Under the Radar - march

First up is Fonzo who hit us with his newest EP on the first day of March. He goes speedy on it with Capo Lee supplying grimey vocals on ‘Ring Ring’, before handbrake turning into grubby late nighter ‘Acid Baile Techno Tool’. OPM006 is sprinkled with these unpredictable elements throughout and is completed with a DJ ADHD remix.

It was actually released at the end of February but we had to come back to it for our March edition. HUGE tune from the Philippines. Rapturous even. Keep an eye on Teya Logos.

The trend right now is raising the tempo, crunchy drums, rave stabs, and over-saturated basses. Jensen Interceptor brings his LATAM pals for a round of banging trendy tunes ready for the hottest raves. Our own international homie CRRDR makes an appearance as a chromie once again too!

We’re probably not the first critics (fans) to realise this, but every Livity Sound release seems to outshine the last. DJ Polo’s latest offering continues to lay out this trend. ‘If The Glove Fits’ binds together an array of global club influences and tempos, building them towards a level of deep, intrinsic funk that is destined for low-end soundsystem appreciation. Another Bristolian triumph. This lot have literally never missed.

Thought provoking rave from Italy’s Was A Be, with a little help from friends. Two original workings, one alongside Kiu D, and accompanying remixes from Noroi & F L V X X X mark a concoction of shady, dark techno drums with gritty subs and electrofied breaks with jersey, trap, ghetto tech and more dominating the remix works!

Cork native HhÉiR lands on The Event Of Capture, from his now residing city of Glasgow. Following on from the more UK techno focused EP’s of 'Kairos' and 'Preliminal', ‘Paene’ forwards onto a more funky-coated path with hat tips to the cult sounds of Night Slugs and RKS, whilst maintaining his ethereal touch with melodies and tensions in the making.

The surge of Venezuela’s raptor house and other chief LATAM sounds in recent years to Western ears has created an in-depth mystique around the many genres and figures that pioneered the sounds. After Dj Babatr's recent grasp of the masses steps forward Dj Yirvin. Once adopted by Baba’s raptor house crew of the 2000’s in the Venezuelan city of Caracas, Yirvin broke away from their more rigid changa tuki sounds to push forward his ideas of hard-fusion. This essentially merged the carnivalesque street percussion sounds of his homeland with more techno oriented beats. Yirvin encapsulated an unmistakable energy in his music that has perhaps in many cases unknowingly infiltrated much of the world's parties. Nicknamed ‘El Maximo Creador’, his similarly titled album celebrates some of his workings from the early 2000’s, alongside a remix from two of his stans. Amor Satyr and Siu Mata no less!

Invigorating bass focused clampers from Andrae Durden on Valencian imprint Ecco Records. Tucking in an eclectic mix of UKG (tricklets of the future face and the OG), spatial dubstep, and boldy breakcore, Durden forges an array of fizzy club textures enforcing elements of glitch and delay to encapsulate those higher energies so often seeked when clubbing.

Individually this pair seem to always push their sound beyond the realm of sense. Throw the two of them into the mix together and it's just about unadulterated. ‘Bitches’ is beyond mammoth. It’s stadium club. A behemoth of electronix. We’re going to shut up now. It’s time for you to just listen.

Blitzkrieg, well-wired bass drillings from a plethora of acts on Ivy Lab’s 20/20 imprint. Wanna talk about star-studded V/A casts? Try this one for size. Think Client_03, Nikki Nair, Mutant Joe, BAKEY, Lake Hills, and yes, Ivy Lab themselves. Music wise we’re talking deep mechanical and technological situations, high ceilings and low ends, hard pumps and levelling blows. If you can’t find at least 15 tracks to dig on the release, then we’re sorry. We can’t help you anymore.

Just another batch of pretty little Jack Ward tracks! This time from the archives, Jack takes us back to 2016 to some home recordings from his kitchen in Limerick exploring the pop club possibilities within soundscapes from The XX and Joy Orbison.

We all know we need new music from TSVI. We all know we need new music from Dj Babatr. Right? We just didn’t know we needed music from them together, until now. Surely when you saw this (or when you see it) you’ll think what we think (thought). Fuck off. But in that good kind of way? Yeah. Ridiculous. The whole thing is mammoth. Thankfully there’s only one track that doubles up with Baba, otherwise we might have caked ourselves (even more).

A sister-label to SOMA Records of Glasgow techno champions SLAM, Avoidant delves into the world of leftfield electro and cutting edge sonics from around the world. Planet Reborn sees yet another influx of global and more local producers take to the Avoidant Wax, featuring 17 electro adjacent runners from acts like DJ T-1000, Atix, and Sophie Forrest, with one of the standout tracks coming from Glasgow producer manu-facturer on ‘Breaker’.

Easily one of our favourite producers around right now, King Doudou continues to turn our heads with his Latin induced dance stabs and Marroneo is no different. Marrying big room ravey synths with old school reggaeton foundations, Doudou lays it all out for the sultry vocals of Lili ‘Love’ Ramero sending you, me and we haywire.

We’ve had to wait a little while for a fresh De Grandi release, but when they drop like this, you have to appreciate the cooking time. Dropping as the 30th release on Marseille’s BFDM, and as the Parisian acts first solo EP since 2020, LLLTNM merges many of the signature elements of De Grandi’s works into a more thrusting club cylinder. Those quaking basslines and ricocheting pads are now lining up with big kick electro, dubstep and dembow rhythms and head melting synth progressions. No wrong turns on this one. Get it onto your SanDisks chaps.

Mistah wkd brings Sexyy Red into a dystopian jungle zone, tinged with murky Memphis elements and solidified with the St. Louis rapper’s brazen lyrics. A colossal rethink from the Edinburgh producer.

One of the most multi-faceted producers around right now, JIALING pays homage to family, home, and the spirits within on ‘Jia’. An album of deep soundscapes, the Baltimore native experiments with cellos, ehrus (a Chinese violin), samples from her father’s CD collection, her grandfather’s favourite Japanese songs, her mother’s voice, and club breaks. A release that will flatten you out with its in depth production hammering home so much different noise at once, whilst maintaining a harmonic balance of club tensions and thoughtful composition throughout.

Epic club drums out of Taipei City from B E N N. Stripped back yet fiery as hell, the Taiwanese act uses the spaces within to create tentative club atmospheres with tribal underbellies that are joyfully reliant on the track’s chanting percussion.

Cat Lady continues their onslaught into 2024 with a thunderbolting two tracker on Canadian imprint audio bambino. Fleeting ghetto trance numbers that unload at hyperspeed, carrying with them a fine amount of ridging kicks and sugar-coated vocals to make you stomp with a gleeful smile.

Mid tempo grooves from the producer and label owner, Kreggo. Well supported on Bandcamp but sure we’d only love to bring it onto your radar too! ‘Swaying’ works incredibly well by hypnotising you with its repetitive fuzzy bass patterns and drowsy syncopated percussive elements. ‘Rubbery Smack’ is crème de la crème for headphone tune of the month with aggressive thuds carrying the whole tune with shimmery pads sneaking up from behind. ‘Tochi’, the last track on the EP, is a toned down brain-tickler perfect for rounding off this month's selection.