The Best Electronic Music Of September – October 2023

• VA – Re : Conceive 2 [Re:Conceive]

Out of the spirit to take care of each other.In solidarity with First Peoples and vulnerable newcomers. A collection of writhing air.

All revenue generated by this compilation will be donated 50/50 to The Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal and Just Solutions Legal Clinic.

• Fantastic Man – Spiritual Guidance [Basic Spirit]

Basic Spirit welcomes the first out-of-house artist to the label, our dear friend Fantastic Man.

A household name at this point, FM hedges the Basic Spirit catalogue into a deeper, more euphoric territory, with four tracks that quite frankly melted our hearts and minds when we heard them. It’s a big heads-down record, which gets a big thumbs up from us.

• Head High – Break Away [Power House]

Sunset Groove. Midnight Roller. Sunrise Rave.

• 1OO1O – DISCOLATINO

1OO1O presents an album where he explores the combination between various latin genres and club music. Six original tracks and three secret skits inspired by the classics sounds of salsa, merengue & mambo, converging with the noveau palette of techno, hard house & breaks.

DISCOLATINO proposes a fresh but resurgent approach to latin club.

• VC-118A – Waves Of Change [Delsin Records]

On his fifth album as VC-118A, Samuel van Dijk is using his evolved electro practice to explore the notion of change – a universal constant which keeps us barrelling towards unknown futures.

• Frank & Tony – Exiles EP [Pacific Rhythm]

Pacific Rhythm is elated to announce the forthcoming release of “Exiles”, a deeply life-affirming and introspective four-tracker from one of electronic music’s most prolific duos, Frank & Tony. 

This EP also marks the first release from the pair outside of their own imprint Scissor & Thread. Back in 2021 they approached us with the intention of contributing something that felt like a natural part of our catalog and it’s safe to say they arrived right at home.

• Purelink – Signs [Peak Oil]

The latest by Chicago trio Purelink unspools an alchemical suite of fractal ambient, dusted dub tech, and interstitial electronica, born from a spirit of unity and flux: “All hands on the mixer, forever finding the sound.” Since forming in 2020, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka kindtree), and Akeem Asani (aka Millia) have convened regularly in a shared studio to workshop, swap samples, and hone their collective muse via “the endless possibilities of a laptop,” seeking “something different than we would make on our own.”

Distilled from extended compositions prepared and performed across 2022 in Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and Los Angeles, Signs captures their chemistry at its most liquid and immaterial, mapped in mutating systems of glitch, glass, rhythm, and space. It’s music alternately subdued and subterranean, elevated and remote, attuned to the flickering sentience of outer spheres.

• Bluecommand – Apofenia [WVWV]

This album is called “Apofenia” and also is the featured track. The result ended in the cathartic process of a bunch of feelings and connections with people that Mariana met the past year that were key in the process behind the context of music and at a personal level of growing. Taking inspiration within the ambient yet exploring techno and leftfield.

The “Apofenia” track is being displayed in a community hub that showcases 11 artists from Mexico’s capital. The hub was curated by Turning Torso, an audiovisual artist, producer, and DJ who is deeply involved in CDMX’s underground electronic music scenes. Explore the hub to listen to eleven new tracks and learn more about the CDMX scene and its artists. The cover art is made by David Sánchez aka Turning Torso.

• Conna Haraway – Lusidiq [Theory Therapy]

Glasgow-based producer and INDEX:Records co-owner Conna Haraway unveils his debut solo release on Theory Therapy – 8 tracks of luminous electronics and restless textures too amorphous to be neatly categorised into a particular genre. Over 40+ minutes, the co:clear founder fuses dubbed-out illbient abstractions, voluminous low end and aquatic gurgles into unconventional analgesic soundscapes. The overall result is something immersive, visceral, and psychedelic – a fully-fledged sound that sits somewhere between delirium and bliss.

Lusidiq features 3 remixes by Seoul duo Salamanda, Philadelphia-based DJ and producer Opheliaxz, and Adam Dove, best known as sound artist Nexcyia.

• CoA-A – The End Of Nduja [Nduja]

The end of Nduja. They had an impressive streak of left field weirdo dub electronics and techno experiments. This is their goodbye…