Category: house music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Quantic Shares Vibey “Subterráneo”

Will Holland is a British-born, New York-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ best known as Quantic. Emerging from the UK’s alternative dance scene of the early 2000s, Holland’s career features work that connects electronic production and beatmaking with soul, funk, jazz, and Latin music through recording, DJ’ing, collaboration and relentless create-digging.

Holland’s relocation to Colombia in 2007 marked a transformative chapter: He immersed himself in the country’s rich musical traditions, which led to collaborations with musicians across Latin America, as well as several different projects including Quantic Soul Orchestra, Flowering Inferno, Combo Bárbaro and Ondatrópica.

Currently based here in New York, Holland continues to combine vintage recording techniques, live musicianship and contemporary production to create music that’s rooted in the past, but specifically made for the dance floor.

Holland’s latest Quantic single “Subterráneo” is his first release on Play It Again Sam since 2024’s Dancing While Falling. “Subterráneo” is a warm, vibey blend of electronic music, melodic house and nu-jazz built with skittering beats, glistening and oscillating synths paired with a driving bass line. Evoking a rainstorm hitting on a window or a roof, “Subterráneo” reminds me a bit of Octo Octa‘s Between Two Selves.

“It brings together disparate fragments that swirl and swarm to create an emotional journey,” Holland says. “Through an organic approach, I wanted to hint at machine elements and human interactions through a collage of arpeggios and drifting sub tones.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 57th Birthday, Keith Flint!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 57th anniversary of the birth of The Prodigy’s Keith Flint.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: LutchamaK Shares a Thumping, Glitchy Banger

Restlessly prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK recently released his latest EP, Digital Display, which features five songs that bounce between techno and breakbeat — with a bit of urban swagger.

Digital Display EP’s latest single “Naughty” is a swaggering techno banger, anchored around glitchy synth arpeggios and tweeter and woofer rattling, skittering thump that gradually morphs to subtly reveal different textures and variations throughout the song’s run time. It’s the sort of tune you’d expect to rock a club at 3:00am and 4:00am while rooted in the melodicism the JOVM mainstay has long been known for.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Van Horton’s Woozy and Glistening Take on Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”

Van Horton is a North Carolina music scene veteran: He started his career in earnest as a resident DJ and production manager at North Carolina State University‘s WKNC back in 2003. Since then, he won an Emmy Award in 2006 while firmly establishing a unique retrowave sound through the release of six albums that have earned critical acclaim globally. The North Carolina-based DJ’s sets are immersive and hypnotic wall of sounds that are warm and enduring.

His latest single “Human Nature (Synthwave Version)” is a hook-driven and club banging take on one of my favorite Micheal Jackson tunes “Human Nature” derived from roughly two bars of the 1983 smash hit, paired with dense layers of glistening synth oscillations, woozily arpeggiated synths and skittering beats. The result is a bold, fresh, Giorgio Moroder-meets-Tweekend-era The Crystal Method-and Come with Us-era The Chemical Brothers-like take on a beloved oft-covered and oft-referenced song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Virginie B. Shares Euphoric “Chamaille”

JOVM mainstay Virginie B is a rising, Montréal-based self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and self-described “extravagant mess” has long been influenced by a wide range of music, including experimental electronic music, classical, old-timey jazz, 90s R&B, art pop, art rock and more. 

Her full-length debut, 2022’s INSULA was released to praise from ICI Première, Le Devoir, La Presse, Montreal Rocks!, and PAN M 360. The album also earned a GAMIQ. Pop Album of the Year nomination. And adding to a growing profile, the French Canadian artist has made a run of the provincial festival circuit, playing sets at Francofoiles de Montréal, Coup de Cœur Francophone, Le Phoque OFF, Santa Teresa Festival, Taverne Tour, 2022’s M for Montréal. She also played at SXSW back in 2023.

2024’s Astral 2000, which featured album opener and title track “Astral 2000” saw the Montréal-based artist releasing what may arguably be the province’s first hyper pop album. Since then she’s been busy collaborating with fellow JOVM mainstay Super Plage and a list of others.

Produced by long-time collaborator Louis Jeay-Beaulieau, “Chamaille,” the acclaimed JOVM mainstay’s first bit of new material since Astral 2000 is a high-octane bop that has become a staple of her live shows since she first played it on stage over a year ago. Live, the new single is often paired with her techno cover of “Lost Woods,” the iconic Koji Kondo-composed theme, which appears on the soundtrack of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. She typically blends both tunes seamlessly into one another during he live sets, culminating into one of her set’s most exhilarating moments.

Originally written on piano with French pop artist Mylène Farmer in mind, the new single may arguably be the most dance floor friendly and euphoric tunes of her growing catalog to date. Reportedly, the new single is a transitional track that’s meant to bridge the gap between 2024’s sophomore album and the next chapter of her career. Built around production featuring glistening synths and skittering beats, “Chamaille” is a hooky, club banger that seemingly blends elements of footwork and Euordance beneath the JOVM mainstay’s yearning delivery.

“I was thinking about those long, late nights spent sitting on the sidewalk outside the bar, confiding in strangers. Sharing the intensity of life—even in half-spoken words, even when it’s late, even if we’re hurting ourselves a little in the process—and pouring ourselves into the other person to forget the immensity of the surrounding chaos. Finding comfort in the now, courage in sharing, to face the next day—is it really so bad if it makes us feel better, even just a little?” The acclaimed Montréal-based artist says of the new song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Zurich’s Toffee Nut Orion Shares Introspective Yet Euphoric “Moment”

Florian Meyer is a Zurich-based electronic music producer, musician and creative mastermind behind Toffee Nut Orion. And with Toffee Not Orion, Meyer explores the space between emotion, imagination and the infinite. Pairing shimmering synths, distant worlds and human stories, the Swiss-based artist treats outer space more like a mirror than a destination, a place where where longing, wonder, loneliness, connection and hope all become larger than life.

Meyer’s latest Toffee Nut Orion single “Moment” is a sleek, lounge and club friendly tune featuring glistening synths and skittering beats beneath a yearning and expressive vocal. Simultaneously introspective and euphoric, Meyer “wanted ‘Moment’ to sound like the instant you stop searching the universe for answers and suddenly find one inside yourself.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy’s Summery Remix of Joshua Idehen’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once”

After nearly two decades in London‘s poetry scene, Joshua Idehen found widespread recognition with the viral success of “Mum Does The Washing,” a poignant, witty pice set to music by his creative partner Ludvig Parment, a.k.a. Saturday, Monday. The success of “Mum Does The Washing” led to sold-out shows, major festival appearances — including Glastonbury — and a new chapter in Idehen’s artistic life. 

Initially drawn to film, Idehen’s poetic journey began after being captivated by Dizzee Rascal‘s Vexed on Channel U. Inspired by Scroobius Pip, he began doing poetry with music, collaborating with the likes of LV, Benin City and Sons of Kemet. His career as a singer/songwriter/performer coincided alongside a series of personal challenges, including a divorce and mental health struggles. Relocating to Stockholm during the COVID-19 pandemic gave him space to reflect and begin anew. 

That period of rebirth led to Idehen’s highly-anticiapted debut album, I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try, which was released earlier this year through Heavenly Recordings. Made with his longtime collaborator Parment, the album is a sonic embrace for the weary, mixing house-tinged beats, choral flourishes and lyrical meditations on hope, self-worth and collective resilience.

The album includes the previously released “It Always Was,” “Don’t Let It Get You Down,” and “This Is The Place.” Idehen and Heavenly Recordings shared Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy’s Cosmodelica remix of I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone is Hurting. Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try track “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The album version features Idehen’s vocal over an atmospheric, gently throbbing production to create a song that simultaneously sounds like a house music-inspired take on The Streets and a paranoid, sleepless walk with the narrator’s rapid-fire thoughts during the uneasy isolation of COVID restrictions and lockdowns. The summery Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy’s Cosmodelica remix pairs Idehen’s vocal with a buoyant house music production featuring a bouncing and strutting bass line, a playful percussive rhythm and glistening synths. The remix opens the curtains and parts the clouds to reveal bit of sunshine in the gloom, giving the song a deeper sense of resilience through the think of it, even if you have to fake it.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Solid Wall at 160DL Studios, London

London-based electronic music project Solid Wall — Argentine-born and London-based producers, multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Patricio Alvarez and Lucas Vedel — can trace the origins of their collaboration back to 2018: Alvarez and Vedel first met in Buenos Aires through mutual friend and mixing engineer Martin Sólimo.

What began as an impromptu studio collaboration quickly turned into an intense and virtual creative partnership with the pair writing and making music almost daily. The connected remained uninterrupted when Vedel returned to London in 2019, evolving across different cities and years of shared experimentation.

When Alvarez joined Vedel in London in 2020, the duo continued developing a deeply collaborative creating process, treating production, songwriting, engineering and performance as an intrinsic and inseparable part of that same process. After years of writing, producing and road-testing material through DJ sets and live improvised sets across London and Europe, the duo’s project Solid Wall emerged as a natural expression of heir lengthy journey together. And by 2023. the duo signed with PIAS, marking a new project while cementing a sound and approach that had been years in the making.

Built around the duo’s shared obsession with sound as both craft and language, Solid Wall sonically is rooted in alternative electronic music, but shaped by trip-hop, post punk, dub and left-field club culture. Their work together explores the space where physical movement meet emotional depth.

Last Friday, the duo released the five-song In-Phase EP through [PIAS] Électronique. Written and recorded between 2023 and 2026 between Hackney, London’s Godspeed Studio and Dalston, London’s 160DL Studios, In-Phase EP explores human connection through sound and movement, with music that blends elements of club culture and introspection. The EP’s songs were gradually released as standalone singles over the past three years. which allowed the EP to evolve over time.

To celebrate the release of the duo shared a live session directed by Argentine filmmaker Elias Heredia. The live session re-imagines EP songs through a live, immersive band setup, which features expansive renditions of the recorded tracks, showcasing a project that’s stepping further into a live band setup. The live session features three of the EP’s track “Let You Go” feat. Jelani Blackman, “Voice Notes Interlude” and “Find Me” feat. Ulfie.

“Let You Go” feat. Jelani Blackman is a is a swaggering mix of UK grime, post punk and house music, anchored around tweeter and woofer rattling thump, skittering trap-like beats and glistening synths that’s simultaneously club and headphone friendly that reminds me a bit of Parisian outfit DBFC. “Voice Notes Interlude” is a dreamy song featuring banal voice notes and messages beneath droning yet ethereal synths. “Find Me” feat. Ulfie may arguably be the most straightforward club banger of the live session. “Find Me” is a deep house banger built around Giorgio Moroder-like synth oscillations, tweeter and a Tour de France-era Kraftwerk-like motorik groove beneath Ulfie’s sultry and yearning delivery. Each of the live session’s songs convey a desperate need for connection with another –while showcasing the duo’s ability to craft hook-driven bangers rooted in introspection.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Edinburgh’s Auld Reekie Nocturne Shares Broodingly Cinematic and Club Friendly “Vault of the Damned”

Edinburgh-based electronic music producer, DJ and self-proclaimed intergalactic vampire Natasha Kitty Katt, who channels her lifelong love of sci-fi, horror and electronic music into a bold, unmissable creative identity. Her work, which has seen her play at clubs like Hi Ibiza, Printworks London, Ministry of Sound, House of Yes, Gabriela NYC and others across the world, blends Italo, synth-driven music and cosmic disco with a cinematic flair. She also holds residencies at Glitterbox, Suncebeat, Soul Heaven and Southport Weekender.

Adding to a growing profile, her work has been released on a growing number of powerhouse electronic music labels including Nervous Records, Glitterbox, Paper Recordings, Whiskey Disco, F*CLR and her own Ghetto Disco Records and Shadowrunner Recordings. And the iconic Louie Vega has remixed two of her tracks.

Last year’s Synaptic Juice is a concept album that was a genre-bending experience that blurred the lines between soundtrack, storytelling and hedonistic, dance floor escapism that also showcased her ability to transform her passions for horror, fantasy and futuristic sounds into a fully realized sonic universe.

The Edinburgh-based producer and DJ is also the creative mastermind behind the darkwave recording project Auld Reekie Nocturne. Auld Reekie Nocturne is a Natasha Kitty Kat’s dark electronic project inspired by her lifelong fascination with Edinburgh’s dark, shadowy past. Rooted in a love of horror, gothic storytelling and the macabre, the project brings some of the city’s most haunting and disturbing real stories to life through music, immersive storytelling and visuals. Every release is shaped by extensive historical research, with a strong focus on authenticity and respect for the real stories behind the music.

Natasha Kitty Kat’s latest Auld Reekie Nocturne single “Vault of the Damned” sonically is one part John Carpenter soundtrack, one-part LutchamaK-like deep house banger with a relentless motorik groove that showcases the Scottish producer’s unerring knack for broodingly cinematic yet club friendly tunes.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Teams Up With Helsloot on Euphoric “Edge Of Forever”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer along with Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012: Heyboer initially founded Tinlicker as a solo project, releasing the act’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

In 2014 Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Now, back in 2020, as Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful and ongoing collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Shortly after the release of ‘I Started A Fire,” Heyboer and Achthoven invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Earlier this year, the trio released their fourth album — and first as at rio — Dreams of the Machine earlier this year. The album features album singles “I Want My Freedom,” “Reborn,” and “Release.” The trio recently released the standalone single “Edge of Forever,” a collaboration with producer, longtime friend and collaborator Helsloot through Remember The Future/[PIAS]. Their latest collaboration can trace its origins to the two acts sharing a bus during their recent European tour together.

“Edge Of Forever” is a club and festival stage banger that features Baldwin’s emotive pop star-like vocal floating atop glistening synth oscillations, pulsating reverb-soaked bass lines that slowly builds up to a cathartic and euphoric frenzy. While continuing to cement the act’s long-held reputation for crafting melodic, emotional house music, “Edge Of Forever” may arguably be one of the more cinematic tracks of their growing catalog.

“The guys were noodling around while I was looking through the great sweep of glass at the front of the bus, the landscape passing almost imperceptibly beneath us,” Tinlicker’s Hero Baldiwin explains. “There is something contemplative about travelling in that way; cities, towns and villages drift past, fields give way to forests, and before long you find yourself less aware of the places themselves than the quiet passage of time between them. Later Thomas (Helsloot) and I listened back to what had been started on the bus, pressed record and the lyric and melody emerged intact in a single take.”

Throwback by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Larry Levan!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 72nd anniversary of the birth of house music pioneer Larry Levan.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: belac Shares a Sultry, Club Friendly Banger

belac is a rising, Perth-born and-based producer, who is a product of the Internet Generation: After discovering a Martin Garrix breakdown of his hit song “Animals” when the Aussie producer was 11, he has spent the past decade consuming — and sometimes forming — internet tends and turning them into club bangers. Before music, he was one of the best beach sprinters in Western Australia and a qualified physicist. But as he explains, he went all-in on music, when he heard his own music being blasted by the electronic music club while walking around his university’s open day.

Since then, he has signed with [PIAS] Électronique, who has released recent singles “need it, breathe it” and “be with me 2009,” which manage to be simultaneously nostalgia-inducing and fresh, while giving younger fans a cache to experience an era of EDM that they might not have originally been around for. And interestingly, gamers have claimed that his work is the perfect soundtrack for massive gaming sessions.

Now while there’s a cheekiness to his music and his online presence, the Perth-born and-based producer has an unerring knack for understanding what delights dance music fans and brings them to the dance floor. And as a result, he’s become one of Australia’s most recognized, rising electronic producers, specializing in club friendly bangers with elements of 2010s EDM, Memphis trap, jazz and more.

The Aussie producer’s latest single “late night visions” is a subtly brooding and atmospheric take on tech house with a sultry vocal sample that reminds me of French JOVM mainstay LutchamaK and a lengthy list of others, while showcasing a producer who can craft a euphoric, remarkably catchy hook.