quête:lean low

For its third release, Honey Trap turns toward the instinctual. Ritmo Animal is a record driven by body memory, where rhythm becomes language and movement becomes communion. Vancouver- and Colombian-rooted duo Dosis weave club music with lived histories, drawing from punk ethics, soundsystem culture, and a deep commitment to collaboration.

Formed by Daniel Rincon and Zachary Treble, Dosis operates in the space between structure and looseness, where grooves feel hand-built and edges remain intentionally rough. Across five tracks, Ritmo Animal resists clean categorization. House mutates into dub-soaked psychedelia, vocals surface and dissolve, and percussion swings between discipline and abandon.

The A-side opens with “I Want To Be Your Dog”, a low-slung, hypnotic burner featuring Alien D, setting the tone through repetition and restraint. The title track, “Ritmo Animal,” anchors the record in motion, with saxophone lines from Dave Biddle threading through percussive momentum and grounding the track in something tactile and human.

On the flip, “Malibu” offers a softer pull, with Hannah Acton’s vocals drifting through warm, unhurried rhythm. “Humo,” featuring Hashman Deejay, leans deeper into smoke and sway, while closer “Sancocho” stretches time entirely, favoring communal simmer over destination.

Ritmo Animal is music made for shared space. It is not concerned with polish or purity, but with connection, between scenes, cities, and bodies on a floor. Another chapter in Honey Trap’s ongoing exploration of intimacy, pleasure, and rhythm as refuge.

aut drum science and steely atmospheres are the order of the day as Terrain deliver a moody, stripped-back four-track EP for Livity Sound. The partnership of Forest Drive West and Voytek has so far yielded sharply-focused releases for Delsin's Mantis series and Vargmal, finding the synergy between lean, intricate drum & bass and heads-down, experimental techno.

On 'Barossa Dub', the pair pitch down to a half-time, dancehall-angled groove to propel a heavily-dubbed soundscape and system-ready bass. 'Nica' maintains the low-slung swagger while steadily ratcheting up the dread. On the flip, 'Scatter' winds the pressure back up with a punchy broken techno workout that teeters on the edge of breakbeat. 'Hive' opts for a brooding, purring techno meditation that thrives on slow release and intricately crafted sound design, capping off a diverse trip through austere club modernism.

HYPER GAL are restless. Since 2019, Kansai’s minimalist duo has been in persistent, perpetual motion.

In January of 2024, SKiN GRAFT Records introduced HYPER GAL to western audiences, giving the previously self-released album “Pure” a worldwide release. It was followed by “After Image”; a new full-length record; in September of that same year. In short order HYPER GAL left Japan to embark on a month-long European tour, performing at festivals such as Left of the Dial in Rotterdam and Le Guess Who? in Utrecht.

Consisting of Koharu Ishida (vocals) and Kurumi Kadoya (drums), HYPER GAL craft a sound all their own, characterized by avant-garde rhythms, looping landscapes, and hypnotic vocals. Their music resists traditional genre boundaries to carve out a truly singular sonic space.

With their fourth album “Our Hyper”, HYPER GAL thrust their sound into a deeper, harder core. Songs unfold into surprising shapes, embracing shadowy turns emboldened by a heavier low-end, while unearthing sharp takes on Japan’s harsh noise roots. The drums have grown even more acrobatic and unorthodox, while the vocals take on new colors, shifting from mesmerizing repetition to melodic, pop-tinged expression.

The album’s artwork is no less adventurous and features masks created by contemporary artist Tokiyoshi Akina and photographed in the band’s own hands, signaling resistance to the performative dualities of social media and a commitment to authenticity.
Despite the lean, unadorned two-piece setup, HYPER GAL’s music attains an intense and unmistakable presence - an unwavering momentum driven by an unrelenting intent. “Our Hyper” is HYPER GAL amplified.

"With each release they appear as mirage sculptors, using simple tools (drums, keyboards, vocals) in craft of multi-genre spanning work which only becomes more captivating the simpler their execution becomes...”
– MYSTIFICATION

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.

Bambe welcomes Low Jack — the alias of French producer Philippe Hallais — to the label with his debut single “MARKET,” backed by a remix from Bambe label head Bambounou. Following the dark ambient explorations of his recent album Lacrimosa on Stroom, Low Jack returns decisively to the dance floor, channeling his club instincts while preserving a deep-rooted connection to contemporary art.

Originally conceived as a commissioned composition for Australian visual artist Thomas Jeppe, “MARKET” was created to accompany an immersive installation exploring the hallucinatory rhythms of cosmopolitan life. The work was presented in February 2025 at Circolo UltraFiorucci, a newly launched cultural space in Milan, where sound and image converged to envelop visitors in Jeppe’s vivid, destabilized urban vision.

Recontextualized for the club, “MARKET” bridges installation and dance floor, reinforcing Low Jack’s singular ability to move fluidly between experimental art contexts and forward-leaning club music — now sharpened further by Bambounou’s remix, which pushes the track into electro territory.

Daniel Steinberg debuts on Rekids the Berlin-based Arms & Legs boss drops the ‘Free Living’ EP

Berlin-based producer and DJ Daniel Steinberg lands on Rekids for the fi rst time with the ‘Free Living’ EP, 13th March 2026. Active for over two decades and emerging at the height of the stripped-back, funkier end of minimal house, Steinberg has built a reputation for pairing infectious hooks with tightly programmed grooves, and has ploughed his path via his label, Arms & Legs Records, as well as labels like NuGroove, Front Room, and Southern Fried.

The title track of Daniel Steinberg’s ‘Free Living’ EP sets the tone with slow-slung, dusty House pressure, where restraint and subtlety shape a deep, immersive groove. Blues-tinged vocal fragments sit low in the mix alongside understated trumpet motifs and tender chords, forming a warm-up cut that gradually raises the energy. ‘Concrete Master’ shifts gear entirely, delivering raw, in-your-face house driven by sleazy rap snippets and snarling hits, built for peak-time impact. ‘Seven Sense’ follows with turbo-charged momentum, pairing vamping piano lines with gospel-leaning vocal stabs for hands-in-the-air release, before ‘Perfect Catch’ closes the EP with loopy chords, chopped grooves, and a playful, party-starting sensibility, delivered with characteristic precision. Founded in 2006, Radio Slave’s Rekids expanded with the techno-focused Rekids Special Projects in 2017 and its latest sublabel, REK’D, in 2024. With Matt Edwards as sole A&R, Rekids continues to champion emerging and established artists alike, remaining a trusted home for house and related sounds, with recent releases from DJ Minx, Echonomist, Tal Fussman, and more.

Solo 500 delivers another irresistible donut that takes the form of this 2-sided celebration of afro-latin & jazz-funk classics. GSC dusts off 2 deep catalog selections here — & part of the appeal is that neither side is a played-out sample cliché. This one is for heads who already burned through the obvious joints.

Side A digs into Manu Dibango beyond the endlessly flipped “Soul Makossa” universe. “The Panther”, from the 1973 album “Africadelic”, isn’t one of his commonly sampled tracks — & that’s exactly why it hits so hard. Low-slung Afro-funk, stalking bass & suspense-building horns that feel like a break record even if they haven’t been rinsed by every golden-era producer. Selectors who chase texture over recognition will understand the power here immediately. It’s the kind of cut hip-hop heads love not because they’ve heard it before — but because they haven’t.

Side B moves into Latin jazz-funk royalty. Ray Barretto is one of the most sampled percussionists of all time, but “Together” (from the 1969 album of the same name) sits slightly off the obvious break-beat path. Instead of a clean, isolated drum loop, you get rolling congas, warm keys & a communal groove that’s been DJ-tested far more than it’s been sampled. This is the type of Barretto cut that crate-diggers pull when they want rhythm to breathe — bridging jazz floors, disco-leaning sets & hip-hop selectors who think like musicians, not beat miners.

From the cold North of Sweden, NORNA and LEGBITER deliver a six-track document of contrast, convergence, and uncompromising heavy music. Bringing together two distinct voices, the release explores the many shapes heaviness can take_stretching from crushing, slow-moving atmospheres to sharp, volatile bursts of aggression. Formed by musicians with deep roots in the European underground, Norna approach heaviness as a vehicle for emotional gravity. Their sound is expansive and deliberate, built on massive low-end, tectonic rhythms, and an acute sense of restraint. Legbiter approach heavy music as direct, confrontational, and unrelentingly physical. Rooted in hardcore and metal's most ferocious intersections, the band thrives on immediacy and impact. Legbiter compress time, delivering short, explosive bursts that hit with the force of a live wire. Their sound is lean, aggressive, and unapologetically raw. "Even though we sound very different sonically I think we all have a lot of common ground, not only in being parts of the 90's scenes, but also musically in the somewhat dissonant and harsh guitar parts", says Legbiter guitarist (Rickard Nordström. "Personally, I love splits with bands that don't sound exactly the same, but share some common traits and vibes." "Contrast is everything, we have always tried to flow between despair and beauty. Dynamics are important to us. This split will give you that contrast", comments Norna guitarist and vocalist and former Breach vocalist Tomas Liljedahl. FOR FANS OF Handsome * Quicksand * Fireside * Breach * Helmet * Superheaven * Narrowhead * Metz

Detroit's Big Strick for his 7 Days Entertainment label has assembled of collection of Motor City leaning sounds from local and international artists here across four vital sides of wax. Generation Next opens with taught, pinging kicks and tinny melodies on deep house gem 'Senza Via D'Uscita' then Flabaire from Paris brings more bleeping sci-fi synths to a churning and dubbed out low end. Big Strick himself layers in electrically charged, fizzing synths and ticking hi-hats to his raw and gritty 'Bang My Shit' and Ron Cook ups the pace with the blissed out bumps of heady hymn, 'Again And Again.' Pegasvs from London also stands out with his great drum programming on '808 Jazz'.

Following a triumphant first release, Archivio Records returns with another slab of golden era UK Techno House from a true master of the sound: Mark Ambrose

This versatile three track EP made up of 2 previously unheard and unreleased lost DAT productions, paired with a monstrous modern creation, from a man known for his uniquely trippy and boundary pushing take on the genre, presents the listener with a smorgasbord of peak time Tech House, hypnotic Techno and emotive Acid House.

The A side Mountain Storm is nothing short of an epic, instantly recognizable future classic! Punchy, percussion laden drums set the tone upfront, before a titanic, rumbling bassline blows the doors clean off! Disorienting vocals drift in and out before an eerily familiar string arrives by special delivery directly from the State of 808, building the tension required to set the stage for the main event: a haunting, poignant and highly relevant monologue for the times we find ourselves in today, delivered by a renowned, yet uncredited Jamaican poet.

B1 Get On Down takes the listener to the middle of the dancefloor, mid-set at a Techno-leaning after hours. Think Christian AB in a mischievous mood…

Obscure, industrial, fizzing drums start the show, followed by a stomping yet playful bass line, hip hop vocals urging you to get busy on the floor swirl around you, before a piercing arpeggio sends the listener to the cosmos, as the track peaks.

B2 Deep Sea couldn’t have a more appropriate name if it tried. A chugging, melancholy, submarine journey to the bottom of the Atlantic, presented at a lower BPM, making it equally perfect for the very beginning or very end of a set.

The Brooklyn-based record store proves their record label is no one hit wonder with this outstanding release from the Crayon Records head honcho. Unmissable.

DJ Tennis expands the universe of his recent single ‘Playa Paradiso’ featuring vocals by multifaceted British artist Eliza with a deep-diving Club Mix, retooling “Playa Paradiso” into a darker, longer-burning version aimed squarely at the dance floor.
Stripping back the sun-kissed gloss of the original, the Club Mix leans into his precision production instincts; elongating the groove, tightening the rhythm, and letting the low-end shine. With the vocal weaving in and out like a guiding light through the haze, it’s a hypnotic take that trades coastal charm for heady club
elevation. A masterclass in tension and release, the Club Mix underscores DJ Tennis’s ability to balance emotional depth with dance floor functionality. The remix is a reframing of “Playa Paradiso” for the night shift: smoke-filled rooms, peak-time crescendos, and sunrise afterglows. Both versions capture different corners of the
same world, one that basks in the Balearic sun, and the other pulsing in the strobe.
Together, they mark a full-circle return for DJ Tennis’s first solo material in three years as an artist whose sonic world has always defied simple categorization.

NRV010 welcomes back Jay Tripwire with a focused, four-track EP that leans into what he does best: groove-led, understated club tools built for long blends and sound systems.

The release is anchored by Tripwire’s signature restraint and flow, alongside a Sublee remix that strips the material back even further, emphasizing hypnosis, reduction, and low-swing momentum.

This is functional, confident material — no excess, no forced moments — designed for selectors who value flow, patience, and control over obvious drops.

For DJs who play: minimal / microhouse / deep tech-influenced selectors who prioritize groove, tension, and longevity over peak-time theatrics.

The Ruins Of Beverast narrate fables of the darkest secrets in human history and present. ‘Tempelschlaf’ is The Ruins Of Beverast’s seventh full-length output and sees the band continue with their sonic morbidity, noises and melodies of a human habitat in its sunset era, while maintaining and refining the widescreen low end that has been sustaining their sound from the beginning. On the instrumental side, ‘Tempelschlaf’ is stripped of some fat, forging the songs with a reduction in length and layers, cautiously leaning towards the stage part of things. While synths and samples have always played an adamant role in The Ruins Of Beverast’s sound, they reach yet another level of psychedelia and insanity on ‘Tempelschlaf’. The Ruins Of Beverast were formed in early 2003 and named after the most bloodcurdling occasion of the collapse of the giant bridge Bifröst. This incident bears analogy to the musical aura of The Ruins Of Beverast, which builds a sonic landscape of massive, surreal, barren mountain formations. Seven full-length albums and several EPs, splits and compilation releases have been published through Ván Records so far. As a live act, The Ruins Of Beverast became a strong force after Roadburn 2013, a festival the band have played again since with exclusive shows. The Ruins Of Beverast have embarked on several European tours with acts like 1349, Grave Miasma and King Dude, as well as a highly acclaimed US tour that eventually concluded with an iconic show at Fire In The Mountains festival. The band have played such well-established club shows and festivals as Hellfest, Inferno, Incubate, Party.San Open Air and Beyond The Gates, to name just a few.

We Jazz Records continues their 7" series with a new release by Oaagaada, a fresh quartet from the rural parts of Southern Finland. "Oag-ada / A Swimming Trip" appears on 30 October and presents the band's ability to create fiery and flowing jazz music with strong avantgarde leanings. Think Art Ensemble Of Chicago on their groovy mode and add a strong DIY mentality, four people in a room creating music in the now. The lows are low and the highs are high, with the trumpet firmly on the red, adding just the right amount of blurriness into the picture. Perhaps it's not "lo-fi jazz" per se, but rather music which is more concerned with other things than the cleanest of hi-fi imagery. This is "real jazz for real people".

The quartet includes Tuure Tammi (trumpet), Sami Pekkola (sax), Tero Kemppainen (bass) and Simo Laihonen (drums). Laihonen has recently appeared on We Jazz Records with Stanley J. Zappa and previously with Black Motor, and more Oaagaada can be heard on the recent "We Jazz Live Plates" album "Lonna 2019".

True to We Jazz style, the 7" single comes with old school heat-pressed labels and a plain brown paper sleeve.

Groggy, engrossing new work from Ulla under their newly minted U.e. tag, riffing to the sublime on a set of (mostly) acoustic reveries that tap into the kind of smokey vapours favoured by the likes of Vincent Gallo, Voice Actor, Jonnine.

A new year, label, album and handle for Ulla, a multifaceted artist who has draped our pages with wonder, under numerous aliases and collabs, for almost a decade. On ‘Hometown Girl’ they distill transience and flux into a quiet set of chamber works subtly resembling the room recorded nuance of their ‘Jazz Plates’ side with Perila - here taken a step further into more elusive, low-lit dimensions.

In a mode that’s wistful and melancholic, listening to the album’s dozen discrete pieces feels like leafing thru a journal of hand-written notes, reflecting on the feelings that come with separation from loved ones and displacement from familiarity. Ulla performed and recorded all of the instruments themselves, lending a tangible tactility to layered arrangements of woodwind, keys, strings, drums and voice, lightly speckled with electronics and perfused with open window field recordings.

They locate a crackling frisson of personality in the voice notes and day-dreaminess of their mottled inscapes, gauzily demarcating lines between past and present selves. In that aesthetic and approach we can also hear similarities to Jonnine’s blue-skied ‘Southside Girl’ or crys cole’s poetic sensuality, often leaning into the domestic surreal.

A frayed, opening salutation ‘Good Morning’ signals a delirious half hour in Ulla’s company, variously swaying to the downstroked jazz swing of a ‘Lavender (NF)’ spritzed with clarinet, whilst ‘Froggy Explorer’ stirs the air like Jan Jelinek on a barely-there tip. The Basinski-esque fritz of degraded loops really snags the imagination along with a twinkling nightlight ‘Ball’, as the album opens out into its most fully resolved songs with a closing couplet of disarming wonders ‘Drawing of Me’, and a blurry ‘Mute’ that feels like Ulla 〜almost〜 reveals too much before retreating back into the shadows.

Kontakt Records presents KNT-47 “Chromatic Noise”, a deep exploration of dub techno and dub-infused house from Canadian producer Matt Thibideau. Across three extended cuts, Thibideau sculpts spacious, analogue-leaning grooves where every element has room to breathe. Subtle saturation, soft tape hiss and finely tuned low-end weight create that unmistakable sense of depth, while shimmering chords and carefully placed delays drift in and out of the stereo field. The result is music that feels both hypnotic and alive, built for long blends, late sessions and sound systems that reward detail. “Chromatic Noise” sits comfortably in the Kontakt Records tradition: timeless dub aesthetics, modern production values and a focus on atmosphere over obvious peaks. It’s the kind of 12" that works just as well as a DJ tool as it does for attentive home listening – patient, understated and endlessly playable. Tiny shifts in texture, filter movement and echo tails keep the tension moving forward without ever breaking the spell.

To submit or to surrender? Robert Johnson resident Oskar Offermann doesn’t have the answers, and that’s kind of the point. Things change: one moment you’re touring the globe as a recognizable face of one of the greatest clubs in the world, the next you’ve started a new life as a teacher. How do you handle that shift? On this record, Offermann doesn’t offer solutions so much as trace his own way through it, reflecting the whole process in his music and creative work.

Whatever the story, whatever the case, Oskar Offermann can still produce some of the most emotive, bleepy, strange dance music out there and this 12 inch is the proof. Sonically and conceptually it leans into that precise, melancholic German school: at points drawing from 80s wave and experimental music, then flirting with trancey motifs and closing in divinely crafted breakbeat. In just four tracks it packs in a surprising amount of functional range, exactly what you’d expect from one of RJ’s longest-standing residents. The A- and B-sides mirror each other: they open at full intensity, tempos pushed well past the 130 BPM mark, easy to imagine ripping through a peak-time floor – and still both sides land on something far more personal and reflective.

Even inside a framework of high-intensity club tunes, Oskar’s character shines through loud and proud. Think the slightly disjarring yet melodically captivating winds in the middle of the B1 trance induced number “Accepting”, or the masterfully paced build of opener “Planet Interface”. The same goes for A2 “Televise Improvise” and B2 “Sei mal nur lieb”: on paper they should feel like breathers next to the two behemoths, but they don’t. Offermann crams so much substance and personality into them that they become quietly dangerous. There’s that magical mix of squelchy acid, rough low end and naturalistic melodies on B2, and the relentless emotional drive of A2 “Televise Improvise”. Oskar is really, really good at making dance music irresistible.

Character, skill and honesty in one record, meant for the attentive listener and the brave DJ. A rare combination nowadays, get it fast!

-Vinyl

The Ruins Of Beverast narrate fables of the darkest secrets in human history and present. ‘Tempelschlaf’ is The Ruins Of Beverast’s seventh full-length output and sees the band continue with their sonic morbidity, noises and melodies of a human habitat in its sunset era, while maintaining and refining the widescreen low end that has been sustaining their sound from the beginning. On the instrumental side, ‘Tempelschlaf’ is stripped of some fat, forging the songs with a reduction in length and layers, cautiously leaning towards the stage part of things. While synths and samples have always played an adamant role in The Ruins Of Beverast’s sound, they reach yet another level of psychedelia and insanity on ‘Tempelschlaf’. The Ruins Of Beverast were formed in early 2003 and named after the most bloodcurdling occasion of the collapse of the giant bridge Bifröst. This incident bears analogy to the musical aura of The Ruins Of Beverast, which builds a sonic landscape of massive, surreal, barren mountain formations. Seven full-length albums and several EPs, splits and compilation releases have been published through Ván Records so far. As a live act, The Ruins Of Beverast became a strong force after Roadburn 2013, a festival the band have played again since with exclusive shows. The Ruins Of Beverast have embarked on several European tours with acts like 1349, Grave Miasma and King Dude, as well as a highly acclaimed US tour that eventually concluded with an iconic show at Fire In The Mountains festival. The band have played such well-established club shows and festivals as Hellfest, Inferno, Incubate, Party.San Open Air and Beyond The Gates, to name just a few.

Kontakt Records presents KNT-47 “Chromatic Noise”, a deep exploration of dub techno and dub-infused house from Canadian producer Matt Thibideau. Across three extended cuts, Thibideau sculpts spacious, analogue-leaning grooves where every element has room to breathe. Subtle saturation, soft tape hiss and finely tuned low-end weight create that unmistakable sense of depth, while shimmering chords and carefully placed delays drift in and out of the stereo field. The result is music that feels both hypnotic and alive, built for long blends, late sessions and sound systems that reward detail. “Chromatic Noise” sits comfortably in the Kontakt Records tradition: timeless dub aesthetics, modern production values and a focus on atmosphere over obvious peaks. It’s the kind of 12" that works just as well as a DJ tool as it does for attentive home listening – patient, understated and endlessly playable. Tiny shifts in texture, filter movement and echo tails keep the tension moving forward without ever breaking the spell.

Kontakt Records presents KNT-47 “Chromatic Noise”, a deep exploration of dub techno and dub-infused house from Canadian producer Matt Thibideau. Across three extended cuts, Thibideau sculpts spacious, analogue-leaning grooves where every element has room to breathe. Subtle saturation, soft tape hiss and finely tuned low-end weight create that unmistakable sense of depth, while shimmering chords and carefully placed delays drift in and out of the stereo field. The result is music that feels both hypnotic and alive, built for long blends, late sessions and sound systems that reward detail. “Chromatic Noise” sits comfortably in the Kontakt Records tradition: timeless dub aesthetics, modern production values and a focus on atmosphere over obvious peaks. It’s the kind of 12" that works just as well as a DJ tool as it does for attentive home listening – patient, understated and endlessly playable. Tiny shifts in texture, filter movement and echo tails keep the tension moving forward without ever breaking the spell.