With this new EP, Blanc Soleil captures the raw essence of East London and channels it straight onto the dancefloor. Inspired by red brick buildings, omnipresent graffiti, and the district’s constant industrial buzz, LOST IN SHOREDITCH [BS002] is a concentrated burst of urban energy that refuses to be confined by labels.

The project moves between the heritage of UK Breakbeat and the efficiency of House music, alternating nervous rhythms with radiant piano-driven moments. Across these five tracks, Blanc Soleil delivers a sonic journey between tension and light, embodying the perfect fusion of club functionality and euphoric emotion.

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What changed between Av. General Roçadas and Junkeira? Seven years in people’s lives — yet the team’s commitment remains untouched, and the steady hand on the plumb line that keeps dance music (still) upright holds firm. Years of sustained research and field work from both producers, with their own records, mutually independent and independent too in how they brought them to life. Moreno Ácido has been navigating detours through a conceptual yet grounded underground — in sound and in format (two self-released cassettes since 2019) — while keeping one eye on the floor. His post- pandemic reawakening carries a clear message: Call to Action is the label that in 2023 put the still-in-demand Trash/Treasure out on vinyl. Diogo keeps Discos Extendes as his shelter, gathering talent and retreating into it. At the same time, a disseminating vocation — that talent turned outward, on a mission to champion the different sensibilities that can converge in music made for dancing.

Junkeira is direct. It hides nothing in its intent, nor does it conceal the origin of its love, nor the way it exercises its fascination with the source. Geography can define movements, described and echoed countless times outside and then inside the net. The signifiers are known to all — it’s a matter of applying them with respect and flow. Perhaps the craft in this production really does come down to love, when it comes to it. What is “WTF” if not a declaration of love — at the very least of closeness — to the sonic essence of the English rave? The piano stab, the breaks defining that hardcore state of mind, the string bed lifting feet off the floor. Closing out the EP, “Freak” gathers different emotions — eyes still shut, body in comedown while still moving. Chill. Everything rounded. Bassline, vibes, vocals woven into the rhythm.

Rewinding, the opening track “100 Planos” is a throwback to Roçadas (2019) — harder on the ground, with a 4/4 beat broken up by claps, a circular structure built for DJs, with mix-friendly entry and exit points. Then “Turbo Love” puts the keys in control, foregrounding them, letting a car alarm ring out and balance the beat — a reverential nod to UK Garage felt as raw material, already part of the lineage that has been the continuous evolution from Disco onwards: an evolution that traces a line and its branches, from which you can isolate any chronological point since at least 1977 and combine whatever elements form a personality. The spirit lives, as summer kicks in.

text by José Moura

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Nerve Ending is a tense, club-focused four-tracker, leaning into stripped, hypnotic techno structures, while draped in outer-worldly accents; mechanical yet human.

Brianna Paon, the New England based underground dance music DJ, producer, and DIY party starter announces the release of her latest EP, Nerve Ending, available now on digital platforms via San Francisco-based Vitamin1000 Recordings.

Nerve Ending is a tense, club-focused four-tracker, leaning into stripped, hypnotic techno structures, while draped in outer-worldly accents; mechanical yet human. According to the artist, “Nerve Ending represents endurance, growth and sheer will power… this exertion is meant to be felt and channeled, whether introspectively, or on the dance floor, unapologetically.”

The project includes standout cuts such as “Dirt Devil”, a grinding, frenzied peak-time offering fabricated with swirling, abrasive textures over a tech house laced low-end groove and the title track “Nerve Ending” introducing the EP with its most confrontational moment, rhythmically insistent broken techno cut with a metallic edge.

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Proto Exotica notches its third release with The Infinite Hum EP , the debut project from Melbourne producer Mateo Torres Rodriguez under his new alias: Cerro. Cerro is a personal and transportive collection of recordings owed to four months in Colombia, where Mateo returned to the neighbourhood he grew up in. On a table in his childhood home, he set up a modest travelling studio with a small collection of analogue hardware. At times, he’d pack individual pieces of gear to travels within his travels, working without a fixed room or routine.

And so from a drum machine, a monophonic synth, a polyphonic synth, a laptop, and a pair of headphones (but no speakers) came five tracks of dub-inflected house and cosy Balearica.

The EP opens with ‘The Bright Side’ , dub bass, warm analogue pads, housey tempo. ‘Unending Journey’ slows things down, its deep low-end holding space beneath a synth that drifts in and
out.

‘Power Of The Small’ brings a dreamy house melody alongside a dubbed-out analogue lead, the filter opening and closing as the track breathes. On the B-side, Andras remixes ‘The Bright Side’ , keeping the bounce and weaving a jazzy lo-fi Rhodes solo through it. The EP closes with ‘Indubitably’ , dubbed-out vocal samples and floating pads settling into a downtempo Balearic lilt.

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} opening up the ◢sidehatch. gates this year is the dude who kicked us off back in summer 2024 with his MJ Cole remixes – Central coastal California based producer and good friend Brian McNally aka Benito. In addition to the Cole situations Benito has regularly been on Woodland Creatures – dropping huge remixes for Skwirl and Adam Gillett; but, “Beats I Made To Drive To” is the first LP of his own material on either of the labels and phew is it well worth the wait.

}} “Beats…” rides the line between concept record and suggested listening environment as though the record flows between warm spacey jungle and breaks and even spacier sparse dubby minimal tech and electro scapes, what anchors the record is the ever present rumble of bass – a feature sure to cause turmoil in even the most conservative trunk mounted subwoofer.

Beyond being catalysts for rattling bass bins, these tunes are infectiously cheeky and finely tuned workouts. It’s a very heads down, headphones up (or windows down, stereo up) collection of timeless thumpage; and, despite this perhaps, it is a record of subtleties: flowing intuitively and spritely – almost intangibly – for its 43 minute run time with each tune so comfortably in the pocket and well-paced that they leave one wanting more.

}}} “Beats I Made To Drive To” does what it says on the tin: these are automobile friendly bass trap testers dropped by a producer comfortably taking strides around his instantly recognisable and intoxicatingly deep sound. Play it loud.

Basking in the glow of Lightsaber, the swashbuckling synthesizer synergy of Tending Tropic, Kay-Chi and Sharlese debuts. A cross-continent collaboration that bridges the Atlantic, this group joins forces through a shared passion for italo and wave with their sound set firmly on the floor. The title track is analogue brightness, drums drive a melody that dips and soars next to Sharlese’s uplifting lyrics. Energy levels are high from the needle drop. Cymbals crash for “Timeloop.” Vocoder words are softened by gently scaling chords before generous builds give way to sparking synthwork. Disco flourishes and bongos break to spiralling notes in the playful “Luminara.” Cosmic influences radiate through key shifts and understated toms in this celebration of the night sky.

“Inertia” marches to a heavy-hitting beat. Industrially dipped, the percussion is fortified by a simmering melody that spills over into a bold body-throbbing close. Despite being oceans apart, this is a partnership light years ahead.

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The spring edition of Mindless Records is here! And from no other than a Belgrade favorite — Kid Kimi, with his mesmerizing dub signature sonic impact via three original numbers, with an addition of a remix from Dakissa.

Behold the label’s eighth release titled “Life Choices”.

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A hypnotic and immersive journey through deep techno textures, “Selective Memory [CRSCNT32]” continues Crescent London’s signature blend of atmospheric depth, dub-infused rhythms and refined sound design.

Built on spacious grooves and subtle emotional tension, the release unfolds with a cinematic flow that rewards both focused listening and late-night dancefloors.

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Back in that expansive progressive lane, Amsterdam producer Bert Vesper joins the label.

Fuzz-drenched textures and sultry mid-tempo propulsion focused firmly on groove, stretching all the way into something increasingly widescreen, hallucinatory and quietly euphoric.

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