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1 min read
SoFi's Workers Had to Threaten the World Cup to Get Paid
Read more . . . →The people who run concessions at SoFi Stadium — the cooks, the dishwashers, the bartenders, the cashiers — voted 96 percent to strike a week before the World Cup rolled into town. Days later they had a tentative deal with Legends Hospitality. Quick, clean, almost civilized. Until you stop and ask why it took the single biggest event that building will ever host to get a few thousand people a contract they should have had already. They didn’t get heard because someone in management woke up fair. They got heard because they happened to be standing on the one patch...
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1 min read
Sonatine - To Sunrise
Read more . . . →Three Anjunadeep cuts in one batch because the label is on an absolute heater right now. To Sunrise from Sonatine is named perfectly, because it sounds exactly like the last hour of a night that’s bled into morning. It’s that euphoric-but-exhausted deep house feeling, where the melody is reaching for something hopeful while the groove keeps your tired legs moving anyway. Sonatine builds it gradually, layering warm pads under a melodic lead that slowly blooms into the kind of moment that gives festival sunrise sets their whole reputation. There’s no big stupid drop, just a steady emotional climb that respects...
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1 min read
Spinnin' Sessions Radio - Episode #682
Read more . . . →Okay, this one’s a bit different, it’s a full episode of Spinnin’ Sessions rather than a single track, but sometimes you just want an hour of someone else doing the work of finding the bangers. Spinnin’ Records has its fingers in basically every corner of mainstream dance music, and their radio show is a decent pulse-check on where the commercial end of the scene is heading. Episode 682 rolls through a parade of big-room drops, festival-ready vocal hooks, plus the occasional left-field pick that reminds you they didn’t get this big by being totally predictable. I won’t pretend every track...
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1 min read
SPORTMODE - Circles
Read more . . . →Trap Nation surfaced SPORTMODE’s Circles and it’s a clean reminder that melodic trap still has plenty of life left in it. The track rides that sweet spot where the beat hits heavy but the melody keeps everything emotional, with a vocal looping the kind of hook that mirrors the going-in-circles feeling baked into the title. SPORTMODE builds real atmosphere in the intro before the bass drops in and gives it weight, and the contrast between the airy top end and the heavy low end is where the whole thing lives. Trap Nation has surfaced a frankly absurd number of careers,...
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1 min read
SONNIY - RED LINE
Read more . . . →SONNIY landing on STMPD RCRDS with “RED LINE” is a strong look, because Martin Garrix’s label doesn’t hand out releases to just anyone. This is a punchy, bass-driven house track that keeps things lean and dancefloor-focused from the jump. The groove is tight and relentless, built around a hooky vocal chop that worms its way into your head almost immediately. There’s a modern, slightly aggressive edge to the production that separates it from politer house fare, the bassline practically growling underneath. I love that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, every section doing its job before moving on. It’s the sort...
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5 min read
Critical Music, Explained: Kasra's Quiet Empire
'Critical music' isn't a genre, it's a drum and bass label run by Kasra for 20+ years. Enei, Ivy Lab, Mefjus — how it built them.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogIf you wear this and someone hugs you, that's a real friend. -
1 min read
The Drop Is Buffering
Read more . . . →Headliner’s whole “live set” is one laptop and it just hit the spinning beachball. Crowd’s still going off. Nobody’s clocked that the music stopped.
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1 min read
SVDDEN DEATH & Phiso - Nightshade
Read more . . . →SVDDEN DEATH and Phiso on the same track is basically a dare. These are two of the most respected names in heavy dubstep, the kind of producers other producers study, and Nightshade is them flexing exactly why. Phiso made one of the most sampled drops in modern dubstep history with Jurassic, and SVDDEN DEATH built an entire VOYD universe out of sounds this aggressive. Together they go straight for the throat. The sound design is genuinely impressive, all these shifting metallic growls that feel engineered to a frightening degree of precision. There’s a darkness running through it that earns the...
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1 min read
SOLAH & Break - Forever (Live Rooftop Session)
Read more . . . →Hospital Records putting out a live rooftop session of SOLAH and Break’s “Forever” is the kind of thing that reminds you drum and bass is a living, breathing performance genre, not just a studio product. Hearing this one played live gives it a warmth and looseness that a polished master sometimes sanitizes out. SOLAH’s vocal soars over Break’s signature deep, soulful production, and the rooftop setting adds this golden-hour atmosphere you can practically feel through the speakers. Break has been one of the most respected names in the scene for decades, and his restraint is the whole point, he never...
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1 min read
Nico Szabo & Aske Izan - Aside (feat. SAM SHI)
Read more . . . →Second Nico Szabo and Aske Izan track in this batch, this time with SAM SHI on vocals, and Aside shows a softer more song-shaped side of the duo. Where Paranoid was all tension, Aside opens up into something warmer and more emotional, with SAM SHI’s vocal floating over that signature Anjunadeep haze. The deep house framework is still here, the patient groove and the careful textures, but the vocal gives it a center of gravity that pulls everything toward the heart instead of the dancefloor. This is the kind of track that works as well on a quiet drive as...
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