Myselor After revealing his latest project piece by piece across four samplers, Myselor is preparing to complete the picture with the full release of ‘Cosmic Expression’. Ahead of its arrival, Undrtone premieres one of its previously unheard tracks, ‘Tekmor’. Landing via Evolution Chamber on 18th September, ‘Cosmic Expression’ brings together 20 tracks spanning neurofunk, Drum & Bass, dubstep, breakbeats, experimental electronics and ambient sound. Rather than treating those stylistic shifts as separate excursions, Myselor has constructed the album as one continuous narrative exploring transformation, identity, perception and the search for meaning. ‘Tekmor’ is one of nine tracks being revealed for the first time with the complete album, alongside ‘Roots’, ‘Transition’, ‘Thoughts’, ‘Cosmic Expression (Prelude)’, ‘Cosmic Expression’, ‘Flux’, ‘Bewölkt’ and ‘Trust The Unknown’. Their arrival is significant to how Myselor intends the project to be heard. The previously released ‘Breaking Chains’, ‘Waves Of Change’, ‘Visionary Flashes’ and ‘Break / Urban Pulse’ samplers introduced individual stages of its story, but the unreleased material provides the connections between them. For Myselor, aka Greek-born, Basel-based producer Dimitrios Chasouras, that wider structure also provides room to move beyond a single electronic framework. Heavier neurofunk and Drum & Bass passages sit against more restrained experimental and ambient moments, with each production serving the album’s broader narrative rather than being forced towards a particular genre. Myselor Instagram - SoundCloud Evolution Chamber Instagram - Spotify - SoundCloud - YouTube

Anniversary compilations can easily become exercises in nostalgia. ‘ROOT DOWN 30’ avoids that trap because Root Down itself was never particularly interested in looking backwards. Pre-order it here. Since Rainer Trüby launched the Freiburg party in 1996, its identity has been built around connections rather than genres. Jazz, Brazilian music, broken beat, soulful house and Afro-Latin rhythms could all occupy the same dancefloor. Thirty years later that approach feels familiar, but this 10-track collection is a reminder of how naturally Root Down was joining those dots decades ago. Flashbaxx’s ‘Brooklyn Love Boat’ provides one entry point before The Soul Session’s ‘Horse With No Name’ receives a Marlow & Trüby refix, immediately establishing the compilation’s willingness to move between live musicality and club-focused reconstruction. HITTO’s ‘All About It’ follows in reworked form before one of the collection’s most recognisable combinations arrives as Crackazat remixes Jazzanova and Clara Hill’s ‘No Use’. From there the geographical and rhythmic boundaries loosen further. The Afro Love Project’s ‘One Love’ leads into the Yoruba Soul Mix of Rawb Boss’ ‘Coafeella’, while Jimpster reshapes Baianasystem, Antonio Carlos and Jocafi’s ‘A Fúgua’ with the kind of deep, measured groove that fits Root Down perfectly. Da Lata’s ‘Jungle Kitten’ keeps the Brazilian connection running before Trüby himself joins Corrado Bucci as TRUCCY for ‘Kenyatta’, given a suitably expansive Afro Balearic treatment by Laroye. Felipe Gordon’s ‘Lets Get, Get Together’ closes proceedings, bringing the collection back towards the meeting point between jazz and house. More important than any individual highlight is how little friction exists between those shifts. ‘ROOT DOWN 30’ never sounds like somebody attempting to demonstrate eclectic taste. It simply moves as Root Down always has. Three decades later, that open-mindedness remains its greatest strength. DAYBREAKERS https://www.instagram.com/daybreakers_house https://daybreakershouse.bandcamp.com

There is no shortage of dance music sold on the promise of sunshine, but Dennis Liber’s ‘Astro Danza’ has a more convincing claim than most. Written across several years and shaped by four spent living in the Caribbean, his first solo EP for Razor-N-Tape feels less like an imagined escape and more like a document of somewhere he actually inhabited. Pre-order your copy here. The title track makes that distinction immediately. Latin percussion and Spanish vocals circle around cosmic synths and a loose, funky groove, creating something distinctly nocturnal. It is Balearic in spirit without reaching for the usual signifiers, carrying enough psychedelic detail to suggest the night is only getting stranger. ‘Être Heureux’ switches the atmosphere completely. Zouk and disco provide the foundations for the EP’s brightest moment, with an easy rhythmic swing that captures the communal spirit behind the project without labouring the point. French producer Anoraak’s accompanying remix offers another perspective, polishing its tropical looseness into something more streamlined while retaining the original’s warmth. ‘Femme Papillon’ drifts furthest from conventional club functionality. Dreamier and more spacious, it lets jazz, funk and cosmic influences mingle without any one of them taking control. The result feels appropriately weightless. What ties ‘Astro Danza’ together is Liber’s refusal to make its influences sound like a checklist. Musicians and friends from France, Argentina, Greece, Serbia and Switzerland contributed across sessions in three countries, and that collaborative history is audible in how naturally the record moves between styles. There is disco here, certainly, but reducing it to tropical disco undersells what Liber has made. ‘Astro Danza’ is warmer, stranger and more personal than that description suggests, capturing a particular period of his life without turning paradise into a cliché. Dennis Liber https://www.instagram.com/dennis.liber.official https://open.spotify.com/artist/7f8mAurEed53Mry9cDqFd2 https://soundcloud.com/dennisliber Razor-N-Tape https://www.instagram.com/razorntape https://soundcloud.com/razor-n-tape

Trying to pin Red Axes to one corner of electronic music has always been fairly pointless. On ‘Red Box’, their first release for 20/20 Vision and the opening chapter of a planned three-EP series, Niv Arzi and Dori Sadovnik give us four more reasons not to bother. Pre-order it here. The title track immediately feels like Red Axes operating with the barriers removed. ‘Red Box’ pulls from the skeletal electronics of bleep and bass, but its hard snares, twitching hi-hats and tape-treated details prevent it becoming an exercise in revivalism. There is something deliberately unruly about it, with sounds appearing to bounce around the arrangement rather than settle neatly into place. ‘Eko’ heads somewhere deeper. Its early Warp influence is more apparent, but an insistent ‘fear to change’ vocal gives the track a strangely human centre. Against the colder electronics surrounding it, that repeated message becomes increasingly hypnotic. 20/20 Vision co-founder Random Factor takes the title track apart for his remix rather than simply adding weight to it. More space appears between the original elements, allowing melancholic synth lines to drift through a considerably more restrained version. It is recognisably ‘Red Box’, but viewed from an entirely different angle. Then comes ‘FTS’, arguably the EP’s biggest curveball. Granulated vocals collide with chopped breaks and an unexpectedly catchy electro-pop motif, bringing some immediacy to a record otherwise comfortable operating in stranger territory. What makes ‘Red Box’ interesting is that none of these references feel particularly reverential. Bleep, early Warp electronics, electro, breaks and pop are treated as raw materials rather than destinations. As the opening instalment of three Red Axes records for 20/20 Vision, that makes for a promising starting point. If this is the duo establishing the parameters of the series, they have deliberately left themselves plenty of room to get weirder. Red Axes https://www.instagram.com/redaxesofficial https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Owm9QgL9BSCRQKTX6T08G https://soundcloud.com/redaxes

Thirty years of Freerange is a difficult history to reduce to a handful of tracks, but the fourth volume of its anniversary series succeeds by not trying too hard to do so. Instead, six artists and collaborations approach the label’s house foundations from distinctly different angles. Pre-order it here. Dam Swindle provide an ideal opening with ‘I Met Her Last Summer’. Warm chords and a loose disco pulse give it an immediate familiarity, but there is enough restraint in the arrangement to stop the nostalgia becoming the point. It feels effortless, which is usually where the duo are at their best. Rocco Rodamaal and Oliver Night push further towards soulful territory on ‘Body & Soul’. Night’s vocal gives the track its centre of gravity, sitting naturally against Rodamaal’s polished deep house production without tipping into excess. Andy Ash’s ‘Bailey’ is subtler. A filtered vocal circles above crunchy drums and rising synths, creating a rolling groove that feels built for the middle of a long set rather than an obvious peak. Black Loops follows by stripping things back further on ‘Body Frequencies’, where swing, low-end pressure and cleverly worked samples turn relatively few ingredients into one of the EP’s most functional club tracks. The most absorbing moment arrives with L.D.F. and Trinidadian Deep’s ‘African Dream’. Percussion leads the way, but its patient development and rich synth work give the track a genuinely immersive quality. Nothing feels hurried. Then Greg Paulus and Krol effectively tear up the template. ‘Waitin’’ combines raw house drums, piano, Paulus’ vocals and live trumpet into something stranger and less easily classified. It could have been an awkward closing detour. Instead, its looseness makes perfect sense after five increasingly deep explorations of the label’s musical DNA. That ultimately makes Volume 4 work as more than anniversary material. It acknowledges the warmth, soul and musicianship synonymous with Freerange without treating its past as something that needs preserving behind glass. Freerange Records https://www.facebook.com/FreerangeRecords https://www.instagram.com/freerangerecords https://soundcloud.com/freerangerecords https://www.freerangerecords.co.uk

STO STO continues his year-long monthly release project with ‘Vibin’ In September’, taking the series deeper into late-night territory for its ninth instalment. Get it for free here. Following the warm, rolling depths of August, the Paris producer keeps September firmly underground. This time, there is a darker edge to proceedings, with a persistent rhythmic drive carrying the track through layer after layer of rich electronic detail. At its core is the kind of groove that works through repetition rather than obvious peaks. Rolling drums and a weighty low end establish the foundation, while sounds continually emerge and disappear around them. The result is a track that feels constantly in motion without ever disturbing its hypnotic centre. That depth becomes increasingly apparent as ‘Vibin’ In September’ settles in. What initially feels stripped back gradually reveals more of itself, with subtle textures, melodic fragments and shifting details rewarding extended listening. It is patient without losing momentum, allowing the groove to do much of the heavy lifting. There is enough drive underneath to keep a floor moving, but STO leaves space within the arrangement rather than forcing the energy. It makes September particularly suited to the small hours, when longer blends and deeper selections begin to take over. Nine releases into the project, that month-by-month exploration has become one of the most compelling aspects of the ‘Vibin’’ series. September keeps the run moving with another understated underground house cut from one of Paris’ rising talents. STO https://www.facebook.com/STO.dj https://www.instagram.com/sto_dj https://open.spotify.com/artist/4BIwrHBpAWdIjPXLK1M7gq https://soundcloud.com/stodj https://stodjmusic.bandcamp.com

Roel For Italian producer Roel, working with Low Steppa on ‘Dreamliner’ was never part of the original plan. What began as a demo intended for Low Steppa’s Low Trax imprint became something more significant when the UK producer heard enough of himself in the record to want to become directly involved. The resulting collaboration feels appropriate for two artists whose approaches meet across different generations of house. ‘Dreamliner’ combines disco and funk musicality with jackin’ grooves and a tougher contemporary finish, while retaining the uplifting character that first caught Low Steppa’s attention. “The relationship developed naturally through my releases on Low Trax,” Roel explains. “I then sent him another demo to complete the EP, and that demo was ‘Dreamliner’. When he heard it, he liked the track so much that he asked if we could turn it into a collaboration.” For Roel, that sequence was important. Rather than entering the studio with a high-profile collaboration as the objective, the partnership happened because the original music connected. “The collaboration came from the music itself. He heard something in the track that he connected with, and that naturally opened the door to working on it together.” That connection makes particular sense given the record’s roots. Low Steppa has described ‘Dreamliner’ as reminding him of the house records he encountered while establishing himself around Bristol’s club circuit. Roel approached it from the opposite direction, starting with his longstanding fascination with disco, funk, soul and jazz before filtering those influences through house. “I didn’t have one specific record in mind when I made ‘Dreamliner’,” he says. “I was simply following the kind of vibe I naturally like to create.” A sample provided the catalyst. Guitars, organ riffs and piano gradually accumulated around it, establishing the musical identity before Low Steppa tightened the production. “The original version of ‘Dreamliner’ was built around a very uplifting, old-school house drum approach, inspired by the kind of energy I really love in Armand Van Helden’s records,” Roel says. “When William became involved, he added his own touch to both the drums and the bass. He made the drums tighter, drier and more club-oriented, and added a Reese bass synth that gave the track an even stronger club feel.” Crucially, its original disco and funk character remained. “I really liked how open and respectful he was towards the original idea,” Roel adds. “Rather than separating our roles, I think it was more about combining our sounds in a way that worked for the record.” That musicality has increasingly become Roel’s calling card. His relationship with disco and funk stretches back to his teenage years, when digging deeper into house led him towards disco house and funky house. Being surrounded by musicians, including friends studying at conservatory level, exposed him to another world beyond electronic production. “I had a close friend who studied jazz piano, so I was naturally exposed to that musical world as well,” he recalls. “That also played a big part in my fascination with jazz, especially with instrumental solos, which are still one of the things I love most in music.” Jackin’ house eventually offered a way to connect those older records with contemporary club production, encouraging Roel to investigate their source material further. That exploration now stretches through soul, jazz, funk and disco from the ’60s onwards, including interpretations of those sounds from outside their most familiar Western contexts. “They’ve taught me to pay much more attention to the musical side of a track, the harmony, the groove, the instrumentation and the human feeling behind the music,” he says. “Today, I’m not trying to simply recreate disco, funk or soul. I take the elements that I love from those genres and reinterpret them through my own way of making house music.” That philosophy extends into the studio. Despite the analogue warmth associated with Roel’s productions, he is less concerned with whether a sound originates from vintage hardware than with how organic and precise elements interact. “The warmth comes from the sample, the guitars, the keyboards and the way I process them, while the tighter and more technical side comes from the drums, the groove and the way I shape the sounds in the mix.” His catalogue has provided plenty of opportunities to refine that balance. Releases across Soulfuric Recordings, Groove Culture Music, MoodFunk Records, Spacedisco Records and Low Trax have placed his music within subtly different corners of house without requiring him to reinvent himself for each label. “Working with different labels has taught me that you don’t necessarily have to change your sound to fit into different environments,” Roel explains. “Over time, that helped me become more selective and more aware of what I want my music to represent.” Recognition has followed. Support from Louie Vega, Anané and David Penn for his Soulfuric material proved particularly significant, not simply because of their stature but because of the history surrounding the label itself. “Seeing the record being played by artists like Louie Vega and Anané, and then seeing people reacting to it on the dancefloor, was something very special for me,” he says. “It made me realise that a track I had created in my own studio could travel much further than I had imagined.” ‘Dreamliner’ now has the potential to travel further still. It represents Roel’s highest-profile collaboration to date, but he is careful not to frame one record as a career-changing moment. “I don’t expect ‘Dreamliner’ to completely change my career, but I hope it can open doors to people, artists and environments I haven’t reached yet,” he says. “I’m not looking for one release to define my career. I want to use every opportunity to take the next step, keep improving and build something that lasts.” It is an approach reflected in the collaboration itself. ‘Dreamliner’ did not begin with a strategy or a name attached to it. It began with the musical ingredients Roel has spent years making his own, reached someone who understood them, and developed naturally from there. Roel https://www.instagram.com/roelindahouse https://open.spotify.com/artist/0EfrGgT7wHNdI1QmUhgxU3

Marco Weber For Marco Weber, almost everything comes back to groove. The Switzerland-based producer and DJ operates somewhere between the deeper end of house and the tougher energy of the warehouse, favouring rolling rhythms, textured low-end and records that reveal their impact through movement rather than excess. His contribution to our latest Undrscovered mix offers a particularly clear introduction. Across 13 tracks, Weber combines his own productions with music from Deeplomatik, Steve Bug & Cle, Dylan Griffin, James Dexter and others, capturing both the patient and more physical sides of his approach. “I’m Marco Weber, a producer and DJ from Switzerland. My sound is rooted in house, groove-driven, rolling rhythms, somewhere between warehouse grit and a brighter Deep House edge,” he explains. “Everything I make is built for the dancefloor and for that shared moment on it.” Music was present long before house entered the picture. Weber grew up in a musical family, with a pianist grandmother, a father who plays in two bands and siblings and cousins who also make music. His own route into electronic music, however, came through Drum & Bass. “That was the door in,” he says. “From listening, it turned into wanting to understand it: what makes a groove land, why a room reacts to one track and not the next. That question took me from DJing into production, and I’m still chasing it.” Jazz, funk and old-school Hip Hop were equally formative, particularly in shaping his relationship with rhythm. Rather than attempting to reproduce those genres directly, their influence appears in the emphasis he places on swing, movement and the interaction between individual elements. “Groove first, always,” Weber says of his current productions. “Rolling rhythms, deep textures, low end you feel rather than hear, somewhere between underground warehouse grit and a brighter Deep House edge. I keep pulling in both directions, and the interesting stuff happens in between.” That middle ground runs throughout his Undrscovered selection. The set contains a substantial amount of Weber’s own music, including ‘Just Chill’, ‘Lola’, ‘Dance With Me’, ‘Pot Holes’ and ‘Fading Echoes’, alongside Em Pathik’s remix of ‘Pot Holes’ and Weber’s forthcoming remix of Valentino Guerriero’s ‘All We Really Dance’. Rather than constructing the hour around an elaborate concept, Weber approached it as a document of his current musical world. “It’s less a concept and more an honest snapshot of where I am at the moment,” he explains. “You also hear both sides of how I play. There’s a deep, textured house side that takes its time, and then there’s the other side, the one that gets a room jumping. I like moving between the two rather than committing to one.” Among the outside selections, Deeplomatik’s ‘That Thing’ comes closest to defining where Weber sees his own sound today. “It sits right on the line I keep coming back to: deep and textured enough to breathe, but with enough weight to move a room. That balance is where my sound lives at the moment.” His path towards finding that balance has developed steadily. Early releases through Sublease were followed by music on Bondage, klaus and Whoyostro, each providing another indication that what was being developed privately in the studio could connect beyond it. “The first release was the big one,” Weber recalls. “Seeing a track move from your own room onto someone else’s label changes how seriously you take the work.” Playing at Zurich institution Hive provided another turning point. “That club means a lot here, and standing in that booth for the first time was the moment it stopped feeling like something I was working towards and started feeling real.” For an emerging producer, however, those milestones arrive alongside a less glamorous reality: patience. With more music being released and more artists competing for attention, Weber has become increasingly conscious of the danger of allowing other people’s progress to dictate his own. “There’s a lot of noise. Everyone’s releasing constantly, everyone’s after the same slots. It’s easy to start measuring yourself against what everyone else is doing.” His response has been to narrow the focus. “The moment you chase someone else’s sound because it seems to be working, you’ve lost your own. Staying with your own direction takes longer, but it’s the only thing that holds up.” That philosophy also explains his increasingly loose relationship with genre. House remains the foundation, but Weber is less interested in deciding exactly which subsection of it a track belongs to before it is finished. “Genre lines have blurred anyway,” he says. “The only question left is whether it feels right.” There is plenty ahead to test that instinct. Following his recent appearance on a klaus VA, forthcoming releases are lined up with Sublease, 4 Quarters Music and Celestial Records, alongside more shows in Zurich and, he hopes, opportunities to take his sound into unfamiliar rooms. For now, the Undrscovered mix provides the clearest picture of that trajectory. It is heavy on Weber’s own material by design, connecting where he has already been with the records influencing where he is heading. “More music, more consistently, that’s the honest answer,” he says of the coming year. “Beyond that, the same direction, just sharper. Groove-driven, built for the floor.” For an artist who entered electronic music wanting to understand why one groove moves a room while another does not, that ongoing pursuit feels like the point. Weber may still be chasing the answer, but his Undrscovered mix suggests he is getting increasingly close to one. Marco Weber https://www.instagram.com/marcowebermusic https://open.spotify.com/artist/5sqX8nUNL159qoI20rjf6L https://soundcloud.com/marcowebermusic

Annie Mac, Horse Meat Disco, Shee, Junior Simba After months behind closed doors, the upgraded and transformed TESTBED Leeds is all set to party. The much-loved Leeds warehouse venue has announced a huge reopening day-into-night party from 2pm to midnight on Saturday 3rd October. One of British electronic music’s most influential artists, Annie Mac, steps up to headline this special event, alongside Horse Meat Disco, Shee, Marcia Carr, and Junior Simba - a lineup of guaranteed good vibes and quality tunes, and a statement of intent. Tickets go on general sale Thursday 10th September at 6pm, starting from £20. Full details at https://tickets.testbedleeds.com. The TESTBED that opens on 3rd October has evolved. A 2,500-cap venue with space over doubled to 23,000 sq ft, including a new 5,000 sq ft mezzanine and balcony overlooking the main floor. The launch party will showcase the 360-degree DJ booth in a club experience powered by the city’s only custom L-Acoustics L2 system - the kind of spec you’d find at a festival - alongside a bespoke LED ceiling installation, 8m x 4m LED video wall and more. Few artists carry the cultural weight of Annie Mac. As BBC Radio 1 Dance Party host, she spent close to two decades championing new music and genre-defining artists. Her Before Midnight day parties are legendary and her skills as a selector are peerless. Annie Mac is the perfect artist to usher in a new era of TESTBED. Joining her is Horse Meat Disco, bringing guaranteed queer dancefloor euphoria and an unmissable mix of disco, house, and Italo to TESTBED; a sound that has seen them run residencies in New York and Berlin. Fast-rising Irish star Shee will drop his brand of tough, floor-filling, funked-up house, which has seen him collab with the likes of A-trak, Karma Kid, and Mighty Dub Katz. Marcia Carr takes to the Testbed decks with a well-earned rep as a premium selector of deep and funky tunes, known for her vinyl skills as part of the ‘Girlz B Like’ DJ collective. Completing the lineup is Leeds homegrown talent Junior Simba - one of the most exciting names in the new wave of house. TESTBED founders Laura Wellington and James Abbott-Donnelly partnered with AMAAD (The Bridge Series, L.W.E, Ironworks, Quarters, The Prospect Building) to bring the next stage of the TESTBED vision to life: an exceptional venue that brings world-class artists to Leeds, while remaining a cultural hub, genuinely rooted in the city. Tickets for TESTBED's opening party go on general sale Thursday 10th September at 6pm, starting from £20. Tickets available at https://tickets.testbedleeds.com. TESTBED Instagram – Website

Midnight Evolution Midnight Evolution continues his run of new music with ‘Solstice’, a Progressive House single landing on Addictive Sounds alongside a remix from Vasily Goodkov. The release follows appearances on labels including Freegrant Music, FSOE Argento and Elliptical Sun Recordings, with Midnight Evolution continuing to develop a sound centred around melodic progression, atmosphere and driving club energy. ‘Solstice’ builds from a rolling bassline and tightly controlled percussion, with textured synths and ethereal melodic elements gradually expanding the arrangement. A weighty low end keeps the track moving while its brighter melodic elements provide contrast above the groove. The production opens up during a vocal led breakdown, where sustained swells and wordless vocal motifs shift the focus towards its more emotive side. As the rhythm returns, dynamic leads and hypnotic melodic sequences bring the track back towards the dancefloor without disrupting its steady progression. Vasily Goodkov provides the accompanying remix, offering an alternative interpretation of ‘Solstice’ and extending the package beyond Midnight Evolution’s original. The single arrives during a productive period for Midnight Evolution as he continues to expand the project beyond studio releases. Alongside new music and live appearances, he is also preparing to launch ‘Midnight Diaries’, a new radio show intended to provide another outlet for his wider musical direction. With ‘Solstice’, Midnight Evolution adds another release to a growing catalogue of Progressive House productions while continuing to establish the melodic and atmospheric qualities at the centre of his sound. Midnight Evolution Beatport | Instagram | Spotify Addictive Sounds Beatport | Website

Mack Loenz Barcelona-based Mack Loenz represents the latest evolution of Larry McCormick, the producer long established within electro as Exzakt. Rather than leaving that history behind, the project opens it up, bringing vocals, melody and pop sensibilities into a sound still grounded in electro, bass and synthesiser-driven electronics. That progression comes into focus on ‘From The Heart’, his new ten-track album on Maceo Plex’s Lone Romantic. Moving between glistening arpeggios, heavy subs, soaring pads and melodic vocals, the record explores melancholy, romance and futuristic tension while retaining the physicality of McCormick’s club-focused roots. For this edition of Influences, Mack Loenz traces that evolution through five records with direct connections to different stages of his life. From Kraftwerk’s approach to arrangement and the electro record that started his collection at 15 to the track that made him want to produce and a later influence on the Mack Loenz project itself, each reveals another part of the story behind ‘From The Heart’. Kraftwerk – Numbers / Computer World 2 “I've always loved the way "Numbers" moves directly into "Computer World 2" and feels like one continuous piece of music. That transition really stuck with me. I loved the idea of combining two different songs into one experience and letting one idea naturally lead into another. Kraftwerk obviously had a huge influence on me and on the Exzakt sound, but this particular record made me think about arrangement and progression in a different way. It showed me that a song can feel like a journey instead of just being one idea repeated from beginning to end.” Kavinsky – Nightcall “"Nightcall" had a huge influence on the direction of Mack Loenz. I loved the way it combined electronic production with vocals and a pop feeling while still sounding authentic. I also loved it in the movie Drive, where the song and the atmosphere of the film worked together perfectly. That combination of electronic music, strong vocals, melody and emotion really connected with me. It helped reinforce the idea that I could bring more of those elements into my own music while still keeping the electro foundation I've developed over the years.” The Egyptian Lover – Egypt, Egypt “This was the first record I ever bought. I was about 15 when I heard it at the skating rink, and I immediately went up to the DJ to find out what it was. I went to the record store and bought it, which started my own record collection. Before that, I had only been listening to my grandmother's old records. I didn't know it at the time, but the deep electro, melodies and vocals stayed with me and became a foundation for the way I hear music. Looking back, I can hear how much of that first experience eventually found its way into my sound as Exzakt and Mack Loenz.” Wicked Wipe – 10:59 P.M. “This was the record that made me want to produce. I heard it years after discovering those early electro records, when I was older and going to clubs. One night, an alternative night turned into a rave, and when this track came on, people started forming a breakdance circle. It immediately brought me back to being a kid. I ran to the DJ booth trying to find out what it was, but I couldn't figure it out until years later. That experience stayed with me because it was the first time I really thought about making electronic music myself.” The Beat Club – Security “"Security" connects directly to my Miami roots and is a great example of the personality I love in electronic music. It has vocals, scratching and a very distinct Miami feel, and all of those elements give the record a character that really stayed with me. It's not just about the electronic production. You can feel the personality of the people making it. That connection to the Miami sound is a big reason it has remained important to me and why I hear a direct relationship between this kind of music and my own sound as Exzakt.” Taken together, Mack Loenz’s selections trace a path through the ideas that have stayed with him across different stages of his career. Kraftwerk’s approach to progression, The Egyptian Lover and The Beat Club’s electro foundations, the formative impact of Wicked Wipe and Kavinsky’s meeting point between electronic music, vocals and emotion each connect with a different element of his work. On ‘From The Heart’, those threads meet within a project that builds on the foundations of Exzakt while giving McCormick room to explore a more melodic and emotionally direct side of his music. Mack Loenz Instagram - Beatport

Dan Andrei Romanian producer Dan Andrei has made his Half Baked debut with ‘Orange Sunrise’, a new three track EP released on 7th September. Marking the label’s 26th release, the project finds the Rainbow Hill Records boss working through the deeper end of his minimal house sound, pairing stripped back grooves with the hazy atmosphere of late summer mornings and afterhours sessions. ‘Orange Sunshine’ opens with a pensive electric piano before a rising bassline moves into focus. Synth melodies drift throughout the arrangement, giving the track a warm, spacious quality while Andrei keeps its rhythmic foundations deliberately understated. ‘Sticky’ heads deeper into minimal territory. Throbbing kicks establish the groove before an unusual lead synth enters the mix, with shakers and smaller percussive details gradually adding movement around it. The result is a more playful and abstract counterpart to the EP’s opener. London duo Brainsurfers complete the package with their interpretation of ‘Orange Sunshine’. Formed by Sam Bangura and Harry McCanna, the pair bring the approach developed through their NorthSouth Records output into Andrei’s original, adding greater low end weight and touches of acid to create a more direct club version. The release adds Half Baked to a catalogue that has already seen Andrei appear across some of minimal house music’s key labels. His previous output includes releases connected to [a:rpia], Amphia and Pressure Traxx, alongside regular appearances at Sunwaves, fabric and Bucharest’s Club Guesthouse. Across ‘Orange Sunrise’, Andrei keeps the focus on subtle changes, groove and atmosphere, delivering a compact release suited to the point where the night begins turning into morning. Dan Andrei Instagram / Website Half Baked Records Instagram / Soundcloud / Website