quête:duo

Glasgow, Scotland duo Thomas + James deliver their silky-smooth dub laced sounds for Federsen’s Alt Dub with the four-track ‘Realtime’ EP.

Thomas + James are a Glasgow-based DJ and production duo whose sound reflects a deep immersion in electronic music. Raised in the city’s west end and shaped by early exposure to techno pioneers like Luke Slater, Slam and Jeff Mills alongside the atmospheric legacy of ’90s drum & bass, their productions lean into a dub infused, forward-looking aesthetic.

Drawing equally from house traditions via influences such as St Germainand Laurent Garnier, the pair blur the lines between dub techno, deep house, acid and minimal.

Their new EP onFedersen’s Alt Dub captures that hybrid vision with a maturity that belies their years, being born in 2006,marking them out as a quietly compelling new voice from Glasgow’s next generation.

Leading the release is the original title-track ‘Realtime’, setting the tone with a sturdy yet pared-back rhythm section, oscillating synth flutters, bouncy sub-bass and hazy textures that subtly shift across the arrangement.

Label boss Federsen steps in next with his interpretation, reducing the track to its deepest foundations and recasting it as a delicately drifting soundscape of evolving spatial echoes, weighty low-end pressure and restrained, muted drums.

On the flip, Thomas + James return with ‘Armonia’, an ethereal, dub-leaning deep house cut propelled by billowing pads, delayed vocal chants, fluid dub chords and a heavily swung, minimalist groove.

The EP closes with ‘X-Intense’, further highlighting the duo’s groove-driven signature sound as reverberant, airy stabs weave through breathy vocals and shuffled percussion to bring the release to a hypnotic conclusion.

These Tasty Records returns with Primitive Velocity — a four-cut vinyl various built for peak-time impact.

On the A-side, French DJ Cptik sets things in motion with “Depart Imminent”, a razor-sharp acid weapon infused with eerie, nocturnal tension.
Ecuadorian duo Mop & Quims follow with “Overdose” a tight, percussive tool focused on groove and pressure, engineered for the floor.

The B-side opens with Cptik’s “Jungle Speed”, a high-energy rave cut powered by an infectious bassline and break-driven drums.
To close the record, French producer Aymeric delivers “Long Time Ago”, a melancholic acid finale, introspective yet effective, perfect for the final stretch of the night.

Return of the Blastromen! OEra marks the comeback of the Finnish Electro duo, 7 long years after their last album Cyberia. The new EP on German label Dominance Electricity features 4 powerful, polished productions, with melodic synths and Vocoder vocals somewhere between Kraftwerk, Anthony Rother, TRON soundtrack, a pinch of Psytrance and Jackal & Hyde / Dynamix II / Code Rising style Electrobass.

Tone Dropout Records kick off the new year in emphatic style with a brand-new 6-track vinyl EP that stays true to the label’s unmistakable dancefloor-driven sound.

Packed with heavyweight grooves, acid lines, breaks, and bleeps, this release delivers six high-impact tracks designed for late-night systems and packed floors. The EP also marks an exciting moment for the label, welcoming two new artists into the Tone Dropout family while celebrating the return of long-standing contributors.

Joining the roster for the first time are KWAKE and Harry Light, both making a powerful debut on the label. They sit alongside Tone Dropout regulars SkyWave Transmissions and XOTR, while label co-owners DAWL and SWEEN reunite once again, delivering an acid-fuelled opener and a special bonus breaks track on Side B.

As always, the EP is overflowing with breaks, bleeps, acid, and raw rave energy.

Side A – The Head Side

Side A opens strong with DAWL and SWEEN at the helm, laying down a driving four-to-the-floor acid groover that would warm up any dancefloor with ease. It’s a statement opener — and a sign of much more to come from the duo throughout the year.

Next up, SkyWave Transmissions brings his trademark experience and finesse, delivering a tightly produced acid-bleep track that showcases depth, quality, and character. Following seamlessly is long-time collaborator XOTR, who rounds out the side with a pure slice of northern bleep excellence — unmistakably Sheffield in style and sound.

Side B

Side B introduces the first of the new Tone Dropout members, KWAKE. A long-time friend of the label, this marks his first official appearance, and he doesn’t disappoint. His track is a full-force breaks banger, capturing authentic rave energy and guaranteed to ignite the floor.

Next comes Harry Light, making an immediate impact with a pounding house-and-breaks hybrid. Impeccably produced and relentless in energy, the track lives up to its name perfectly — “POWER HOUSE.” Both newcomers arrive firing on all cylinders, delivering two massive dancefloor weapons back-to-back.

Closing out the EP, DAWL and SWEEN return with Tones Breaks 5, a three-minute breaks workout and the latest installment in the label’s breaks series. This track also serves as a respectful nod to one of their musical heroes, Frankie Bones, rounding off the release on a high.

Six tracks. All killers. No fillers.
In challenging times, this EP delivers exceptional value — a complete package of club-ready music pressed to vinyl and built for real dancefloors.

Another quality release from Tone Dropout Records.

A Lisbon classic by now, Paraiso (a label, a radio show, a party and now also a documentary) is back for its 19th release with a pairing who's no stranger to the label or the portuguese techno underground: lucky for us, head honcho Shcuro got back in the studio with techno legend in the making Vil to make Repercussions part 2 - and they invited iconic Spanish producer Annie Hall (Delsin, CPU) as a remixer. The record opens with a tour de force, the relentless yet perfectly in control, mutanting and experimental yet elegant and timeless 'Motorik'. In it, you can hear echoes of Detroit groove sense, but also a generous splash of dub sonics seamlessly merging into pure peak time, closed eyes, layers of ear-candy hypnotizing you type of stuff. Things strip back a little in 'Emergence Dub' - still immersive fast techno ammunition, but there is a playful, experimental and sometimes ravey spirit to it, with a wonky mutating key, vocal pads and cheeky percussion working together to create a stunning modern dance piece. Side B is inaugurated by 'Origins', a deep bow to dub traditions with delay-drenched stabs and a bouncy bassline for days. An energetic yet dreamy piece with spoken word samples that will have your heart melt, it perfectly mirrors the duo's influences in a beautiful closing original. Annie Hall steps in for the remix, taking A2 'Emergence Dub' into Breaks geographies, with a talking bassline fit for an electro banger, and the ever-present pads sending us off in zen mode after a delightful ride.

As with the band’s 2023 release of the same name, Refreshing Part 2 is a decisive and fierce collection of percussive techno that nonetheless travels its path with a heightened level of funkiness.
The Italian duo describe the concept behind this collection as being “not about resetting, but about balancing. Refreshing means reconnecting with the present and with the future…focusing on one’s own way in order to prevent the flow from becoming automatic, uncontrolled, and
without orientation. It is more a direction than a path.”
The four tracks on the 12” are hypnotic dives into a full spectrum of club music: the rhythms and sound design guiding the subconscious into visions of past, present and future intermingled, a reminder that all moments co-exist simultaneously.
Side A passes from the stripped-down intensity of The Way through to Elisir (Elixir), which manages to pull off a trick of feeling light and floaty while maintaining the power of its predecessor. The flip side opens with the forceful drive of Activate before making way to the
percussive elasticity of Family Tree, a track which closes out the EP by recalling, in both name and sound, how that which came before deeply affects the now, though often in ways only subliminally perceived.
Digital-only track Fixed in Flux continues this concept, and the overall themes of Refreshing Part 2, with further evocations of intent and movement; remaining present in change, without resisting it, yet without dissolving into it.

DJ Support: Damian Lazarus, James Zabiela, Chloé Caillet, Luke Slater, Solomun, Huxley, Peggy Gou, Alan Fitzpatrick, TSHA, Mat.Joe, Eliza Rose.

It’s been a standout year for X & Ivy following the release of “Let The Bass Kick” on Forever Days. The duo have earned support from heavyweights including Peggy Gou, Todd Edwards and DJ Tennis, with their Chic-sampling club weapon lighting up dancefloors worldwide all summer.

Now, they hand the reins to DJ/producer Jennifer Loveless, who flips “Let The Bass Kick” into a fresh, forward-thinking rework built for the dancefloor.

For Oath's latest release presents Vault with Holes, the first record from French duo C.ling. Formed by lifelong friends Paul Brunet and Alexandre Maillet, now based between Paris and Brussels, the pair draw from a wide European electronic music network and a classical background.

Combining hyper-kinetic sound design, delicate instrumentation and fluid, polyrhythmic layering, C.ling's sound is immersive and genre-less at times, rooted in remembrance and shifting emotional spaces. Vault with Holes unfolds like chapters, where thresholds between tracks feel like breaks in a narrative, reflective, tactile and quietly expansive.

The Austrian imprint Fortunea Records took a little break to fill up their batteries and comes back now this summer with a release by the Bavarian duo Decent Rides. They are around for a couple of years and are also the masterminds behind the label Interloot Records.

On the ‚Like We Do‘ EP they are your guides for a versatile house infiltrated tour. The title-track is an energetic floorfiller with modulated synth sequences and heart stomping drum patterns. Definitely the killer app on this wax.

The second track on the A-side features the tune ‚Mind Maze‘. A funky bouncing bassline, reverberant almost siren sounding tones, staccato vocal samples and high accentuated hats make you blister your feet from your high intensively dance moves.

On track B2, the duo adds further "Colours" to the record. This melancholic deep house tune exudes a beautiful, somber, and yet captivating atmosphere that is impossible to resist. This track could be very effective when played during sunrise or sundown.

And finally, they round off this release with cosmic dub sounds and shimmering chords. "Lembo" invigorates the senses. Every beat on this tech house track is an invitation to let go and feels you the pulse of the underground scene.

Go check this out!

Limited to 200 records. There will be no repress!
Mastering by Patrick Pulsinger.

The mysterious Gluten People return to the fold, handing over their next vinyl-only transmission. For this second helping of "glutenous" dancefloor heat, the duo has paired up with Giacomo XL, following the massive demand for their debut EP.

Expect more of the same raw, rhythmic energy that made their first outing a must-have for heads and selectors alike. This is essential, no-nonsense club material built specifically for the wax-only connoisseur.

Early Support from: Archie Hamilton, Liquid Earth, Enzo Siragusa, Huxley, La Fleur, Sean Johnston, Make A Dance, Baby Rollen, Ysanne, Eliza Rose, Bartolomeo, Ryan Clover, AGELESS, Alec Falconer, Call Super, Bas Ibellini, ADMNTi, Gearmaster (fka Abdul Raeva), Timo Maas, Christopher Ledger, Moodymanc, Nathan Colinet, Gabski, Greogorio Soave, and many more.

Who would expect that a new Krautrock release on Macadam Mambo would come from a Japanese band called Heavenphetamine?! The duo/couple have been touring all over Europe in the past two years, and started to build a serious fan base, as every performance they deliver is leaving an imperishable memory. This is on a date in Belgrade at Karmakoma that they met with Sacha. They had this album recorded and auto-release on tape but not on vinyl, and it came completely naturally to decide to release it as a LP on Macadam Mambo. The tracks on the album are new versions a bit different from the tape, let’s say a bit more mature and minimal than from the first ones recorded and give the feeling of listening to a masterpiece in the genre. It can be dark and profound but also enough light to bring back this little sun that has trouble to shine in the winter. This album has been highly influenced by their experience with the war in Ukraine, and the friendship they made there, where it has been recorded, and it express this mix of emotions due to the feeling of exasperation and the hope to see someday this conflict come to an end and the relief of the peace…

Early DJ Support: Massimiliano Pagliara, Paranoid London, Logan Fisher, Terry Farley, James Holroyd, Rocky (X Press 2), Francois K, Marcel Vogel, Sean Johnston, Austin Ato, Ron Basejam, Richard Rogers, Oliver Dollar, Crazy P and many more

Creating an international name for itself over the past decade as a sample pack label, Samples From Mars made its inevitable venture into the music world originally as a home for founder Teddy Stuart’s work. Long before making samples, Stuart garnered credits working as a grammy-nominated recording engineer in the hip hop world, and DJing / producing with Justin Strauss as A/JUS/TED, for labels such as DFA, Domino Records and Southern Fried Records. Now the label is set to release a variety of genres - house, disco, techno, ambient, all with a vintage tinge and a focus on high quality, analog production.

Enter Salt Queen. Visual artist and musician Magali van Caloen together with Samples From Mars founder, Teddy Stuart. Based in New York, the duo combine hardware dance aesthetics with dry, salty takes on familiar club moments into music that sits somewhere between funny, raw and unpredictable.

Salt Queen’s debut ‘ARE U OK’ is an acid-laced, deadpan spoken word track with an opening line that snaps any room to attention. A disorienting club encounter unfolds over Italo-inflected 808s and a relentless 303 bassline. There are no chords and no melodies - just a skeletal groove and an intimate voice circling the dancefloor. Drifting between concern and provocation, the vocal runs through cliché club conversations before destabilizing completely into a siren-laden crash out. The ‘Freak Nasty Club Mix’ ditches the plot and lets the hardware breathe, with a thick SH-101 bassline anchoring the first half before a sudden switch into an unrelenting acid pattern that refuses to settle. Two versions of the same wild night out.

Continuing its faithful documentation of the early years of Monolake, Field Records proudly present the first-ever vinyl pressing of seminal 1999 album Interstate. In a kaleidoscopic lattice of micro-rhythms and exquisitely dynamic textural work, Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles fully collaborated for the final time on this record — and created an electronica landmark in the process.

Monolake's evolution from their earlier dub-techno-tinted works saw their exploration of Max/MSP go further out. The duo yielded greater complexity in the behaviour of their sound palette to achieve an organismic quality that remains an enduring influence on so many strands of experimental electronic music today. Interstate is a vivid record that builds up eight different ecosystems of sound and subtly threads elegant grooves through their root structures.

There's a house-like undulation to the low-end driving 'Tangent-I' and 'Tangent-II', but the infinitesimally detailed layers of sound on top swoon from techno synth shimmers to trickling waters, snaking delay trails and pin prick percussion. You can hear the unmistakable, snappy rhythmic thrust of drum & bass driving 'Ginza', but here it's used as an engine for the crispest array of designer percussion and dub-soaked synth chirrups. Across every track, Henke and Behles demonstrate a potent combination, both groovily instinctive and eternally fascinating to try and pick apart.

After Interstate, Behles departed to focus entirely on the development of Ableton Live and Henke steered Monolake towards a leaner — but no less pioneering — sound. Every Monolake record has its own unique context and sound, and the circumstances of Interstate could never be repeated. Capturing the leaps in progress that were being made in digital music production at the end of the millennium, it's an information-rich document of a moment in time that still sounds wildly futuristic 27 years later.

Near the end of fifth grade, Eli Edwards’ mom gave him $20 and told him to go find a friend. His team had won its soccer game that day, so they were out celebrating at a local pizza parlor with games. But, more importantly, there had been one other Black kid that day on the pitch in Spanaway, WA, a Tacoma suburb and military-base town at the rainy northwest corner of the United States. That kid just happened to be Xayvien Young. An instant deep connection was formed between Edwards and Young—Eli and Xay, as they prefer to be called were inseparable— and now twelve years later they are the electrifying, boundary-skipping duo Casi.

Along the way, Eli had relocated to Los Angeles with the indie rock band Enumclaw he had helped found, but he found himself flying home maybe a little too much. He was ostensibly visiting his girlfriend, but he spent most of his time with Xay. They cut tracks in every bit of free time they found until they had an epiphany: Maybe this music they’d made together for a dozen years was actually something special. Casi’s 10-track, self-titled debut out on Carpark Records is the electrifying proof they needed.

On the record, they enthusiastically explore every musical interest they have ever had—explosive hip-hop and unbridled hardcore, high-gloss nü metal and a little bit of emo—as a pair. These songs don’t ignore genre lines; they delight in destroying them, in finding ways to slam hip-hop and hardcore, emo and nü metal together until it seems illogical that they were ever apart. Take “Jumper,” where heavy metal guitars and face-kicking drums stir the moshpit for rabid verses about crushing ICE and the lessons you learn riding the poverty line. And take closer “Bridges,” where the melodic imprint of Deftones meets the relentless confessions of Death Grips. Here are the hard, funny, and loud stories of two 23-year-olds, screaming about the world over a breathless composite of all the music they’ve ever loved.

When Eli was in Los Angeles, Xay missed his friend. But in his absence, he also felt the spark of inspiration. Music was something that had just been their childhood hobby, but now Eli was in a rock band that had press accolades and tours. He got serious about the craft. Eli would write about the dislocation and isolation he felt in California, while Xay would document the hardships of being a young Black man with a complicated family while working menial jobs in Spanaway.

This isn’t a coming-of-age album for Casi; it is, instead, a raw and riveting snapshot of that process, painful as it can be. “Eleven87” is a breakup song, a soul beat springing beneath arching emo vocals. And “Intrusive Thoughts” treats that topic like a punching bag, Eli and Xav fighting against the mental habits that keep them down. These 10 songs instantly close that gap.

Signaling their long-anticipated debut on ICONYC, the label welcomes acclaimed Italian duo Glowal with their Future Faces EP. Uncompromising in its intent, this two-track capsule extends the duo’s emotional vocabulary, threading new ideas through their unmistakable sonic lens for a release that underscores the expressive precision at the heart of their craft.

Casting their gaze forward on “Future Faces”, Fabio Giannelli and Alessandro Gasperini open proceedings with a fractured rhythmic chassis driven by a throbbing low-end pulse that warps with each passing beat. Heavy percussive strikes carve their path into the night before a disarming female vocal emerges from the shadows, injecting a sense of yearning and fragile wonder into the piece. A sudden brake—like tires skidding across rain-slick asphalt—ushers in laser-etched synth lines that cry out with an anthemic resolve, while iridescent sequences bubble to the surface, sealing a striking first statement on the label.

Turning the corner, Glowal unveil the esoteric “Desert Soul,” a slow-burning reverie that expands on the EP’s emotional terrain. Patiently unfolding over fragmented rhythms and a meandering bassline, neon traces guide us toward a robotic vocal presence that introduces a subtle human-machine tension. Stripped to a minimal core yet rich in sentiment, “Desert Soul” resonates with quiet introspection—an understated meditation on self-discovery that lingers well beyond its final echo.

2026 Repress!!

Slabs, if you didn't know yet, is the new label from Dungeon Meat duo Brawther and Tristan da Cunha that wants only to serve up music to make you sweat. This is another red-hot one that comes from Horsemen and has already been slammed down to great reactions at places like BRET in Amsterdam. 'Work It Out' is a stripped-down but chunky and rugged house monster, and 'The Strip Down' is a more lively and elastic cut with rubbery kicks, jumbled hits and irresistibly kinetic rhythms. Hugely effective yet hugely characterful, this is another doozy from Slabs.

There is a strong sense of place running through 'North West Tonight', as God Colony aka Crack Copies label heads and Liverpool-raised duo James Rand and Thomas Gorton sketch out a hazy, after-hours portrait of their hometown. Drawing on 80s new wave melodies and rough-edged club rhythms, the EP balances sounds of yore with present-day energy. There is crunchy, disrupted bass on 'The Column', backlit broken beat on 'Middle Eye' and more sun-kissed depths on 'Rhyll Sun Centre'. 'The Paradox' stands out as a darker, more edgy and club-ready sound while the rework by Sasha stretches the track into something built for wide-eyed dancefloors.

Anywhere, Anyway captures a selection of club tools that Makèz and their close circle have tested, refined and played across dance floors worldwide. Each track carries that familiar equilibrium the duo keeps guard over, a steady pull between raw club energy and moments meant for intimate listening.

Much like their recent album on No Art, the EP took shape while traveling, moving from session to session with artists from different musical worlds. Those encounters left their marks, subtle shifts in rhythm, harmony and texture, shaping the edges of the EP. The Amsterdam duo keeps seeking creative impulses from unexpected angles, letting ideas find them wherever they are. Anywhere, anyway.

Transmitting from deep in the Finnish underground, Nazar sends out a signal of mysterious, synthetic auras and shadowy, skittering sequences. From smoky outsider techno to rainy-day electro abstraction, the label’s emphasis is on expression and intrigue as each release reaches across the energetic spectrum of moody machine music.

The first release on Nazar presents a cast of protagonists from the Helsinki scene who share precisely the kind of nocturnal tendencies the label is seeking out. Seasoned duo General Electrix open up the A side with ‘Redshifter’, a silken web of 606-powered electro and warmly haunted synth work that nods to the early years of Autechre. Making an early step out into the public domain, Asyx follows up swiftly with the exquisitely detailed machine funk of ‘kVelorum ‘, where a vivid tapestry of noise, squelch and bleep techno gets smartly woven between airy pad tones and a rock-solid rhythm section.

On the B side, Helsinki mainstay Kaiunta brings a dramatic flourish to mid tempo creeper ‘Phantasm’, matching a densely packed rumble of live drums with sweeps of nervy atmospherics and a murky inversion of the classic gated trance lead. 53X rounds out the Nazar mission towards broad BPMs and fresh ideas with a crunchy swerve towards sample-heavy downtempo laced with a generous dose of psychedelics and angular noise.

NAZAR001 is the kind of record that yields surprises and slots into unexpected moments depending on when and where the needle drops, providing versatile moments for adventurous selectors and continuing the fine tradition of outsider electro and techno from Finland.

US-duo Fcukers veröffentlichen ihr Debütalbum auf Ninja Tune!