Get Set for Club Season
The nights are drawing in, the skies are getting darker and the clubs are back in full force. Are you ready for club season?
Let me put you on to a few recommendations so you can get the ball rolling, build the playlists and pack out the USBs.
The Swiss duo recently dropped their second album and it's packed to the brim with the precision-engineered sonics we've come to know and love. The album is anything but one-dimensional with the pair flexing their production muscles across Drum & Bass and slower, UKG cuts. It's a star-studded roll call of vocal features too: SOLAH, Duskee, Sydney Bryce & Charli Brix all feature as well as up and comers like MAREA and HAPPY JAY who will have piqued the interest of many producers looking for their next vocalist. The album, released on Critical Music, is another success to chalk up on the tally for Kasra and team. If you're at any Critical events, or DnB events in general during club season you can be fairly certain you'll be hearing these at some point, but why not get acquainted and get them in your playlists in preparation.
We're nipping across the pond to Canada for my next pick. The Montreal-based producer has been releasing music for 15 years and that experience shines through in an album that spans Breakbeat, UKG, House & RnB. Our North-American counterparts don't always 'get it' when making electronic music in genres that originated in the UK, often creating overly sanitised or 'big-room' sounding imitations. Jacques Green however definitely gets it, whatever 'it' is, as part of the UK's unofficial ambassadorial scheme for UK Garage not made in the UK I'm pleased to bestow JG with a stamp of approval from the Brits, where he can join esteemed company such as Hans Glader.
It's not club season without something a bit irreverent to spice things up is it? Let me humbly introduce K-Lone's latest EP. It's a bit weird and glitchy and K-Lone plays with dissonance and microtonality to create an unsettling, yet mesmerizing collection of tunes. It's the kind of EP that could go one of two ways at the afters…
I'm a fairly recent convert to Overmono after seeing them at a Boiler Room event and subsequently going to the album launch of this release at Rough Trade in Nottingham. The two brothers graft in the studio, often finding weird instruments and hardware to experiment with outside of the box and bringing them back into the arrangement in the DAW. The craft that shaped the album is succinctly put in the album's title: Pure Devotion. I'm just going to take a moment here to appreciate the synths in this whole release. They're brilliantly crafted and it would be all too easy for them to dominate the arrangement, but the restraint shown to give each track a really clear motif and not compensate with hectic melodies and chords is a testament to bold decision-making in the studio and reflects the high standards they hold each other to in the studio and not being sheepish about saying that's not good enough, or that needs taking out.
The South-West based producer has been sporadic with releasing his music, despite those familiar with Harry's work knowing that he's an outrageously talented producer. This 6-tracker on Mustard Music is the heavy-hitting, forward-thinking DnB Nautika has been quietly perfecting for years. One of those artists that's got a fair chance of being your favourite producer's favourite producer. DnB enthusiasts, get this in your playlists and on your USBs and thank me later.
Alicia's music has been on my radar since her Scattered Reflections EP came out in 2025 and I was delighted to see her latest release on Phase Records come out. I might borrow the adjectives heavy-hitting and forward-thinking again here because they encapsulate her sound perfectly. It's rooted in Neurofunk, but weaves in the sound design techniques in Colour Bass with complex harmonies and metallic textures shining through the controlled chaos. Ekstatic is a regular on Phase and hits the mark once again with this collab.
The Welsh wizard swears by the mantra of 'making music that I wanna make' and the Everything EP takes that guiding principle and runs with it. The title track is a wobbly UK Funky track and is expertly flipped into a choppy 4x4 Garage number by Ruff Style on the B-side. "Get This Money" sits somewhere between UKG, UK Funky and Grime with a syncopated and percussive groove, a loud and proud neo-grime lead synth and a mixture of a slightly chipmunked lead vocal bolstered with a tasty assortment of vocal chops. Last but by no means least is "Microtonic" that feels more techno-adjacent than the rest of the EP, albeit the wobbly basses from "Everything" are back on display here though this time they're surrounded by microtonal melodic plucks and driving drums reminiscent of Floating Points & Four Tet.