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…

Above image credit: Tim van den Broek Mr. Polska is launching a new live act built for techno and hard dance stages, but the more interesting part is what he is refusing to become. This is not being positioned as a rapper stepping into a rave for a few guest vocals, and it is not…

This post was written by a guest contributor by Candese Charles Kaskade, Grammy-nominated DJ and producer, is entering his wub-wub era, and we’re here for it! The notable house artist recently joined forces with none other than bass and dubstep DJ and producer Wooli to release th…

Reevo’s “Spectre” is not trying to be pretty. The new single, out now on LVLD MUSIC, is built around dark electronic pressure, heavy low-end movement, and the kind of rolling percussion that makes the track feel aimed at smaller, sweatier rooms before anything else. It is aggress…

Hyungmin (@ehyungmin) opens WAVES Vol. 2 with “Pistil,” a hypnotic cut on Glasgow label Lava Lava that sets the compilation in motion with delicate synth loops, stripped-back percussion, resonating bass notes, and crunched atmospherics. Released back on August 14, the compilation…

Jaguar B’s (@dj_jaguar.b) “Feel So…” lands on WAVES Vol. 2, the second installment of Glasgow label Lava Lava’s compilation series. Released August 14, the project moves across deep grooves, peak-time club tools, house, acid-leaning pressure, and dubby low-end material, giving ea…

Monkey Safari and Super Flu know exactly what kind of feeling they are chasing on “Confused.” The new single, out now on Good Vibes from Paradise, is deep, melodic, and built around a vocal that carries the track’s title without turning it into melodrama. That is why the collabor…

Formula 1 weekend in Baku will add a new open-air event series in 2026. APEX After Dark Open Air runs from September 24 to 26 at a purpose-built, 2,500-capacity site in front of FOMO Baku near Flag Square, with separate nights led by ANOTR, Jamie Jones, and Mahmut Orhan. The head…

Roland’s FP-40 Digital Piano is built around a question that a lot of home players know too well: what keeps someone coming back to the piano after the first wave of excitement wears off? That is where the FP-40 and Piano Sphere pairing gets interesting. The FP-40 is a portable d…

BIIA (@biia__________) opens a new chapter with “Die For Youth,” the first release on her own imprint, DYSTONIA. The Portuguese DJ and producer has built her name on driving, hypnotic techno with tight control and high physical impact, but this single brings a more emotive edge i…

Fosi Audio is using IFA 2026 to make a broader point about where the brand is headed. The company built much of its reputation on accessible HiFi amplifiers and DACs, but its Berlin lineup spans several listening habits at once: IEMs, desktop headphone setups, compact CD playback…

SYEYL’s (@syeylmusic) “desire” sits in a corner of electronic music where repetition works best when it never repeats in quite the same way. Released August 20 ahead of the Music Is The Answer EP on September 25, the track draws from the electronica and post-dubstep that shaped S…

The end of summer has a strange way of making everyone feel like they missed something. Work fills the calendar, weekends get spent catching up, and then suddenly the light starts changing. For producers, DJs, writers, and anyone who spends too much time staring at screens, that…

Colorado Modular Synth Society brought EMIXX West 2026 to Denver for a weekend of modular synths, electronic music hardware, DIY culture, and the sort of wonderfully obsessive gear conversations that make the synth community what it is. Denver has never exactly suffered from a sh…

One of the most stunning and unique new festival kids on the block LIDO Festival – returns with Kelis, Maribou State, Folamour and more Lead photo – @Perry_gibson By the end of August, festival fatigue is a real and documented condition. The summer circuit has done its work — the…

IPI’s (@ipimusika) The Windy City just dropped on August 28 on SATYADGTL, bringing the Cologne artist into the label’s deep, groove-led orbit with a release rooted in Chicago acid house energy. IPI is a fixture in Cologne’s underground scene, head of Lust und Freude Musik, and a…

This is an article by guest contributor Candese Charles Wax Motif, producer and DJ, steps to the decks at Zouk Nightclub with calculated motions. Holding the official resident DJ spot for the 2026 season across the Las Vegas nightclub and AYU Dayclub at Resorts World Las Vegas, t…

Jonathan Kaspar’s The Reason Why EP works because it does not treat club music and personal writing as opposing instincts. Released August 28 via Crosstown Rebels, the four-track project moves from tense tech-house control into smoky vocal soul, then into two tracks built around…

Perfume of Static make music that works best when you stop waiting for the obvious turn. The Brussels duo, formed by Ben and Ema, operates at the point where melodic ambient, downtempo, and experimental electronics start to blur into one another. Their single “Parity” sits direct…

HEXED’s ALCHEMY does not feel like an EP built from five tracks that happened to be ready at the same time. The project has a real through-line, and that makes the title work. ALCHEMY is centered on transformation, but not in the polished, motivational way the word is sometimes u…

Reinier Zonneveld, Nicky Romero, and CERES linking up on Filth on Acid is exactly the kind of collaboration that looks chaotic on paper, then starts making more sense once you hear what each artist is there to do. “Party” is out now, and it does not waste much time pretending to…

Jamie Unknown (@jamieunknown_) makes his debut on TSHA’s Jackfruit imprint with “Roll With The Rhythm / All The Love,” a double A-side just dropped on August 28. The release sits in the UK producer’s sweet spot: house, garage, bassline pressure, big vocal energy, and enough playf…

Berko Fields has added a 400-drone aerial show to its first major statement as Hertfordshire’s newest festival contender. The three-day event takes place September 11 to 13 at Berkhamsted Cricket Club, with Friday and Saturday now set to end with a 12-minute drone display rising…

Vibe Chemistry’s Serotonin works because it does not treat heartbreak as one mood. The new album, out now via Make Your Era, is built loosely around the aftermath of a breakup, but it does not sit in one emotional register for the whole runtime. The album moves like a summer road…

Myselor’s (@myselor__) “Break / Urban Pulse” closes the sampler run for Cosmic Expression by doing something smart: after three releases built around larger philosophical ideas, he brings the record back down to the street. That move gives the final sampler a clear role in the al…

Italian Producer and DJ Aurory is steadily shaping his place within the Electronic Music landscape, blending elements of Melodic House, Tech House, and Techno with immersive visual and auditory design. With evolution, identity, and originality at the centre of his creative approa…

Reason Studios is making one of its most recognizable ideas free. Reason Free brings the company’s modular Rack into any compatible DAW as a VST3, AU, or AAX plugin, giving producers access to 15 instruments, effects, and creative utilities without a trial period, expiration date…

Arturia Pure SUB is built around a simple idea that a lot of producers already understand: bass needs its own workspace. That does not mean every track needs a separate low-end designer, but modern production has made bass more important than a supporting layer. In drum and bass,…

Dreamtonics built its reputation by making synthetic vocals feel less stiff. That is why Instrument X is such an interesting move. The company is taking the same obsession with controllable performance detail and applying it to acoustic instruments: strings, woodwinds, and brass.…

Polyend has introduced Keys, a mechanical QWERTY keyboard designed for musicians who spend as much time typing as they do making music. On the surface, it looks like a low-profile computer keyboard with a few extra controls across the top. The more interesting idea is built into…

Heaven INC.(@heaven_incorporation) are a Budapest-based DJ and producer duo moving between organic house, progressive house, and melodic electronic music shaped by atmosphere, storytelling, and groove. Zsolt and Bogi have been building a steady release path across labels includin…

Running sunglasses can get overdesigned fast. A lot of pairs look fast on a product page, but the real test is much less dramatic. Do they stay on your face when you start sweating? Do they fog when the morning air gets humid? Do they give you enough road detail when light keeps…

Owen McCoy’s (@emccoy1234) “Abstract Arcadia” arrives on Patchouli Deep as a deep progressive house cut built around movement, low-end control, and the kind of gradual tension that makes sense in a real set. Released back on August 7, the track had already reached No. 41 in Beatp…

Neural DSP today announced the release of CorOS 4.1.0 and Cortex Control 4.1.0, the biggest CorOS update in the company’s history. The release expands Plugin Compatibility to five additional plugins, bringing every currently available X-updated plugin to Quad Cortex and Quad Cort…