Dim Mak is Steve Aoki’s label, which usually means cake-to-the-face festival maximalism, so “I’m Not Going Anywhere” from Iaco & remy is a genuine left turn. This is softer, more songwriterly, the kind of indie-leaning electronic record that sounds like it was built around an actual feeling rather than a drop. The title is a promise and the track treats it like one, circling back to that reassurance over a gently insistent groove that never quite explodes the way you keep expecting it to. That refusal to detonate is the whole charm. It builds tension and then just sits in it, warm and a little aching, more interested in the mood than the payoff. I respect a track that trusts restraint, especially on a label not exactly famous for it. The vocal has a bedroom-recording intimacy that the clean production doesn’t sand away, and the synths shimmer without showing off. It’s the sort of thing you put on at the end of a long day when you don’t want to be yelled at by your music. Indie electronic doesn’t get enough room around here and this is a good argument for fixing that. Quietly excellent.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.