Purchases Made Through Links In The Piece May Help Support Magnetic At No Extra Cost To You! All Images Throughout Are Property Of All-Time-High Founded by DJ David “EXCEL” Alper and Frank Barouti, the Los Angeles label pulls from vintage clothing, military references, washed fab…

Killed It! Records is continuing to expand beyond BARELY ALIVE with the release of elden’s new ‘POWERTRIP EP’, out now. The project serves as the label’s first standalone release from an artist outside its founders, making it an important early statement for Killed It!’s broader…

Festival packing starts with optimism and ends with someone dragging a cooler across gravel while three tote bags dig into their shoulders. That is the unglamorous part of the weekend nobody puts in the recap. The outfits are planned, the lineup is saved, the campsite is mapped o…

Underground techno usually says the most when there is less for the record to hide behind. Strip the sleeve back, press it to wax, take the titles off the center label, and suddenly the whole thing gets very simple. Either the groove speaks for itself, or it does not. That is the…

The November 28 event pairs a dedicated Tiësto trance set with Aaron Hibell and a focused international lineup at TradeX. Putting Tiësto at the top of a trance lineup means something different in 2026 than it would have twenty years ago, and Dreamstate Vancouver clearly understan…

It is easy to talk about AI in music like it is only a software issue. Faster MIDI generation, smarter arrangement help, cleaner mixes, instant ideas, less staring at a blank project. All of that can sound harmless enough until the shortcut starts reaching into the part of the pr…

Everyone in music says they want discovery, but most discovery systems are better at confirming what has already started moving. Streams, saves, social proof, playlist lift, algorithmic traction — all of it can tell the industry where attention is already gathering. Hype-Index is…

Lloyd Barwood (@lloydbarwoodmusic) wrote “Nothing Like It Was” for a very specific moment: his first set handing the decks over to Sasha at 909 in Liverpool. That context shaped the record from the beginning, with Barwood aiming for the melodic character associated with Sasha’s s…

ELPHNT (@elphntx) has always sat in an interesting corner of music production culture. It is an Ableton-focused project, a collection of Max for Live devices, a teaching platform, a design outlet, a newsletter, a writing practice, and a creative business all at once. For Tom, the…

Nicolas Barnes (@nicolas_barnes_) makes his SATYADGTL debut with Be Calm, a September 11 release that places the Riga-based DJ, producer, and ECOUL SND label head inside the label’s deeper, more restrained lane. The record was written during a period of mental overload, and that…

Hard techno is crowded enough right now that “harder” barely means anything on its own. The real question is whether an artist can make pressure feel authored rather than anonymous. That is the line LAYBE (@laybemusic) seems to be chasing in 2026, moving away from a wider explora…

Most people do not stop making things because they stopped caring. They stop because the act of returning starts to feel too loaded. The guitar becomes a test of whether you are still a musician. The blank page becomes a referendum on whether you were ever any good. The project w…

The complete set times place a three-hour-plus Pretty Lights performance at the center of every night in Buena Vista. The first thing that jumps out in Yahn Dawn’s 2026 set times is how little the event tries to cram onto its Main Stage. LP Giobbi opens Friday with her Dead House…

FIFI FORTE’s (@fififortedj) Gain My Trust EP lands on Diggin’ Records with the kind of house music that does not need to over-explain itself. The London-based DJ and producer keeps the release tight: three cuts, rolling drums, deep basslines, crisp percussion, and enough ’90s hou…

A promoter can book an artist, sell the date, run the room, post the photographs, and close the accounts. Once the lights come up, though, the developing artist may leave with little that can support the next booking. Photographs and phone clips document the date, yet most of its…

MARS (@iammarsofficial) enters the scene with “Techno Dungeon,” a high-energy collaboration with DJ HPNOTIC built around relentless grooves, driving percussion, and a four-on-the-floor pulse. The track is designed as an invitation: leave the outside world at the door, step into t…

Enzo Vood (@enzo_vood) recently appeared alongside Aaron Suiss on “Self-Actualization,” released this summer on Magnetic Magazine Recordings. The track gave the label another patient, melodic club record built for gradual movement rather than cheap impact, which makes Enzo’s inte…

There are plenty of labels that begin with a genre tag and build outward from there, though Coexist came from a clearer personal need. Brian Zajak, known through his Fejká project, had spent years making electronic music that moved between ambient restraint and club-focused momen…

Australian DJ and multi-instrumentalist Timmy Trumpet has released a new single, Roses, recorded in collaboration with fast-rising producer bradeazy and featuring vocalist Richard Judge. The track is melodic, club-ready, and noticeably warmer in sound than the artist’s usual outp…

Remember when Music Marketing meant a poster campaign, a radio ad, and crossing your fingers? Yeah, neither do most people reading this. The rulebook for breaking an artist has been rewritten so many times in the last few years that “the playbook” is really more of a scrapbook no…

Getting an artist interview published usually starts well before you email an editor, because one of the biggest misconceptions I see on the receiving end of music pitches is that a new release automatically gives a publication enough material for an interview. A single coming ou…

Getting your music covered by a blog in 2026 is still possible, and I want to start there because I spend enough time on the receiving end of music submissions to know how quickly artists can convince themselves that editors no longer listen to unsolicited music. We do… or maybe…

Above Photo Credit: Miguel Muzquiz Chris Liebing, Maddix, ØTTA and SPFDJ join the Austin festival, with two curated Frequency takeovers giving ticket buyers a clearer reason to compare Saturday and Sunday. Seismic Dance Event 9.0 has added Chris Liebing, Maddix, ØTTA, SPFDJ and t…

TVs keep showing up in creative rooms for a reason, and it has less to do with passive watching than with atmosphere. A studio is rarely only a studio anymore. For many producers, writers, DJs, editors, and artists, the same room has to work as a bedroom, listening space, writing…

Photo credit: Iris Wang CAPYAC have always sounded like they are trying to sneak a real feeling into a party before anyone notices. That is still the best read on “Big CrUsh En3rgY,” their new single, which lands as a late-summer burst of funk guitar, indie electronic heat, and f…

Rteph88 and Steve Cobby’s Seven Dogs is interesting because it does not treat chill-out, downtempo, and jazztronica like old rooms that need restoring. It treats them like living spaces that can still be rearranged. Released August 21, 2026 via Oathcreations, the four-track EP br…

Lisa McGlynn’s “Alien” is built from fragments that do not fully explain themselves. The Scottish singer, songwriter, and electronic producer draws on alternative electronic music, post-punk, industrial club pressure, dance production, and atmospheric vocal writing, but the track…

Prisma Deer and Vishap’s “It’s Jazz” is the kind of house record that tells you what it is paying respect to before the kick has to do much explaining. The title is direct, the source language is clear, and the production does not try to hide its affection for jazz behind a layer…

Núr Moody’s Vanity, Enemy. is a debut EP about losing perspective, then slowly getting it back. The Barcelona producer, songwriter, and vocalist built the five-track record from her bedroom, writing, recording, and producing the whole project herself before finishing the mix with…

Mike Taylor’s “LOVE.” is a comeback of sorts, but not in the obvious sense. He never disappeared. His catalog already includes the RIAA Gold-certified “Everything Black” with Unlike Pluto, now past 382 million Spotify streams, and his collaboration on Afrojack’s “SummerThing!” pu…

High winds damaged the Harrogate site less than 24 hours before 6,000 house fans attended its third edition. The festival returns to The Stray on September 4, 2027. Less than 24 hours before 6,000 house fans were due at The Stray, high winds brought down the Love to be… Festival…

303GREG’s “All It Takes” works best when you hear it as a rhythm-first record from someone who has spent a long time understanding what percussion does to a room. The Sydney-based producer and composer comes from a background in classical percussion and drumming, with experience…

Paul Oakenfold has spent decades moving electronic music forward, but the Mission Underground album finds him doing something more interesting than simply revisiting his history. Released on Perfecto Records, the album connects the emotional architecture of classic trance with th…

Ultralight backpacking has become a dominant part of outdoor equipment design, and I understand why hikers count ounces across long distances. That calculation changes when a buckle snaps, a strap pulls loose, or thin fabric catches on a branch away from a maintained trail. The R…

Most producers already know what it feels like to sit too long. The loop keeps playing, the screen gets louder than the song, and a decision that should take two minutes turns into half an hour of clicking. That is usually the point where buying another plug-in is less helpful th…

Roma Modulare 2026 is shaping up to be one of the more interesting European synth and pro-audio gatherings on the September calendar. The two-day fair takes place September 18 and 19 at L’Opificio Italiacamp in central Rome, bringing manufacturers, artists, producers, engineers,…

Max Porcelli (@max__porcelli) is back on Magnetic Magazine Recordings with “Jaguar,” released September 4 as MMR078, and this return continues a relationship we have been documenting since 2024. The package contains Max’s original and extended mixes alongside my own remix and ext…

Pivots’ “Any Means” comes with a tour idea that feels bigger than a normal single rollout. The UK-French electronic duo have announced a six-date UK run this September, bringing their live AV set and immersive pre-show concert Everyday Places to grassroots venues across the count…

Carl Kammeyer’s “Since You Been Gone” is a breakup song, but its best moments come from what happens after the obvious pain has already hit. The track sits in that strange middle space where the relationship is over, the silence has settled in, and the hard part becomes figuring…

There’s something beautifully organic about A Garden Between Us, the new collaborative EP from Brooklyn producer Milan93, Copenhagen pianist and producer 9ICK, and Cologne-based multi-instrumentalist Mauricesax. Released via LYAM by Oathcreations, the record finds three artists w…

STEZ’s “Work The Box” comes in with a clear purpose: get the room moving quickly and keep it there. The London-based DJ and producer returns with a high-energy house cut built around organ synths, heavy drums, and a driving club groove, giving the track the kind of directness tha…

Malcolm Zeller (@djresco) makes his Sound D’Elite debut with Lose Control, a two-track EP landing September 4 on Ilario Alicante’s imprint. The New York-based DJ and producer comes into the release with a growing club profile, having played rooms including Club Space, Hï Ibiza, a…

Finest Wear’s For The People EP feels like a producer making records for the spaces he knows best: deep rooms, late hours, proper dancers, and DJs who still care about the small differences between a track that plays nicely and a track that actually holds a floor. Out now on Sept…

The 2026 DMC UK Final lands at Thekla in Bristol on Saturday, September 12, putting one of DJ culture’s most respected competitions inside a venue with its own deep musical history. From 5pm to 10pm, the UK’s turntablists will compete across Classic, Scratch, and Supremacy catego…

On 4 September he returns to the Monnom Black with System Collapse, eight tracks built for warehouse rooms rather than for the drop: hypnotic groove, industrial pressure, acid sequences on ‘Corrosive’, warped vocal fragments closing the record on ‘Reversed Alignment’. Long-form t…

August was a strong month for tech house, although some of its best records came from slightly outside the genre’s increasingly loose borders. Michael Bibi and KETTAMA finally released an ID with almost mythical status, Mark Knight and Cristoph revisited a Toolroom classic, while…

MALUM explore a world of techno, electronica and jazz-influenced funk on the final part of their new project If the Sunset EP was the warmest entry point into MALUM’s remix trilogy and The Mission EP its most unpredictable, the Bouncer EP is the release with the serious punch… Fo…

Daily Bread’s music has always carried traces of Atlanta. On Vanishing Point, however, Rhett Whatley brings that relationship closer to the surface, pairing the sampling and groove-driven production that have long defined his project with voices directly connected to his hometown…

Deadlynoiz’s “What You Gonna Do” gets to the point quickly, which is probably the right move for a track built around two drops, a short runtime, and a bass house engine that does not need much ceremony around it. Out now via LVLD MUSIC, the track clocks in at just over two minut…

There’s a certain kind of dance music that feels less concerned with chasing the moment and more interested in creating one. Austin-based DJ, producer, and lifelong vinyl obsessive Nathan Stewart has spent years cultivating exactly that space, blending deep house, slo-mo disco, f…

Budapest is getting a new open-air dance venue on Friday, September 18, and Aura Bay Open Air is not easing into the calendar quietly. The launch event brings HUGEL to Óbudai Island for his first standalone headline show in Hungary, placing one of the biggest names in Afro Latin…

UNTER STRØM’s Between Forms feels like a project title that actually describes the music. Across the EP, Alex Gonzales and John Kunkel keep pulling the listener between different states: club pressure and headphone detail, mechanical rhythm and melodic lift, industrial edge and s…

Photography Credit Throughout: Timo Wagner Mystigrix (@its_mystigrix) is thinking about house music less as a personal lane and more as a shared ecosystem. The Berlin-based DJ, producer, and Flirt Records founder is not only putting out music under his own name. He is using the l…

LALAL.AI’s new Guitars stem is interesting because the company is not pretending that every AI music update needs to sound like a sci-fi manifesto. This is a specific fix for a specific problem: guitar parts are messy, layered, processed, doubled, and easy for separation models t…

Bodaishin’s “Circle of Life” arrives with a milestone attached to it, but the track does not feel like a victory lap. It marks his 100th official release across originals and remixes, while also opening the door to his upcoming debut album, Circles. That combination gives the sin…

Driver405’s (@driver405) remix of Valley Lights’ “Alexandra” lands on Outland Recordings as a high-energy rework built from heartbreak, synthpop shine, Italo momentum, and an EBM-leaning bite. The original comes from Valley Lights’ Devil May Care, and Driver405 heard something in…

L-Acoustics has taken a strategic stake in Djaayz, the DJ-booking platform co-founded by Cathy Guetta and Raphaël Aflalo, in a move that says a lot about how seriously hospitality venues are starting to treat music. On paper, the partnership is fairly direct. Djaayz helps venues…

Moises has announced Armin van Buuren and Laidback Luke as the first members of its new Artist Partnerships program, and the timing feels intentional. AI in music is still stuck between two very different conversations. One side is all anxiety: replacement, ownership, consent, tr…

FLY’s (@flybassmusic) “MONSOON” arrives as one of the clearest statements yet from the Los Angeles-based bass producer. Released June 26, with a cinematic music video which premiered July 23, the track folds together heavy low-end, hip-hop attitude, sharp sound design, and a rele…

Bjorn Akesson’s “Sahara” has the kind of backstory that makes sense to anyone who has sat on a melody for years because it was clearly good, but never quite belonged where it started. The track began around 2016 or 2017 while Akesson was working on “Desert Style,” where the “Saha…