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1 min read
DJ PUMA - REWIND
DJ PUMA's REWIND opens on a vocal chop that stutters like a scratched CD and spends four minutes earning that glitch. Built to travel, and it does.Read more . . . →Subscribe →Weekly digestOne email per week with the tracks worth your time. No spam, no Coldplay. -
1 min read
Scorz - Ritus
Read more . . . →This one crept up on me. “Ritus” opens as fairly standard driving trance, the sort Armada puts out by the crate, and I nearly tabbed away before the breakdown reached in and grabbed me by the collar. Scorz strips it back to a single held pad and a ticking arp, lets it hang there long enough to feel uncomfortable, then rebuilds with this ceremonial, almost liturgical melody that earns the track its Latin title. The kick underneath is relentless in the good way, a straight four-on-the-floor that stops being something you notice and turns into something you’re standing inside. Trance...
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1 min read
Chase Maverix - Bette Davis Eyes
Read more . . . →Flipping “Bette Davis Eyes” into a big-room dance track is a gamble, and I’m still not sure it pays off. Chase Maverix takes the Kim Carnes classic — one of the most distinctive vocal hooks of the early ’80s — and wraps it in exactly the kind of festival-ready production Spinnin’ ships by the pallet. The good news: that hook is bulletproof, and hearing it over a modern kick does land a cheap little jolt of recognition. The bad news: the drop underneath it is generic to the point of anonymity, a supersaw stab you’ve heard on fifty other tracks...
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1 min read
Last Call
Read more . . . →The lights haven’t come on yet but the DJ is checking the time. Three house records for the part of the night where nobody’s taking photos anymore and the music is the only thing keeping the room standing. 1. Sonny Fodera & Chrystal - My Loving Chrystal’s vocal is the kind that makes you angry nobody told you about her sooner. Fodera put this out in February and it’s been slow-burning through every set since — a house groove with a proper vocal performance, not a topline stitched on by a writing camp. The breakdown strips everything to her voice...
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1 min read
mOat & ALAY - What U Waitin 4
Read more . . . →Somewhere in a festival crowd right now, someone is losing their entire mind to a track exactly like this and having the best night of their year. “What U Waitin 4” is unashamed main-stage trance, the sort Armada exports by the shipping container, and I mean that with more affection than the description probably carries. mOat & ALAY build it around a vocal hook chopped into an urgent little question, then hang the whole thing off a rolling bassline that never once lets your pulse drop below jogging speed. The breakdown is pure setup, a soft-focus melodic pad and a...
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1 min read
Castor & Pollux, Alan Krevo - Rush
Read more . . . →Who decided the twins from Greek mythology should name-check themselves on a Dim Mak release, and why does the track earn it? “Rush” is high-octane, festival-facing electronic built for the exact peak-time slot the title promises — Castor & Pollux and Alan Krevo pile a driving bassline, a chopped vocal and a lead that keeps climbing into a drop engineered to make a crowd lose the plot. The build does the classic main-stage thing: snare rolls stacking up, filter creeping open, the whole track holding its breath so you can see the payoff coming from a mile off. Here the...
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1 min read
MAYETRIX - Close My Eyes
Read more . . . →The snare on “Close My Eyes” hits like a screen door slamming, all crack and no body, and that cheapness is exactly right for the kind of trap MAYETRIX is building here. This is Monstercat’s colder, harder edge, the lane where the melody is a ghost and the low end does the emoting. A pitched vocal loops the title down to a syllable and a half until it stops meaning anything and just becomes another percussion hit, which is the trick good trap has always run. The drop trades the expected 808 slide for these short, punched-out bass notes that...
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1 min read
Rolling Out the Red Carpet
Read more . . . →You survived. Now the itemised part starts.
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1 min read
BOP - Rumination
Read more . . . →This is the one off this week’s pile I’ve gone back to the most, and it isn’t close. “Rumination” is BOP working the deep, melodic liquid drum and bass lane that’s made a name at Hospital Records — lush, unhurried, more interested in mood than muscle. The intro takes its time, layering a warm pad and a lonely piano figure before the drums even think about arriving, and when they do it’s a soft, rolling break that carries you rather than shoves you. The bassline is a low, round sub you feel in your chest more than your ears, and...
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3 min read
Monstercat and the Gamer-Music Pipeline
Monstercat handed copyright-safe EDM to gamers and YouTubers and quietly built the biggest on-ramp into electronic music. Here's why the cat logo wins.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogShips in 3–5 days. The outrage ships immediately.
