Second mau5trap pick in a row because the label is just cooking right now and I refuse to apologize for it. Ricey’s Years is the more emotional cousin to the usual progressive house template, the kind of track that sounds like it was made at 4am about a specific person. The melody does this thing where it almost resolves and then slips sideways, which keeps you leaning in waiting for a landing that takes its sweet time. I’m a sucker for a lead that sounds slightly sad even when the BPM says you should be dancing. The bassline underneath is doing quiet heavy lifting, never showing off, just holding the floor steady so the top end can ache. By the back half it opens up into something genuinely big without ever turning into a stadium cliché. Years is the track you put on when you want to feel something but don’t want to admit it. Ricey isn’t a name I knew this morning. He is now.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.