EDITOR'S PICKS
Syncrophone / SYNCRO72
Federsen – Deep Sequence EP
Chris Kelly has been working as Federsen for over fifteen years — out of San Francisco, away from the city’s scene, in the quiet of his studio. He grew up in Scotland, caught the Acid House era, and has been moving in one direction ever since: vintage tape delays, analogue synthesisers, dub reggae as a method rather than a genre. Releases on Echospace Detroit, Syncrophone, Avant Roots, his own label Fifth Interval, and now Alt Dub. Someone who knows what he’s doing and is in no hurry.
Syncrophone appeared in Paris in 1999 and hasn’t changed course since. Fluxion, Claro Intelecto, cv313, Rolando — the label has always known who to release. Deep Sequence EP continues that line.
Four tracks, blue vinyl, no embellishments. Phase Out and Rotation move together on the A side — analogue recording upfront, smoked-out chords and a hypnotic bass rolling like fog across a concrete floor. Feb 27 retreats into shadow, Solstice closes the record over light hi-hats and randomly panned splashes of chord — quiet, like a change of season.
Put it on late. Turn it up slow.
Recommended track: A2 – Rotation
YARN Records / YARNLTD007
Wareika – Orange & Blue
Wareika is a Hamburg trio — Jakob Seidensticker, Florian Schirmacher and Henrik Raabe. Together since 2007. Their approach: live improvisation, jazz influences, dub textures — all within the framework of club minimal. Releases on Visionquest, Primary Colours, Running Back — Wareika have long been part of the European underground scene.
YARN Records from Jena is a small label focused on deep dub-minimal and a vinyl-only approach. Orange & Blue is the label’s seventh release, and their first after more than four years of silence.
Waiting For The End, Enjoying The Newstart opens the record at nearly fourteen minutes — gradually building percussion, warm analogue basslines and harmonic textures that unfold slowly and methodically. Orange & Blue on B1 — organic grooves and dub atmospheres, nine minutes without unnecessary movement. Rainmaker closes the record differently — just under five minutes at 141 BPM, the most direct and fastest moment on the EP, like a full stop at the end of a long sentence.
Recommended track: A1 – Waiting For The End, Enjoying The Newstart
Lespalmes Discs / LSPD006
Lowris, DJ W!LD, Praymond & Abé – Connected Consciousness / SIS
Lowris is based in Paris — DJ, producer and co-founder of Æternum Music. Over the years he has shared the decks with [a:rpia:r], Villalobos, Cabanne, Sammy Dee — which says a lot about the circles he moves in. DJ W!LD is a French veteran whose name has appeared alongside Perlon and Minibar for over twenty years. Praymond and Abé are younger Spanish voices from within the Lespalmes Discs orbit. Four names, one release, two records.
Lespalmes Discs from Benicàssim is a small label with character. Vinyl only, every release handmade, no noise around it. Connected Consciousness / SIS is their sixth release and their most ambitious.
Eight tracks across two records — and all of it one statement. The music moves slowly, loops unfold gradually, the space between sounds matters as much as the sounds themselves. Handcrafted and spaced out — that’s how the label describes it. Hard to add anything more precise.
Recommended track: C1 – Standardized Human Era
Roulade Records / RLD004
Various Artists – Marion In Candyland
Roulade Records from Paris is a label with character and a sense of humour. Their fourth EP, and already the third in a row with a character name in the title — after Huguette’s Birthday and Gaston’s Holidays, it’s Marion’s turn.
Occibel — a Parisian artist with outings on Hoarder and Tessellate — opens A1 with Artificial Agents: a crisp, kinetic roller with an elastic bounce. Merov’ on A2 adds a melodic twist — the synths more vocal, the mood a shade lighter. On the flip, Evock from Relikt — Echoes Of The Night, smooth and warm, as if the night has already arrived and is in no hurry. Roulade 2000 closes the record with Who Is Dom? — eight minutes with tongue firmly in cheek.
Somewhere between a sugar rush and a lucid dream — that’s how the label describes it.
Recommended track: B1 – Echoes Of The Night
Naissance Musik / NM-04
Hear, San Proper – Elephantoms EP Remixes
Hear was born in Lebanon, studied in Canada, lives in Berlin. DJ, producer, filmmaker and founder of Naissance Musik — a label they describe as a space for any type of emotion and any type of creation. San Proper is an Amsterdam veteran of Rush Hour and Perlon, grew up playing in bands, played guitar, won the Grote Prijs van Nederland — and then moved into clubs. Their Elephantoms EP came out in 2017, recorded across four countries.
The remix package NM-04 arrived in 2020 with a specific brief — take the abstract original and push it toward the dancefloor. For that, Naissance Musik brought in Ohm Hourani and HEAR to reimagine The Groin, Julie Marghilano to take on Macha Moves, Andrea Ferlin — one of the founders of Berlin’s Sleep Is Commercial with releases on Freak n’Chic, Mindshake and Leftroom — to handle Up The Hill. 3LIAS and Raphael Merheb close the record with their own reading of Macha Moves.
Recommended track: A1 – The Groin (Hear & Ohm Hourani Remix)
Into The Woods / ITW003
Alexis Cabrera – Serial Light EP
Into The Woods is a London label with a simple idea: vinyl only, careful selection, each release as its own statement. The first two were Sepp and Swoy. The third is Berlin-based Argentinian Alexis Cabrera, known for his immersive live sets and releases on Atipic, Epilog and his own Fun Records.
Three tracks, three moods. Insatiable opens with a rubbery bassline and synths that unfold gradually — plus Cabrera's own vocals adding unexpected warmth. Liturgia shifts the angle — more experimental, with a light funky edge and a playful feel. Serial Light takes up the entire B side: live drums, wandering piano lines, a jazzy character and the feeling of dawn at five in the morning.
Recommended track: B1 – Serial Light
Wrong'uns / WRNGUN001
Various Artists – Wrong'uns 001
Wrong'uns is the debut release from the UK label of the same name, out of Leeds. Four artists, four tracks, one idea. They describe it simply: "made by wrong'uns, for wrong'uns."
JoejoeMojo opens A1 with Ya'll Ready For This — a direct question, a direct answer. Oward on A2 with Crakz — hard and pulsing. On the flip, Rewi De Kooney with Laydown and Skatter holds the tempo, and Mehlor closes the record with Meet With The Devil. 2-step, speed garage and heavyweight bass — loaded into one chamber.
Not for those who like it soft.
Recommended track: B2 – Meet With The Devil
Det Gode Selskab / DGS004
Karl Fraunhofer & Chris Solaris – The Hand EP
Det Gode Selskab — literally "the good company" in Norwegian — is a label, event series and artist collective founded in Oslo in 2011 by Tod Louie and Chris Solaris. The Hand EP is the fourth chapter in their Senses Series.
Karl Fraunhofer and Chris Solaris have worked together for a long time — and it shows. The title track Hånd takes up the entire A side: nine-plus minutes in constant evolution, minimalistic yet animated. Argenis Brito's remix closes the record — velvety textures and mechanical movements in one dynamic dancefloor track. Between them sits Shake, holding the bridge.
Oslo knows what it's doing.
Recommended track: A1 – Hånd
Rotary Phono Lab / RPLAB007
Amine Laje – Datsha
Romain Poncet is one of the key voices in the French electronic music scene, known as Traumer. Techno, house, minimal — that's his territory, and he knows it well. Datsha is a different story.
The name is a tribute to two friends: Amine Bentires and Alexandre Rapoud. It was Alexandre who, during the lockdown, invited Poncet to compose the soundtrack for his future restaurant Datsha in Paris. Over two and a half months in a studio in the French countryside, nearly sixty tracks were recorded. Eleven made it onto the record.
Rotary Phono Lab is a Parisian label with a clear artistic direction: "crafting timeless works and curating a bold spectrum of eclectic sounds." Datsha fits that philosophy precisely. Jazz-tinged trip-hop without vocals, atmospheric and light — HHV Mag describes it as "wonderfully light, never cheap." Phonica draws comparisons to Gramatik, Nightmares on Wax and Mark Farina's Mushroom Jazz series. Limited to 400 copies.
Recommended track: C1 – Further Happiness
Notta Records / NOTTA007
Cyclic/Random – Dog Sleep
Notta Records is a Finnish label with a simple and precise self-description: “deep and dubby sounds from Finland.” Cyclic/random is a regular on the label, working at the intersection of dub techno and deep, dubbed-out house. Dog Sleep is the label’s seventh release, out in January 2026.
Three tracks, three states. Dog Sleep on A1 sets the tone: bewitching pads floating between the foreground and background, minimal percussion holding the rhythm. Overcast on B1 pulls deeper — a glowing conglomerate of house and techno that presses from within. Solus Dubmix closes the record through skull-shaking bass and graceful pads that drift into some kind of dub borderland.
Soft chords drift like snow over steady, smoked-out grooves, basslines pulse with understated weight, echoes curl around the edges of the stereo field. Finnish winter as a soundtrack.
Recommended track: B1 – Overcast