovestory herself as “a robotic funeral," ‘Vanity’ continues to pave her experimental, hyper reggaeton and Latin pop. The title-track bounces into your ears with a refreshing buoyancy of electro meets disco; however, despite its upbeat characteristics, much like the album as a whole, this project has an underlying theme on the topic of the turmoil of beauty standards. For instance, the chorus hears her sing “La vanidad es crueldad,” which translates to “vanity is cruelty”. Lovestory shared with Mixmag on the subject: "There's a dark side to beauty. A dark side that can literally kill you as a female performer—the pressure to be beautiful, to be perfect, to constantly question what the fuck that even means or looks like.” Each track continues to deliver this mismatch of themes from the beat forcing you to dance whilst the lyrics catch you off guard and make you sit back and reflect on the wrongly prescribed beauty norms of today.

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