As he navigates his journey on the Electronic Music scene, Midnight Evolution maintains a steady commitment and passion. Leaning into inspirations that span across the genre and its Artists, from Tinlicker, Sunny Lax, and Above & Beyond, to expanding into emotion-led production, he continues to develop his approach. Focused on crafting music with an immersive quality, Midnight Evolution prioritises both dancefloor functionality and listener experience, aiming to blend electronic textures with emotional depth. With a catalogue that continues to grow, maintaining a steady release schedule, Midnight Evolution commits his focus to expanding his reach: seeking to share his music with new listeners and build his profile on a global scale.  

Opening with a steady beat and bright synth layers, ‘Dreams’ delivers an uplifting energy from the start, incorporating an expressive vocal that anchors the track whilst bubbly arpeggiators and dynamic melodic leads keep the production moving forward. Then, the energy shifts, expanding into atmospheric dimensions as the beat drops out and warm instrumental textures take the lead. From the robust low-end to the chordal pads and sustained swells, alongside the melody-driven lead that weaves amongst the vocals, the arrangement offers an engaging journey. Maintaining a sense of fluidity, the beat soon returns, introducing intricate rhythms and soaring motifs to bring the track to a close. The result is a production that balances control, energy, and emotional weight – a display of Midnight Evolution’s signature sound and creative vision.  

With Midnight Evolution continuing to carve his way across the scene, the Producer maintains a consistent creative thread throughout his work: pairing dynamic electronic production with emotionally charged detail. In ‘Dreams,’ he carries this vision forward, giving listeners another example of his signature approach and creative direction ahead.  

So, out now on Elliptical Sun Recordings, listen now to Midnight Evolution’s ‘Dreams’ and be sure to keep up with his evolution by following him across social media today.  

Listen and Buy ‘Dreams’ Today: 

https://www.beatport.com/es/release/dreams/7305075

Midnight Evolution Online   

Beatport | Instagram | Spotify    

Elliptical Sun Recordings Online   

Beatport | Website   

The post Midnight Evolution Releases Progressive Track “Dreams” via Elliptical Sun Recordings appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

Denver has never exactly suffered from a shortage of electronic musicians. Between the producers, DJs, modular obsessives, experimental artists, and hardcore modular users, there’s a thriving community here.

What Denver hasn’t always had is an event that brings all of those people together under one roof with the gear companies that make the gear that we all love.

Presented by the Colorado Modular Synth Society, with Boredbrain Music helping bring the EMIXX concept west, the weekend ran August 28–30, with the main expo taking over Void Studios just off Broadway, just south of downtown, on Saturday. The format included gear exhibits, DIY sessions, workshops, gear swapping, and live performances.

I was only able to spend a couple of hours at the expo, but that was plenty of time to get a sense of what was happening and I can certainly see this gathering getting bigger year over year if they stick with it.

EMIXX West 2026 A synth show with a strong communal feel

The crowd at Void Studios was somewhere between 150 and 200 people during my time there, and what immediately stood out wasn’t necessarily a particular piece of hardware. It was the people.

Everyone was remarkably friendly, enthusiastic, and genuinely excited to have something like EMIXX West happening in Denver.

This wasn’t a convention-center gear show where you’re battling 110 dB of competing product demonstrations while somebody attempts to explain oscillator architecture six inches from your face. EMIXX West felt considerably more grassroots and boutique.

This event is geared toward people who actually enjoy getting inside electronic instruments, building things, patching things, sequencing things, and sharing knowledge. This is what the modular community thrives on: a spirit of DIY, a dash of open source, and a lot of creativity.

Modular synthesis has always existed somewhere between music production, engineering, collecting, and an extremely elaborate form of adult LEGO. Putting all those personalities in the same physical space creates something YouTube demos and Discord channels can’t quite replicate. It also brings together Left, Right and Center types of personas, people that love to make nasty noises and others who prefer a gentle analog groove.

You can touch and play the gear, which is fantastic for those considering dropping their cash on it. You can talk to the people making it. You can ask questions, unlike a big-box gear store that will most likely either not carry this stuff or have a staff that isn’t up to speed.

You can just hang out and make noise.

Korg Brings Some Serious Toys

Among the bigger manufacturers represented, Korg had a couple of products that immediately caught my attention as I had seen them at the NAMM show back in January, but didn’t get a chance to mess around with them..

The Korg phase8 has already generated plenty of buzz, and seeing it in this environment makes sense. It’s the kind of instrument that naturally appeals to people interested in experimental synthesis and hands-on sound design rather than simply scrolling through another 4,000 presets looking for “Analog Bass 37.”

Also in need of more attention was Korg’s latest evolution of its KAOSS concept. This was a groundbreaking piece of kit when it originally came out almost three decades ago, and now it’s packed with so many features that it would take a month to get through them all. Do I want one, of course I do.

The KAOSS family has always occupied an interesting corner of electronic music culture. These are instruments that encourage you to stop thinking quite so much and start touching things, which, frankly, isn’t terrible advice for electronic music in general.

Drift Zero from Drift DJ Is One to Watch

One of the show’s more interesting discoveries came from Drift DJ and its new Drift Zero.

It’s a remarkably compact piece of hardware—roughly the footprint of a couple of decks of cards, but it’s designed to function as a powerful DJ and live-performance tool. That combination is particularly interesting right now.

The line between DJing and live electronic performance keeps getting blurrier. Producers want to take more of their music out of the laptop, DJs want more flexibility than simply playing finished tracks, and nobody particularly enjoys dragging an entire studio through airport security.

Compact hardware that can bridge those worlds has a real opportunity.

The Drift Zero looks like one of those devices that makes you start mentally rebuilding your live rig while you’re still standing at the booth.

1010music Continues to Impress

Another standout was the 1010music Bento and blackbox2.

Bento is essentially a portable sampling and production workstation built for musicians who want to work without a laptop. It combines sampling, sequencing, performance controls, MIDI connectivity, effects, and a built-in battery in a compact desktop unit.

There’s quite a lot packed into the box: eight tracks, a 7-inch touchscreen, 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads, eight endless encoders, multiple stereo inputs and outputs, MIDI I/O, USB connectivity, and microSD storage.

More importantly, it feels like part of a broader shift toward genuinely capable standalone hardware.

For years, “DAWless” could occasionally feel like electronic music’s equivalent of deciding to churn your own butter. Artisan beats. Devices like Bento and blackbox 2 (the sampler in the lineup) make the argument considerably more convincing.

If you’re sampling, sequencing external synths, building loops, or assembling a compact live rig, having one small box tying everything together starts making a lot of sense—particularly if your idea of a fun Saturday afternoon involves a sampler, three synths, and absolutely no software-update notifications.

SOMA, Novation, and Plenty of Modular Weirdness

SOMA was also represented, with their newest piece of kit the Enigma creating a buzz, they are always worth checking out if you haven’t gotten a chance to play with their boxes.

Put SOMA hardware on a table and eventually someone is going to wander over and start making noises that sound like an abandoned Soviet research facility.

Novation was also there, alongside a healthy selection of modular manufacturers, builders, and smaller companies.

And that’s where EMIXX West starts to separate itself from a conventional music-technology trade show.

You could get your hands on recognizable gear from established companies and then wander a few feet away and encounter something created for the much deeper end of the modular pool.

There’s a lot here for people who genuinely understand modular synthesis, people who hear the words “clock divider” and don’t immediately start looking for an exit.

I’m not going to pretend every module on every table made perfect sense to me. That’s part of the fun.

Why EMIXX West Matters for Denver

The biggest takeaway from EMIXX West wasn’t a synthesizer.

It was seeing the beginnings of an event that could become an important fixture for Denver’s electronic music community. The Mile High City already has the artists.

An event like EMIXX West gives those different pieces of the community somewhere to intersect.

That’s valuable because music scenes aren’t built entirely online. They’re built when people meet each other, discover somebody else’s work, try an instrument they would never have ordered sight unseen, start a conversation, exchange information, and potentially end up collaborating six months later.

EMIXX West had that feeling. It wasn’t enormous, but it did leave me wanting more, in all the right ways.

In fact, the relatively intimate scale is part of what made it enjoyable. You could actually talk to people, get your hands on instruments, and spend some time exploring without feeling like you were sprinting through an airport terminal made entirely out of synthesizers.

For an event that’s beginning to establish itself in Denver, that’s a strong place to start.

If EMIXX West continues growing while hanging onto that grassroots, community-first character, it could become something pretty special for Colorado’s electronic music scene.

And judging by the enthusiasm inside Void Studios, there are plenty of people here ready to support more of these types of shows.

Learn more about EMIXX 2026 HERE

The post EMIXX West 2026: Denver’s Synth Community Gets the Gathering It Deserves appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

Lead photo – @Perry_gibson

By the end of August, festival fatigue is a real and documented condition. The summer circuit has done its work — the muddy fields, warm lager, the headliners you’ve seen twice before in a slightly different field — and for a significant portion of the music-going public, the idea of doing it one more time before September arrives requires genuine persuasion.

LIDO festival, this Monday the 31st at Victoria Park, is that persuasion.

Named after the park’s historic Lido Field in east London, LIDO has positioned itself from the beginning as something different to the summer mega-fest model — and the distinction is genuine rather than marketing. Thoughtful lineups, real sustainability commitments, zero mud, and a setting that happens to be one of London’s finest green spaces. It’s the kind of festival where the crowd reads the lineup as carefully as the organisers put it together, and where that mutual investment actually shows.

The 2026 edition has had a complicated path to this Monday. Originally scheduled for June, ground condition concerns — the result of one of the wettest winters in recent memory following last summer’s drought — led to the rescheduling of the headline Maribou State date to August 31st, while CMAT and Bombay Bicycle Club’s shows were unfortunately cancelled entirely. The response from the festival has been all you can realistically ask for, transparency and community-first thinking that’s increasingly rare in the live events space.

What remains is still, frankly, exceptional. Maribou State headline a bill that includes Kelis, Folamour, and the prospect of legends of Theo Parrish b2b Moodymann — a pairing that belongs in a much larger conversation about the best things happening in electronic music right now. That’s a lineup that would justify attending in almost any context. In Victoria Park to finish off the festival season, it’s perfection..

LIDO won The Festival Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards in 2025 following a debut edition that featured Charli XCX, Jamie XX and Massive Attack. The pedigree is established. The intention is clear. In a summer where the festival calendar has felt stretched to breaking point — too many events, too many parks pushed to their limits, too many compromises made in pursuit of scale — LIDO remains committed to doing less, better.

Tickets still available here

Monday the 31st of August. Victoria Park. Go.

The post Ending the summer with a festival gem: LIDO festival finally gets a run at Victoria Park appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

That origin matters because The Windy City does not sound like a record forced into being by over-editing or concept work. It came from staying open to the sound as it developed, letting the groove guide the next move, and trusting the point where instinct starts to become arrangement. SATYA regular Hermanez (@hermanez) rounds out the release with a remix that keeps the EP inside the label’s world while giving the original a different closing angle.

The interview below applies the same studio logic to a broader production question. In a moment when tools and plugins can generate more usable ideas than most artists know what to do with, IPI talks about taste, flow, subtraction, emotional decision-making, and the difficulty of removing something impressive when it does not serve the track.

His answers make The Windy City feel like a clean example of his method: start with movement, follow the feeling, then cut until the essential parts remain.

Interview With IPI

If a tool or plugin gives you ten usable ideas in a matter of seconds, how should an artist decide which one deserves a place in the track?

A decisive factor and at the same time one of the biggest challenges when making decisions, is figuring out when the heart is speaking and when the head is.

Often we know rationally that something is “good,” but it doesn’t feel truly right. In the end, what matters is the choice that feels good and authentic. And if you truly follow that feeling, surprisingly little often remains – but what’s left is the essential.

What turns a decent starting point into something that feels shaped by the taste of the artist?

At the beginning, there’s always the artist’s own taste and style.

When this starting point feels right, an inner compass almost automatically emerges: an inspiration that guides you without the need to think. Ideally, you act from this impulse, let it lead you, and trust that the next steps will come almost on their own. This is exactly the moment artists strive for: the state of flow. A state in which you no longer think, but simply do – forgetting time, while the work almost creates itself.

Once the first loop, lyric, chord progression, or sound appears, what work has to happen next?

For me, almost every track starts with a beat – a groove that immediately creates a certain sense of movement. Once this rhythm is in place, I proceed step by step: I look for musical elements that don’t just complement this groove, but give it its own direction. This could be a Bassline that adds weight to the whole thing, or chords and pads that build a mood.

Sometimes just a small melody or a single sample is enough to give the piece emotional depth – a soul that touches me.

How do producers decide when an impressive part is hurting the track?

For me personally, this isn’t easy at all – but you can usually tell right away when something doesn’t fit.

The difficulty lies less in recognizing it, and much more in letting go: it’s hard to part with an element you actually like, but that doesn’t work in the overall context of the track. By now, I’ve found a solution that helps me work more creatively and efficiently: when I come across such an element, I simply save it separately. This element then serves as a starting point for a new track.

Why is learning what to remove such an important skill for producers now?

I think a lot of people struggle to let go of things—especially when you’ve put a lot of work and energy into creating them. This emotional attachment makes it hard to let go, even when you feel it’s not doing the track any good.

But often, a track doesn’t get better by adding things, but by boldly taking them away. In music, less is frequently more: every sound gets its own space, the structure becomes clearer, and the emotional impact grows stronger.

Closing Thoughts From The Editor

IPI’s answers are valuable because they do not treat abundance as the same thing as progress.

A tool can throw ten decent ideas at a producer almost instantly, but that only moves the problem somewhere else. The artist still has to decide what belongs, what only sounds impressive, and what should be removed before the track loses its center. His answer is simple enough to be hard: listen for the choice that feels right, then accept how little may remain.

The subtraction piece also sits beside my RTIK interview on “Lillian,” mentorship, and the future of creative tools. RTIK’s perspective focused on taste and decision-making in a world where tools keep accelerating production. IPI’s version is more tactile. He talks about saving a good-but-wrong element for a later track, which is a practical way to remove the emotional resistance that makes producers overfill arrangements. Nothing has to be wasted. It just may not belong here.

That same lesson runs into my Sample Focus company spotlight on search, curation, and sound discovery. Sample Focus is built around helping producers find sounds quickly, but the real work still begins after discovery. IPI’s answers explain why. A sample, loop, bassline, or chord progression can open the door, but taste decides whether it becomes part of the record or a distraction dressed up as inspiration.

For SATYADGTL, The Windy City fits the label’s current lane because it keeps the emphasis on groove, movement, and feel rather than overbuilt drama.

The Chicago reference is there in the acid line and vocal energy, but the record does not turn that reference into costume. It uses the starting point as a spark, then lets IPI’s own sense of flow decide where the track should land.

The larger takeaway is that IPI hears production as a process of reduction as much as creation. Start with rhythm. Add only what gives the groove direction. Save the good ideas that do not fit. Remove enough for each sound to have space. That is not a flashy production philosophy, but it is the kind that keeps records alive once the novelty of the first idea fades.

The post IPI On Why Less Still Hits Harder appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

Wax Motif, producer and DJ, steps to the decks at Zouk Nightclub with calculated motions. Holding the official resident DJ spot for the 2026 season across the Las Vegas nightclub and AYU Dayclub at Resorts World Las Vegas, the bass and tech house artist was met on Friday, Aug. 21st, by eager attendees waiting to throw down. But a Friday night at Zouk nightclub with Wax Motif on the decks is sure to come with crisp drums, deep grooves, and catchy rap vocals, fit for both dark clubs and big festival stages. 

Wax Motif has built his artistic identity around house music threaded with hip-hop and R&B. Dropping tracks like “Gimme That Money,” “Bite Down,” and “Bad & U Know It” with Ty Dolla $ign from his recently dropped sophomore album, House of Wax II, Wax Motif brought the uncanny energy he is known for. But a Zouk crowd can present a different challenge than a dance-specific festival audience. It’s broader and more unpredictable, and he has to meet both dedicated fans and casual Vegas clubbers in the same set. 

“I kind of have a rule where I sort of play like one crowd pleaser and then maybe two that are things I think are cool,” Wax Motif said before hopping on the decks at Zouk Nightclub for the third time in his 2026 residency. 

The keys to a Vegas set for Wax Motif: adaptability and reading the room. 

From EDC Las Vegas to Zouk 

(Photo Credit: MP3labs PR)

Coming off his 2026 Electric Daisy Carnival appearance, Wax Motif returned to Zouk in August for the third date of his residency. But despite taking place in the same city, he says playing EDC and a Vegas nightclub require two different approaches.

Wax Motif has hit the EDC stage on numerous occasions, bringing his identifiable sound and magnetic aura to his sets. EDC 2026 came with the excitement from his recently dropped second album, which was released on May 8 just days before the beloved Las Vegas EDM festival. At EDC, Wax says the crowd consists largely of hardcore dance-music fans and with hundreds of DJs playing, his challenge is:

“Trying to just not do what the other 300 DJs are going to do,” Wax Motif said. 

The Las Vegas residency flips the assignment experienced at a highly anticipated and large music festival. There, he’s playing to a broader audience and thinking about providing a set with a different bite. 

“Making it palatable for everyone,” he said. 

Wax Motif is adjusting the delivery in real time without abandoning what makes his music his. 

Experience Becomes Instinct 

(Photo credit: Candese Charles)

For many DJs and Producers, time on the decks results in an instinct that becomes more than just a “DJ reading the crowd”. It’s a skill that is crafted out of a mindset that fits an artist who is about bringing out the best in the crowd while still protecting the core sound that makes Wax Motif who he is. 

“You know how to read a room a lot better,” Wax Motif said. 

“You’re a lot calmer under pressure, and if things aren’t really going your way, you know how to adapt.”

Born Daniel Chien, the Australian-born, Los Angeles-based DJ and producer is recognized as a key pioneer of the modern G-house (ghetto house) movement, bridging the gap between electronic house music and hip-hop culture. His catalog includes collaborations and production work alongside artists such as Ty Dolla $ign, ZHU, Timbaland, Tinashe, and G-Eazy, while his signature sound continues to influence producers across both dance and hip-hop spaces. 

His music is sure to get any club in Las Vegas bouncing, but Wax Motif is not playing tracks that just get a reaction. He’s filtering the room through his musical identity.

The Simplest Measure of Success

(Photo Credit: MP3labs PR)

Now, Wax Motif fans and curious EDM lovers have another chance to see him throw down on the decks at Zouk Nightclub. The final show of his 2026 residency is Friday, Oct. 9. But the admired EDM DJ and producer is not stopping there, as his North American Tour continues with dates in California and Canada.

For all the calculation that goes into reading a room, Wax Motif’s measure of whether it worked is much simpler.

“My hope is that they had a good time. I think that’s the mark of a DJ doing their job successfully.”

The post Inside Wax Motif’s Approach to Reading the Room at Zouk Nightclub appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

That arc gives the EP its point. Kaspar is not simply returning to Crosstown Rebels with another batch of DJ weapons. He is using the release to show how much emotional detail can sit inside music still built for late rooms, dusty drums, and extended dancefloor pressure.

The context helps. After a heavy touring summer with stops including Fusion Festival, fabric London, Else Berlin, and Woodstock 69 Bloemendaal, Kaspar returns to Crosstown following his 2024 We Come EP and two 2025 remixes for label head Damian Lazarus.

Upcoming remixes for Âme and Acid Pauli add to the sense that he is in a particularly active phase, but The Reason Why is less interesting as a career update than it is as a small study in restraint, voice, and tension.

“Take Control” Opens With Kaspar in DJ Mode

“Take Control” is the track that likely feels most familiar to people who have caught Kaspar playing recently. It has already been doing work as a personal weapon in his sets, and it opens the EP with a stripped-back, tense form of club logic.

The lead synth searches without giving too much away.

The drums stay tight and dry. The whole track feels built to hold attention without overloading the room. That makes it a smart opener because it establishes command before the EP begins to reveal its softer edges.

Kaspar understands how to keep pressure active without making the track feel crowded. That quality also came up in my article on Patrick Topping’s club-focused run with Hellbent, where the central issue was how much control a record can hold while still feeling loose enough for DJs. “Take Control” sits in a different lane, but it wins from a similar discipline.

Bákayan Gives the Title Track Its Human Pull

“The Reason Why” changes the temperature of the EP. Bákayan’s vocals bring a smoky, soulful tone to a deep, dreamier groove, giving the track its most immediate human presence.

That vocal is important because it shifts the release away from pure function. The groove still moves, but the track starts asking for a different kind of attention. The voice becomes the emotional cue, turning the record from a club tool into something with a more reflective shape.

Crosstown Rebels has long been good at this kind of mood: records that can work in a DJ set while still carrying a bit of longing around the edges. “The Reason Why” fits that lineage well because it does not push the vocal into melodrama. It lets Bákayan give the track a lived-in feeling without pulling it away from the floor.

Kaspar’s Own Voice Changes the Second Half

The most interesting decision on the EP is Kaspar putting his own vocals at the center of “Play With Me” and “I Love Your Voice.” That gives the back half of The Reason Why a more personal feel, especially after the title track has already opened the emotional door.

“Play With Me” works as a subtle late-night grower, built around trippy synth details and sci-fi touches. The track does not need a dramatic peak because its mood comes from the way the voice and production keep circling each other.

“I Love Your Voice” closes the EP in a more open mid-tempo space, carrying the idea of holding onto the voices of people who love you when everything else gets loud. That is a simple emotional premise, but it lands because of where it appears. After three tracks that move between control, groove, and vocal atmosphere, the closer lets the EP end somewhere more exposed.

I wrote about vocal-led dance music in my article on how to write catchy vocals, and Kaspar’s approach here fits one of the better lessons in that area: a voice does not have to dominate the record to change how the whole production feels.

The post Jonathan Kaspar Puts His Own Voice Into Club Music appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The Brussels duo, formed by Ben and Ema, operates at the point where melodic ambient, downtempo, and experimental electronics start to blur into one another. Their single “Parity” sits directly in that pocket. It has movement, but it never feels rushed. It has weight, but it does not turn into a club record. It has melody, but it keeps its emotions held close.

That restraint is what makes it work.

“Parity” doesn’t announce itself on some type of massive, larger-than-life scale and instead draws the listener in with smaller decisions: the texture of the drums, the warmth of the harmony, the depth of the low-end, and the pluck synth line that keeps returning without forcing the whole track into a traditional hook.

Perfume of Static’s bio describes the project as music built like environments in which melodies emerge, dissolve, and return. That is exactly the right way to hear this track. “Parity” feels less like a linear build and more like a place you step into.

The Details Do the Heavy Lifting

The first thing that pulls “Parity” into focus is the percussion.

The drums have enough texture to keep the track from becoming distant, with subtle hits, subtle edges, and tactile movement that give the record a physical presence. That matters in this kind of electronic music because atmosphere can flatten quickly when the rhythm section becomes too polite.

Perfume of Static avoids that problem by giving the drums character. They do not overpower the track; quite the contrary, it all works to make the softer parts feel closer, resulting in intimacy without becoming fragile, and in a cinematic feel without needing a dramatic payoff every few bars.

That kind of detail-first production makes me think about me Hologram Electronics Microcosm review, where texture becomes interesting because it changes how the listener tracks movement inside a piece. “Parity” reaches that kind of effect from its own palette, using percussion, low-end, and melody as the main points of contact.

The Pluck Melody Gives the Track a Center

The pluck synth is the clearest melodic anchor in “Parity.”

It not exactly acting like a big chorus line because it’s smaller than that (…and better for it). The phrase gives the listener something to hold without breaking the track’s suspended mood. It appears, leaves room around itself, and returns with enough familiarity to make the record feel personal.

That is where Perfume of Static’s balance becomes more apparent.

Their music moves between stillness and motion, clear lines and blurred edges, emotional detail and textural uncertainty. “Parity” puts those tensions into a compact single. The title itself suggests equality, reflection, or opposing sides held in relation to each other. It lets the parts sit in a careful balance instead of spelling it all out for you.

Warm harmony sits against unfamiliar texture. The bass gives the track physical weight. The drums create motion. The melody keeps the feeling restrained.

None of those parts need to dominate for the track to work.

Perfume of Static Keep the Scale Human

The best part of “Parity” is that it never overreaches.

Perfume of Static could have made the track bigger. They could have pushed the drums harder, widened the arrangement, or turned the pluck line into something more obvious. Instead, they leave the track in a narrower emotional space, where the details have more room to speak.

That gives the single its identity.

“Parity” is intimate, cinematic, and slightly unsettled. It feels carefully shaped, but not sterile. The track has enough distortion and unfamiliar texture to keep it from becoming too soft, while the harmonic movement keeps the mood from feeling cold.

That balance is hard to maintain.

It is also what makes Perfume of Static worth paying attention to. Their music does not rely on spectacle. It relies on small contrasts: melody against noise, stillness against pulse, low-end depth against fragile detail.

“Parity” Rewards Patience

“Parity” is not a track that tries to win the room in the first few seconds.

It asks for a slower kind of attention. That is the right choice for Perfume of Static. Ben and Ema are working in a lane where the emotional payoff comes from texture, repetition, restraint, and the way small musical events return with slightly different meaning.

That makes “Parity” feel lived-in as the drums give it touch, the bass gives it its weight, and my own personal favorite layer of the whole alchemy, the plucked melody, gives it all its shape. Add on a healthy dose of atmospherics, and it all works its magic to create its strange emotional temperature.

For a duo making music between melodic ambient, downtempo, and experimental electronics, this is the right kind of single. It does not try to explain the project in one oversized gesture. It lets the listener understand Perfume of Static by sitting inside their language for a few minutes. “Parity” is careful, physical, and quietly absorbing. It stays with you because it never tries too hard to prove itself.

Listen to ‘Parity’ and find Perfume of Static’s official links at perfumeofstatic.com.”

The post Perfume of Static Let “Parity” Sit in the In-Between appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The project has a real through-line, and that makes the title work. ALCHEMY is centered on transformation, but not in the polished, motivational way the word is sometimes used. It is more about what happens when you are inside the experiment and do not fully understand what it is turning you into yet.

That is a better fit for electronic music than a lot of concept language because production is already a process of unstable decisions. You change one sound, and the whole record tilts. You bring in a vocalist, and the emotional center moves (even if just a little). You sit with an idea for months, and the version that survives is not always the one you thought you were building.

HEXED seems to understand that here.

The five-track EP moves between heavy low-end pressure, vocal-driven writing, and collaboration without losing the sense that one person is steering the system. HEXED handled the production, engineering, and vocal production throughout, which gives the project a tighter identity even as different voices enter the frame.

“How Does It Feel” Opens the Door Wider

“How Does It Feel” was the first track to start making noise before the EP landed, and it is easy to understand why.

The record brings BASSBABE and Casey Veggies into the HEXED orbit, and the pairing gives the track a wider reach than a standard bass release. BASSBABE came up with the original idea for the track, and Casey Veggies chose it after HEXED sent him the full project. That detail is worth mentioning because it gives the collaboration a more organic read.

That is also where ALCHEMY begins to set itself apart from a typical independent bass EP.

The low end is there and it’s knockin’. The vocal work is there in spades as well. But HEXED is clearly interested in records that can move between scenes without sounding like they are chasing all of them at once. “How Does It Feel” has already picked up support from Dubstep FBI, Dubstep Don, River Beats, HipHopSince1987, Casey Veggies, Riff Raff, Jon Gruden, and Sammy Adams, which says a lot about the lane this project is trying to occupy.

It is bass music with enough hip-hop and vocal identity to travel outside a narrow DJ-tool context.

That same crossover question comes up often in bass music, and our article on Beatport launching Bass House as its own genre category still feels relevant as a larger marker of how low-end-driven music keeps splintering into more specific scenes. HEXED is working in a different sound, but the underlying point is close: bass music works best when the low end has a clear identity.

The Collaborators Shape the Phases

The strongest part of ALCHEMY is how the collaborators feel connected to different stages of the project’s process.

“Déjà Vu” evolved for more than a year with Saratonin before Jadhé delivered the final topline. That kind of timeline matters because you can hear when a track has been lived with for a while. Some records feel assembled. Others feel like they went through enough versions to earn the final shape.

“Déjà Vu” fits the second category.

MagMag helps frame the EP’s beginning and end with “Vessel” and “Glory,” with 2FISTD also appearing on the closing track. That framing gives the project more shape than a straight run of singles. It gives the EP an entry point and an exit point, helping the concept land without over-explanation.

That is a big part of why the project works.

ALCHEMY is not asking every track to do the same thing as it moves through phases, which fits the idea behind the title. Some moments feel like initiation. Some feel heavier and more direct. Some feel like the residue after the experiment has already changed the room.

For another angle on how collaborators can shape a release without taking it away from the main artist, our feature on Vibe Chemistry’s Serotonin is a good adjacent reference. Different genre, different energy, but the same lesson applies: a project feels more complete when the guest moments serve the larger arc.

That same point came up in my article on plugins for vocal chops, where the voice can function as hook, texture, rhythm, and emotional anchor depending on how it is treated. HEXED is working from that same basic understanding here with the vocal being part of the architecture.

ALCHEMY Is Out Now

HEXED’s ALCHEMY EP is out now independently.

The five-track release brings together BASSBABE, Casey Veggies, Saratonin, Jadhé, MagMag, and 2FISTD, with HEXED handling production, engineering, and vocal production across the project.

The strongest thing about the EP is that it does not feel accidental in any way, shape, or form. It has a clear idea behind it, but it still lets the records move like songs instead of concept-board pieces. The low end hits, the vocals stay central, and the collaborations each give the project a different kind of pressure.

For HEXED, ALCHEMY feels like a line in the sand. Not because it tries to answer everything, but because it captures the process of becoming something in real time.

The post ALCHEMY Shows HEXED’s Bass Music Transformation appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

“Party” is out now, and it does not waste much time pretending to be subtle. The track pulls from trance, hard dance, and bass music, with pounding drums, steamy synth pressure, and a vocal built to pull the whole thing toward late-night festival territory.

That is the hook here.

This is not a delicate meeting of three artists trying to meet in the middle. It is a record that uses the contrast between them as the engine. Reinier Zonneveld brings the Filth on Acid edge and peak-time techno pressure. Nicky Romero brings the festival-scale instinct and melodic-dance muscle. CERES gives the track its crossover vocal pull, which keeps the record from becoming pure machinery.

The result is blunt, loud, and built for big rooms.

Filth on Acid Is the Right Home

“Party” landing on Filth on Acid gives the record a clear home.

Zonneveld’s label has long worked best when it pushes techno into harder, stranger, more rave-facing territory. It is not the place you go for polite club music. It is a label built around impact, distortion, acid pressure, trance edges, and the kind of records that feel designed to hit when the room is already running hot.

That makes “Party” feel less like a random crossover single and more like a Filth on Acid release with a wider cast.

The Nicky Romero side is what gives it another angle. Romero’s catalog is tied to large-scale dance music, festival hooks, and polished mainstage instincts. Putting that energy inside a Zonneveld-led framework gives “Party” a different shape than a standard EDM collaboration. It is rougher, faster, and more hard-edged than the radio-facing version of this pairing might have been.

For context around how much modern festival music keeps pulling harder sounds into the center, our ADE Pro 2026 coverage touched on how electronic music’s current festival economy is less cleanly divided by genre than it used to be. “Party” sits directly in that messier overlap.

CERES Gives the Track Its Human Center

The vocal is what keeps “Party” from turning into a pure pressure exercise.

CERES brings the seductive, direct topline that gives the track something for crowds to grab onto between the drums and synth weight. That role matters because heavy electronic records often need one simple human thread to make the chaos readable.

Without that vocal, “Party” would still work as a hard festival tool. With it, the track has a clearer identity. The vocal does not soften the record. It gives the record a face.

That same principle comes up often in vocal-led dance music. In my article on plugins for vocal chops, the larger point was that the voice can carry rhythm, memory, texture, and crowd recognition all at once. CERES is not being used as background decoration here. Her presence gives the track its most immediate point of contact.

That is especially important in a release where the production is built to overwhelm.

“Party” Is Out Now

Reinier Zonneveld, Nicky Romero, and CERES’ “Party” is out now via Filth on Acid.

The track arrives as FOA229 and includes an Extended Mix and Radio Edit. It is a festival-focused collision of hard dance, trance, techno pressure, and vocal-led bass energy, built for the part of the night where subtlety is no longer the point.

That is the cleanest read on it.

“Party” is not trying to reinvent what these artists do. It puts them in the same room, turns up the pressure, and lets each part of the collaboration do the job it came to do.

The post Reinier Zonneveld, Nicky Romero and CERES Launch “Party” appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

“Roll With The Rhythm” opens the release with a bouncy low end, a rap-vocal attitude, bright chord stabs, and a garage bassline bite that feels built for busy rooms. “All The Love,” featuring Winter Games, takes the second slot into a more euphoric vocal direction, using relentless piano chords, pitched-up hooks, and chunky drums to lean into the peak-season festival energy around the release.

That range fits the larger point Jamie makes in the interview below.

He is not trying to turn the Jamie Unknown project into a rigid brand exercise, and he is not interested in releasing the same record over and over just because the last one worked. His answer is taste: if the music feels exciting, playful, energetic, and real to him, it belongs. In an era where artists are often pushed to have a gimmick before they have a catalog, that feels like the healthier read.

Interview With Jamie Unknown

Do you feel like DJs today are expected to have a “thing” — a gimmick, look, or brand?

With how much social media has changed and attention spans have shortened, there’s definitely more pressure on artists to have a clear “thing” that grabs people’s attention — whether that’s a strong identity, look or gimmick.

All of those things can help you cut through, but I’m a firm believer they should never become more important than the music. In such a saturated industry, artists who consistently make or play great music will always shine through.

Have you ever felt boxed in by how others describe or market you?

Not particularly. I’ve always pushed against the idea that artists need to stick to one sound or identity.

No two releases of mine are really the same — they’ve ranged from variations of house and UKG to electro — because I genuinely love so many sides of electronic music. It’s the same with my DJ sets; as a punter, I’ve always loved seeing DJs where you never quite know what you’re going to hear, and that’s something I try to bring to my own sets too.

How do you approach consistency without becoming predictable?

I don’t think consistency means making the same type of record over and over again. For me, it comes from my taste — if I genuinely love a record and it excites me, then it makes sense as a Jamie Unknown record. Whatever the genre, I want my music to have energy, a playful side and never take itself too seriously.

That’s probably the thread that ties everything together.

What’s been your process for discovering your identity without forcing it?

To be completely honest, I still feel like I’m finding my identity.

People around me say they can always recognise a Jamie Unknown record, even when I don’t necessarily hear it myself. I never want to be put in a box — music is constantly evolving, so I think artists should be too. For me, switching things up keeps it fun, keeps me learning and allows my identity to develop naturally rather than forcing it.

Are there artists you admire for not having a thing — or for constantly evolving?

Dusky are a huge one for me. I’ve followed them since I first got into dance music around 2011, and they’ve constantly evolved while always sounding fresh and exciting. They’ve never been afraid to move beyond the sound people might associate them with. MPH is another — you instantly know one of his records from the drums, melodic chops and vocal choices, but that identity never feels limiting.

To me, both show that evolving and having a recognisable identity don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

How do you remind yourself that you don’t need to explain your choices to everyone?

This is something I struggled with for a while. After a string of “successful” releases and finally starting to get my name out there, I felt immense pressure to follow them up — and honestly, it really got to me. Eventually I realised I needed to stop worrying so much about what other people might think and just release music I genuinely love.

We start making music because we enjoy it, and releasing it should ultimately be about sharing that with other people.

What would you say to someone who feels like they’re not “distinct” enough?

Don’t force it. I think being distinct comes naturally with time, through making and playing the music you genuinely love. Your taste, influences and personality will inevitably find their way into what you do. I’m still figuring it out myself, and I think that’s part of the fun.

Focus on making great music that excites you rather than trying to manufacture a “thing” — your identity will follow.

Closing Thoughts From The Editor

Jamie’s answers get at a real pressure point for modern club artists: the expectation that a project needs to be instantly explainable before the music has had time to grow. A look, a slogan, a visual lane, a clip-friendly personality, a narrow sound — all of it can help people understand an artist quickly. But Jamie is right to separate those things from the actual work. A clear identity can help people find you. It should not become the cage you have to keep producing inside.

That connects with my interview with Douvelle19 on taste, friendship, and the records that shape a DJ’s identity. Douvelle19’s story was less about locking into one marketable lane and more about building an ear over time, shaped by friends, scenes, and records that keep opening new doors. Jamie is making a related point from the production side. The catalog can move across house, UKG, bassline, and electro if the underlying taste is consistent enough to hold the name together.

The genre-fluid side of “Roll With The Rhythm / All The Love” also connects with MPH’s role in the current UK garage conversation, even if Jamie is not making a straight UKG release here. The point is that garage’s swing, bass pressure, chopped vocal energy, and rhythmic looseness have become part of a wider club vocabulary. Jamie uses that vocabulary without treating it like a strict template, which is why both tracks can sit beside house and bassline without feeling like a genre exercise.

The better read on Jamie Unknown right now is that the “thing” is not a gimmick at all.

It is a refusal to flatten the project into one answer too soon. In a climate where artists are told to package themselves neatly for short attention spans, his position is refreshingly simple: make records he loves, keep the energy playful, trust the taste, and let the identity become visible over time.

The post Jamie Unknown Explains Why Taste Beats Branding appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.