Well Fcuk. While debut EP ‘Baggy$$’ had teased the NYC duo and current Mixmag cover stars’ club-meets-band potential, Fcukers’ debut album blows it all out of the water. With a run of singles including the pop-tinged ‘L.U.C.K.Y’, breaks-inflected ‘Play Me’, and’ the deliriously sexy ‘if you wanna party, come over to my house’, we were already prepared for a real moment with ‘Ö’ — though with album tracks including ‘Shake It Up’, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Beatback’ it became clear these were not outliers. Teeming with clubland references and undeniable cool, the combination of Jackson Walker Lewis’ riotous and varied production and Shanny Wise’s mellow vocals is starting to feel like a cheat code for creating endlessly catchy, party-starting bangers – a description that applies to all 10 tracks on this project. 

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With its stripped-back drums and generous atmosphere, you can spot a Shinichi Atobe release from a mile off. Yet, his latest album, released via the Saitama-based dub techno maestro’s newly-formed imprint Plastic & Sounds, feels like an optimal example of Atobe worldbuilding. Consistently hypnotic, fluctuating between sunshine-tinged analogue warmth and eerie synths, it’s an inimitable, 10-track masterclass in tension and melody. 

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Exploring the middle ground between, you guessed it, “bitter” and “sweet”, Mia Koden takes us on a smouldering foray into low-end dub and smooth melody on her latest four-tracker ‘Bittersweet’. Each track pairs up contrasting elements to address this subject matter. Take ‘Bout Dis’, which pulls in electro-tinged rhythm and scattered percussion, or closer ‘Send Off’ connecting atmospheric synths and kaleidoscopic bleeps and bloops. Bliss. 

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In one of the best releases to land on NAAFI of late, Eisebelle’s ‘Mechabatuca’ takes us on an intense ride into modern club music shaped by Latin America-originating styles like dembow and baile funk. With its hardy, percussion-focused approach, ‘Mechabatuca’ is a gripping four-track release said to reflect a “post-internet Latinx perspective” from the Tijuana-based producer, with a sprawling run through lawless rhythmic patterns and distorted club sounds, both disorderly and measured. 

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Influenced by a resounding spiritual journey he found himself on while in the throes of a world tour, DJ Nobu’s debut on fabric Originals is a lovely ode to Buddhist practices that strips back his technical, synth-driven techno to its most minimal form. On ‘Shō’, DJ Nobu reaches for a more meditative sonic alchemy, with four tracks that focus on percussion, light synthwork and psychedelic throughlines. 

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Ecstatic house and rave bangers are flowing out of this new EP from London’s Will Silver, a four-tracker that jumps straight from its high-energy club opener ‘5000 Years A Lover’ to the nostalgic lo-fi tinges on its closer, ‘Envision’. There’s no doubt this record was made with the gauzy days of summer in mind, spanning house, garage and UK bass. 

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In 2023 we shed a tear as pioneering label PC Music announced it would be releasing no more new music at the year’s end. This month we cracked a wicked grin when the seminal label pit out a brand new album from Mixmag favourite GRRL. Spanning a hefty 24 tracks, it opens strong with the punchy, pulsating ‘Moire’, which melds unstable synth tones and airless percussion to dizzying effect. That tone-setter is a perfect tee up for a record that moves with pace and purpose through livewire experimentalism and pneumatic beats. Whether it’s doling out buzzy electro tones, futurism in the Detroit spirit, or urgent club chaos, it’s an album that meets the MO of the best of PC Music: sounding inescapably electric. 

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Shy One and Touching Bass is a match made in heaven, bringing together linchpins of championing Black music in London. Shy One goes all out on that tip on her second album ‘Mali’ on the imprint, exploring sounds such as broken beat, grime, UK funky, house and techno across 10 tracks that massage the soul so pleasurably. Joined by a cast of Black British collaborators, including George Riley and James Massiah, they each bring a unique skillset to this distillation of a universe of sounds.

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A Shed release is buy-on-sight and three decades into his career we haven’t been let down yet. This latest four-track EP, a sequel to his first full EP on Ilian Tape back in 2024, keeps his peerless streak rolling. The pick of the cuts is B2 closer ‘Cross’, with its slightly melancholic tones, bassline that buzzes with subtle urgency and eventual flowering into airy bliss. But every track is a gem: ‘EFX’ sounds like it was constructed in a tunnel with rusty pipes dripping through the echoey chamber; ‘Ball’ brings raw, hypnotic loops; while ‘Worm’ edges towards the light with pads, reverb and rolling percussion. 

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We already knew Underscores is one of the most exciting names in electronic pop, but her third album ‘U’ hammers the point home with a clarity Confucius couldn’t reach. She may be called April Grey, but these nine tracks burst with colour and zest for like. Opener ‘Tell Me (U Want It)’ sees soaring vocals played off against brash EDM tones, before a pneumatic beat ushers in standout ‘Music’ where the San Francisco-born singer, songwriter and producer describes falling for a new crush in music terms: “It's happening again, I feel the BPM”. Her love for music and the craft shines across the LP, with another highlight ‘Do It’ sizing up an admirer’s net worth and sexual preferences before declaring “I just can’t do it / I’m married to the music” above a beat collapsing influences from Timbaland to K-pop into an exhilarating hybrid sound. The fact it landed alongside a video featuring studied choreography asserts she’s the real deal.

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