The two-track release, out July 10, 2026, follows PART II – SKYFIRE and moves the album’s larger story from collapse toward renewal. Across “Sunrise” featuring JEX and “Synchronise,” Blanke works with two different expressions of hope: one brighter and more melodic, the other heavier and more tied to the midtempo roots that helped define his earlier sound.

The release lands during a major year for JP Orchison, the Australian-born, Denver-based producer behind Blanke and ÆON. Across both projects, he has built a catalog that moves between melodic bass, heavy bass, progressive ideas, and drum & bass, with releases on Monstercat, Ophelia, Deadbeats, and Ministry of Sound. His credits include collaborations with Illenium, REZZ, Seven Lions, Zeds Dead, Gryffin, NGHTMRE, Big Gigantic, Dabin, and ATLiens, along with official remixes for Marshmello, SLANDER, and Sullivan King.

In the interview below, Blanke talks about hype cycles, short-form content, authenticity, and how his years in club spaces still shape the way he builds sets today. His answers align with the larger arc of AWAKENING, especially in how he thinks about influence, consumption, pressure, and the ongoing question of what kind of artist he wants to be.

The release may be part of a larger album campaign, but the conversation beneath it is broader: how to stay close to your own instincts as music culture moves faster than ever.

Interview With Blanke

Have you noticed certain styles or voices cycle through popularity quickly? What do you notice about that pattern?

Of course. Dance music seems somewhat susceptible to these cycles, and it seems to be accelerating with the continuing rise and influence of social media, technology, and general connectivity.

This applies to virtually everything in our world currently, and I see a few factors contributing to it, specifically for art.

The ease with which we can consume any given media means people cycle through it faster, requiring us as artists to create faster. The availability of analytics means we can tailor our art to appease the masses more easily, potentially resulting in more palatable art instead of art with depth, which also influences the pace of the cycle.

If art is consumed more easily, through streaming instead of having to buy a CD, consumers tire of it faster, which creates a demand for more. The ease with which our tools allow us to create art also factors into this.

It is quite easy to make art these days because of how easy it is to acquire and learn the programs and tools, and then to use samples, presets, AI, and so on. So we as artists have a moral battle to face regarding what we make, how we make it, and who it is for: for us, for everybody else, or worse, the algorithm.

Have there been moments where you reassessed your sound in response to changing aesthetics?

Yes. I think your surroundings and your experiences shape your influences.

The first time I noticed a larger shift was when I moved to America. Touring around the country, meeting new artists, and being exposed to new crowds and scenes influenced what I made quite a lot. It continues to influence me.

I am constantly shifting, for better or for worse, my sound and what I make. I have recently realized that I ventured a little too far in a direction that started to feel alien to me, so I readjusted. I tried to rediscover what makes me feel unique and what feels authentic to me, which I think is often a difficult concept to grasp.

What is authenticity when you are constantly being influenced by everything around you? It is a reflection of exactly that. Your art is an amalgamation of your current and past influences. A gigantic mash-up of experiences collected across your life and reflected out through your art. The ratio of those influences is what might define what one makes.

For example, if I went to a show and was insanely inspired by an artist I saw, then went home and made something exactly like, or “influenced by,” what I just saw, how much of that is a reflection of me? How authentic is that? I think it is a fascinating thought experiment.

I love creating from that kind of excitement. That is the best place to create from. There is no right or wrong answer, but it is an interesting observation of how we create.

Is it better to not be directly inspired by something? Should we cut ourselves off every so often from consuming anything for a period of time so we have a fresher slate, drawing inspiration from within ourselves instead of what is directly outside? Would that produce the most pure, authentic art from oneself? Who knows. Again, there is no right or wrong answer. It perhaps depends on the artist’s desired outcome.

In your view, what changes when music is consumed primarily as short-form content?

I am not sure if it is unfortunate or not, but what changes is perhaps the amount of timeless music.

We have more pressure to create faster and to create for an algorithm that services mass appeal. But that is not a new phenomenon. We have always had this dilemma.

Artists have always craved validation by making accessible music to get on the radio, for example. That is a type of algorithm. A type of game. You make something in the hopes of fitting into that realm, something that would work on the radio. Now it is creating something that would work on TikTok instead.

Again, the accessibility of it all creates an abundance of it. We can make music more easily, post that music within minutes, and then receive feedback in the same amount of time. It just gives us more of an opportunity to decide what kind of artist we want to be.

While it is effortless to choose the easy route, it has no guarantee of working either. And if it does, how do we manage the looming problem of whether making that music is actually fulfilling to us?

It also creates a massive opportunity for the individual artist, as we can now get our art into the eyes and ears of potentially millions of people from a single post on our own. No label, no executive, no playlisting, all for free. So, in some sense, we have more control. How we want to use it is the question.

We need to learn that it is okay to not have millions of views. Creating authentically, posting authentically, and cultivating a smaller, more dedicated audience will always be a sounder strategy than creating for absolutely everyone and diluting your work.

What practices help you stay connected to the deeper cultural threads within club culture?

I am not sure. I am fairly focused on myself and what I am trying to cultivate in a live show sense, which sometimes feels separate from pure club culture.

I came from club culture as a DJ. What I do now is somewhat different from that, though. As a more focused artist, DJing is a means of performing and exposing your art.

Back when I was just a DJ, the DJing was the art alone. It was not about performing my own music, since I did not have any back then. It was about playing others’ music to cultivate a vibe and a flow for the club itself, without needing to inject my own music or creations.

It was so addictive. The focus was less about you and more about the room.

There is still a tie to digging for tunes and creating sets, as everything I learned from opening and closing beautifully dark and dingy clubs for years directly influences the sound and flow of my sets now. Digging for great music is still the same.

The rare occasion that I get to play an afterparty is the closest I get to what it felt like DJing at clubs. It is a fantastic reminder of where I came from.

The post Blanke On Hype Cycles, Club Culture, And The Road To His Debut Album appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The collaboration sits firmly within progressive house at 123 BPM, giving the melodic ideas time to develop across a measured arrangement. Aaron and Enzo keep the groove moving underneath the main synth work, which gives DJs plenty of space to bring the record into a longer progressive set.

Early DJ support has already helped the release reach listeners ahead of its official date. Hernan Cattaneo supported the single, while Paul van Dyk included it in VONYC Sessions Episode 1028; so check it out below!

Aaron Suiss returns after “Relayered”

Aaron’s first Magnetic Magazine Recordings single established why his music fits the label. As I wrote in my premiere of “Relayered,” he lets records open gradually and gives each section enough time to register before introducing the next idea.

“Self-Actualization” continues that approach while bringing Enzo Vood into the writing. The track keeps its melodic focus while maintaining enough pressure underneath for club play. It also extends Aaron’s recent run following “Legend,” which reached No. 2 on the Progressive House chart, and his remix of DJ SAN’s “Forest Skyline.”

Alongside his artist work, Aaron serves as A&R and Label Manager for Stan Kolev and Matan Caspi’s Outta Limits Recordings. That experience gives him a direct understanding of how a record needs to function once another DJ places it inside a set.

The thinking behind “Self-Actualization”

The title also connects naturally with ideas Aaron discussed when I interviewed him about keeping a healthy relationship with music. Raised near Washington, DC, and Baltimore before moving to Thailand, he has learned to keep his identity from depending entirely on bookings and chart results.

Aaron spoke about exercise and spending time near the sea, especially when he becomes stuck on a track. Taking time away allows him to return with a clearer idea of what the music needs.

That patience remains easy to hear in his production. “Self-Actualization” gives Aaron Suiss and Enzo Vood room to develop the main ideas without rushing the payoff, and the result adds another focused progressive house release to the Magnetic Magazine Recordings catalog.

“Self-Actualization” by Aaron Suiss and Enzo Vood is out now on Magnetic Magazine Recordings.

The post Aaron Suiss and Enzo Vood Release “Self-Actualization” on Magnetic Magazine Recordings appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

That context is important because “Mandjou” is not being treated like a quick edit or a simple vocal lift. The new version uses Keita’s original voice as the emotional center, then builds around it with organic instrumentation, tribal percussion, and the kind of restrained club movement that lets the vocal keep its dignity.

This kind of record can go wrong quickly when the production tries to overpower the source material. Here, the collaborators seem more interested in giving the song a new room to live in.

MoBlack has said the track began as a spark in 2024 before developing over time with Bedouin, Salif Keita, and Feki Station. That slower process makes sense for a release like this. A voice as recognizable as Keita’s does not need a heavy-handed club rebuild. It needs space, rhythm, and a producer’s hand that knows when to step back.

Bedouin and Feki Station Give the Track Its Club Architecture

Bedouin’s involvement gives the record a natural bridge into melodic, organic, and deep house spaces. The duo’s work around their SAGA party in Ibiza has long sat close to this kind of atmospheric club language, where rhythm, melody, and setting are all part of the experience.

Feki Station adds another layer to the release, coming in with support across MoBlack Records and attention from names such as Black Coffee, Keinemusik, and Damian Lazarus. That background helps explain why the “Mandjou” rework feels built for global dancefloors without sanding away the cultural source of the record.

This is where the collaboration finds its shape. MoBlack brings the Afro-house language and relationship with Keita’s music. Bedouin bring melodic and organic club instincts. Feki Station helps push the track into a contemporary dance context. The result feels unified because each contributor serves the song rather than trying to stamp their own name across it.

Afro-House Reworks Need Taste Before Anything Else

There is a lot of interest right now in older vocals, global rhythms, and house records that draw from African musical traditions. That can lead to beautiful records, but it can also lead to flattening when producers treat heritage as decoration.

“Mandjou” avoids that by putting Keita’s vocal performance first and letting the production grow around it. The drums, bass movement, and melodic details are there to create motion, not to erase the original character of the song.

That same question sits underneath a lot of club-facing reworks: how do you make something work for DJs without losing what made the source material meaningful? I wrote about a related dancefloor-first idea in my article on Patrick Topping’s club-focused Hellbent release, where the record’s purpose was clear because it understood the room it was built for. “Mandjou” has a different emotional register, but it also understands its room.

This Is Club Music Built Around Patience and Connection

MoBlack’s quote around the release is telling. He describes “Mandjou” as a track that took time to find its true identity, with each collaborator adding something meaningful along the way. That is a good way to understand the final result. The record does not feel forced into a drop-heavy shape. It grows.

That growth is what gives the track its pull. The groove stays steady, the percussion keeps the body involved, and Keita’s vocal gives the record its human center. For a rework of a beloved song, that is the right order of priorities.

For Magnetic readers who follow house music across scenes and eras, my article on artists working around Green Velvet’s house and tech-house lineage points to a similar larger truth: the best club records tend to last when the groove carries a personality bigger than the loop. “Mandjou” reaches for that by letting a classic vocal lead the way inside a modern Afro-house setting.

“Mandjou” is out now via Decca Records France.

The post MoBlack, Bedouin, and Feki Station Bring Salif Keita’s “Mandjou” Into an Afro-House Frame appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The Stuttgart-based DJ, producer, and live performer moves across ambient, disco, house, acid, and the occasional techno-leaning cut, but this release narrows the focus back toward laid-back grooves and the emotional middle ground between melancholy and hope. It is music built for that moment on the dancefloor when the night starts softening and the sun begins to come up.

That feeling also explains the production choices.

The EP was made simply, using a Juno, field recordings captured without much planning, a sample or two, and straightforward drums. Mäder is clear that he is not chasing some perfect mix or technical ideal here. The title says the point plainly enough: it is about the vibe, the party, and the people.

In the interview below, Mäder talks about self-promotion, visibility, and how staying connected to house music helped clarify the way he presents himself publicly. His answers are refreshingly low-pressure in a culture that often turns identity into a content strategy.

For him, the music comes first, connection matters more than appearance, and the best parties are usually the ones where the DJ is not the center of attention and the culture is more than any singular thing.

Interview With Jakob Mäder

How do you approach self-promotion in a way that reflects your real identity?

I actually try not to overthink that too much.

For me, music always comes first. All that social media thing is nice to connect with people around the world, but to be honest, I just post whatever feels good in that moment. Maybe, with that in mind, it is real.

Have there been moments where refining your public presence led to personal clarity?

It definitely helped shape my musical identity.

I noticed more and more hard, loud, fast music, which I personally do not enjoy so much, and therefore saw the need to point out that what I do is house.

In turn, that led to a more confident and reasoned position in letting people know, and being safe with myself, that this is the musical direction I want to go in and become known for.

What principles guide how you present yourself online or in press materials?

I want to be seen as an authentic and humble person.

I do not want to be recognized for my style, outfit, or any kind of appearance, but for the music and maybe for creating connection.

The best parties are when there is no focus on the DJ. As the title of my recent EP on SATYA says, it is about the vibe, the party, and the people.

How has your relationship to visibility evolved over time?

I am repeating myself, but years ago, I really liked the idea of reaching people around the world with music, social media posts, and visibility.

Nowadays, I find it crazy that a lot of people have more focus on their appearance on social media than on producing, selecting, digging, and music.

All the careers are built on music in the end. We should come back to the essence every now and then, I guess.

What helps you distinguish between genuine connection and strategic presentation?

As I am not that much into strategic things, I just naturally do what feels right and maybe experiment every now and then.

But again, not too much thinking, or let’s say planning, is what leads to the most genuine and real appearance in my opinion.

What perspective would you offer to younger DJs navigating authenticity and exposure?

In general, do what you love and work with people you feel a real connection with.

Do it for your own reasons, not for any kind of external confirmation.

If you love music, present music. If you love performing on stage or social media, do that. But do not feel forced to do any of this. It should always come from your own motivation to do it.

And of course, do not go too crazy. Prioritize your own mental health, always.

The post Jakob Mäder On Why The Best Parties Are Not About The DJ appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The film gives the label a clear starting point, showing the human side of a scene that has been steadily building its own voice inside the wider international drum & bass community.

The label’s first single, “Feeling Quite Lucky,” which dropped on June 19 as a collaboration between Transylvanian vocalist and writer Blocksberg and Romanian producer Azotix (@azotix_). Blocksberg brings the emotional vocal character that first caught attention on “Stay” with Mefjus, while Azotix comes in with releases on VISION, Overview Music, and Critical Music, plus support from names like Halogenix and Rockwell.

Together, the track works as an introduction to the label’s sound: soulful, high-energy drum & bass with a clear link to the Romanian talent Quite Lucky is trying to push outward.

In the interview below, Azotix talks about depth, hype cycles, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who remind you to make the music you actually care about. His answers fit the label’s wider mission because they keep coming back to community, taste, and patience rather than quick visibility. For an artist tuned into modern DJ Culture and tied to a project built on writing camps, documentaries, and real creative exchange, that perspective feels like the right place to start.

Interview With Azotix

How do you define depth in your work as a DJ?

It would have to be the amount of effort put into actually picking out the right tunes, the ones that actually move me in some sort of way.

I feel like a lot of DJs go too safe with their tracklists, especially in the drum & bass scene. In the past couple of years, though, I have been seeing more and more people dropping 140 and garage in their sets, which I think is lovely.

It goes to show you really can have some fun with a drum & bass crowd.

Have you ever had to consciously step away from hype cycles to protect your process?

Not really.

I am constantly surrounded by the right people, and I have always been told to make what I actually want to make, which is a narrative that is not being pushed enough nowadays in my opinion.

What is something you have built over time that you are proud of, even if it did not trend?

I am quite proud of my discography.

I have managed to collaborate with and remix artists I would have never thought possible just a few years ago.

I would say I have not really had a so-called breakout tune or EP yet, but I am not rushing it. Things like that take time, especially if you do not want to make music that kind of blends in with everything else and ends up being forgotten.

How do you cultivate growth that feels real, not performative?

Taking your time with it, trying not to make social media your whole persona, and trying to do something a bit different.

I think that is what actually gets you a fanbase.

Posting yourself dancing to some tune you made might get you a lot of likes, but realistically, it does not really build anything in the long term.

When you look back, what do you notice about the things that aged well versus the things that burned out fast?

The things that aged well are the ones that had some actual thought put into them.

Take a look at the liquid and minimal tunes from maybe a decade or two ago. Maybe they were not as great technically, but a lot of them have aged gracefully due to the fact that people just made what they liked, not thinking about what might get the next Beatport No. 1 and so on.

I feel like older tunes had this sort of finesse that only a select few artists have these days.

Is there a part of your work that the public does not see, but fuels everything?

I would say just hanging around with fellow artists at shows gives me this drive that I do not really get from anything else.

Every time I am backstage at some club and have conversations with the people around me, I get all these ideas on what I should do next.

A lot of the time, I end up with some new tunes afterward.

How do you stay committed to the long game when hype is louder than craft?

Referring to what I said earlier, I would say surrounding yourself with the right people is essential to not giving in to the hype.

Sometimes you are blinded by the amount of listeners you might be able to get if you started making some other subgenre of drum & bass, but at the end of the day, not everything that is selling like crazy on Beatport is necessarily good.

If you have the right people beside you, they will let you know that you do not have to give in.

Just keep believing in what you actually love making, and something good will come of it.

The post Azotix On Why Drum & Bass Needs More Risk Behind The Decks appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The Martinez Brothers have released “Impressions,” a new single that takes their dancefloor instincts and points them toward the feeling of a first encounter. Out now via EMPIRE, the track is built around the rush of meeting someone, the strange pull of anonymity, and the way a short moment can stay in your head longer than expected.

Steve and Chris Martinez have always had a way of making house music feel social before anything else. Their records are built for rooms, but the best ones also carry the loose human feel of people moving, reacting, flirting, and locking into the same groove. “Impressions” leans into that part of their identity. It is romantic without getting soft, polished without losing its physical center, and broad enough to feel like the start of a bigger phase.

The single also sets up a longer release path. “Impressions” is the first of three tracks expected to build toward a larger body of work in mid-to-late Q4 2026, which makes this feel less like a one-off single and more like a first door into the next Martinez Brothers chapter.

“Impressions” Puts the Feeling First Without Losing the Groove

The idea behind “Impressions” is simple, which helps the track. It is about the spark of a new encounter and the way love, curiosity, and anonymity can all land at once. The Martinez Brothers take that emotional setup and run it over a house framework that still feels made for the floor.

That balance is the important part. A record about romance can easily drift into soft-focus territory, especially when the press language around it is heavy on feeling. “Impressions” avoids that by keeping the groove active. The track still moves like a Martinez Brothers record, with enough swing and body to stay tied to the club.

There is also a more live, musical feel here. The release notes point to a group of Grammy-nominated producers and live instrumentalists working around the brothers, and you can hear the intent in the way the record reaches for warmth beyond a straight loop-based club tool.

Live Instrumentation Gives the Track a Wider Shape

The live instrumentation angle is where “Impressions” separates itself from a more standard summer house single. The Martinez Brothers have always carried the sound of New York around them, from Latin jazz and salsa to disco and house, and that background makes a track like this feel believable.

The song is still built for DJs, but it does not sound boxed into a purely functional lane. The instrumental details give the track more color, while the rhythm keeps it from becoming too decorative. That is the line this duo often walks well. They can bring a musical idea into a club format without making it feel overworked.

For anyone who has followed them over the years, that musicality has been there from the start. In an older Magnetic archive piece where Shonky interviewed Larry Heard, Delano Smith, and The Martinez Brothers, the conversation around shared house roots and soulful foundations still feels relevant to where “Impressions” lands now. The scale is bigger, but the social and musical grounding is still there.

Cuttin’ Headz Still Explains Part of Their Taste

Even with “Impressions” coming via EMPIRE, The Martinez Brothers’ Cuttin’ Headz identity is still part of how many listeners understand their taste. The label has long connected stripped club function, New York-rooted rhythm, and underground credibility with a wider audience.

That label ecosystem came up again in my production feature on Aamir Zee’s “On Time”, where the extended Cuttin’ Headz and Boogeyman orbit helped explain a stripped, low-end-focused approach to club production. “Impressions” is a different kind of record, but it still carries the same lesson: the groove has to feel good before any larger concept can work.

The Martinez Brothers have built a career around that principle. The audience may be larger now, but the records still need that first physical response.

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The post The Martinez Brothers Lean Into First-Meeting Energy on “Impressions” appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

If you’re looking for a plain and simple way to think about it, silence and creativity connect because silence gives your ears and taste enough room to tell you what the session needs, rather than having every choice run through whatever you listened to, watched, or compared yourself to right before opening the DAW.

That sounds simple, yet it is one of those things that gets easy to ignore once the release calendar starts filling up and the studio turns into a constant intake machine, and it’s something that I couldn’t stop coming back to in Sequencer: A Music Producer’s Guide To Building An Artistic Life. You hear finished tracks all day, you watch other producers move fast online, you check your own rough bounce against polished records, and by the time you actually sit down to work, there is so much input in your head that the session has to compete for your attention.

That is where silence becomes useful in a very unconvoluted way.

It gives you a small amount of space before the next decision, and for a producer who is dealing with too much sound, too much comparison, and too much pressure to keep moving, that space can be the difference between fixing the actual problem and spending another hour making the session busier.

Why does this problem show up for producers

Music producer burnout usually does not start with some huge collapse where the whole process stops working at once. It usually starts smaller than that, with too many inputs stacking up over time until your taste feels a little less available when you need it.

You sit down to work, yet your head is still full of the playlist you had on in the car, the mix notes someone sent that morning, the producer video you watched while eating lunch, and the last ten tracks you checked to see where your own work sits. None of those things is bad on its own, and most of them can be useful in the right amount, yet they become a problem when they never stop.

That is the part producers often miss. The issue is not that they lack discipline. Most producers I know already work a lot, and a lot of them work past the point where the extra time is actually giving them better decisions. The issue is that all that work is happening while their ears are still processing other people’s music, opinions, and timelines.

Inside a DAW session, that can show up in very specific ways.

You add another layer because the section feels small, then you add another effect because the new layer feels flat, then you start adjusting the drums because the whole thing now feels crowded, and by the time you step back, the original idea has been buried under fixes that were reacting to fixes.

Silence gives you a way to break that chain. It does not solve the record for you, and it does not replace taste, skill, or repetition, yet it gives those things a better chance to work because your next move comes from the session in front of you rather than the noise around it.

What the artist’s source says about the importance of silence and creativity in an artist life

In the full Crusy interview on the power of silence, he talks about stepping away in a way that feels the most useful for producers:

“It happens a lot, to be honest. If I feel blocked or tired in my head, I stop completely. I go outside, I drive with no music, just the road and my thoughts. That moment helps clear everything. Many times, after I come back, I realize what the problem was with the track or what I was doing too much.”

That is the part that matters for the producer sitting in front of a session and trying to figure out why the track suddenly feels wrong. Crusy is not talking about silence as some abstract creative state. He is talking about using it when his judgment starts to get worn down, and that is exactly when most producers make the messiest choices.

If you feel blocked or tired in your head, there is a good chance the next edit you make is going to come from stress rather than taste. You might mute the wrong part because you are tired of hearing it. You might add a new synth because the loop feels stale after 90 minutes. You might rewrite the drop because it no longer hits the same way after you have played it 40 times in a row.

This is where studio breaks need to be treated less like procrastination and more like part of the workflow.

A break is only a problem when it has no return point. If you close the DAW because you are avoiding the track and you come back three days later with no plan, that is a different issue. If you step away for ten minutes so your ears can reset and you return with one clear decision to make, that is productive.

How to apply the idea in a real session

The easiest place to apply this is during arrangement, because arrangement is where producers tend to confuse activity with progress. You have a loop that feels good, you start stretching it into sections, and then you keep adding material because the track does not feel finished yet.

That can work early in the process, yet it can also turn into a bad habit fast. The session starts asking for clarity, and you answer with volume. The main idea needs space, and you answer with another layer. The transition needs a cleaner setup, and you answer with another effect.

Try a simpler pass. After you build the first rough arrangement, bounce it, close the DAW, and give yourself ten minutes with no music. No reference track, no podcast, no scrolling, no quick check of another producer’s release. Let your head sit without feeding it anything new.

Then come back and listen once from the top without touching the mouse. Write down the first issue you hear in plain language. The breakdown drags. The bass enters too early. The lead is doing enough and the extra layer is making the hook less clear. The intro takes too long to say what the track is about.

After that, make one edit.

That one edit part matters because silence works best when it leads to a cleaner decision, not another long session of chasing the track around. If the quiet reset tells you the break is too long, shorten the break. If it tells you the percussion is cluttered, mute one part and listen again later. If it tells you the main idea is fine and the pressure is coming from comparison, leave the main idea alone.

The same idea applies to mixing. If you keep turning the same hi hat up and down, stop. If you keep EQing the same pad and the track still feels cloudy, stop. If your master bus decisions start getting more aggressive because the bounce feels worse each time, stop and get quiet for a little bit before the session turns into repair work.

What BAKKIS says about listening before you decide

The BAKKIS interview on listening like a producer gets at the other side of this, which is the skill of hearing what is actually happening instead of reacting to how tired you are of the track:

“A lot of newer producers don’t realize listening is a skill you have to develop. It takes time to train your ears to hear what’s actually happening in a mix and understand how the elements interact.”

That quote is important because it pulls the conversation away from motivation and back toward skill. Listening is not passive. It is a trained part of production, and if your listening is overloaded, your decisions will reflect that.

A producer can know a lot about EQ, compression, arrangement, and reference tracks, yet still make bad choices if the listening state is off. That is why silence and creativity belong together. Silence gives the listening skill a better starting point.

Inside the DAW, this can be as basic as hearing whether the kick and bass are working together, whether the vocal has enough space, whether the main synth is still the center of the track, or whether the support parts are starting to pull attention away from the idea. Those are simple questions, yet they get harder when your head is full of outside sound.

This is also where the book connection starts to make sense. The larger idea behind the Sequencer book page is building repeatable habits that help producers protect the reason they started the track in the first place. Silence fits into that because it helps you hear whether the session still has direction before you keep adding to it.

What to change in the next 30 minutes

The fastest way to use this is to turn it into a 30-minute creative reset.

Open a session that has been annoying you. Listen to the top once, and do not make any edits. Write down the exact section where your attention drops or where the track starts to feel less convincing.

Then close the session. Set a ten-minute timer and avoid music, videos, social feeds, and reference tracks. Walk around, drive without music, clean up the studio desk, or sit somewhere quiet. The activity is less important than the lack of new input.

When the timer ends, open the session and go straight to the section you marked. Do not start at bar one unless you have to. Do not start auditioning new sounds. Make the one edit that seems most obvious after the reset.

Maybe the section needs to be shorter. Maybe one part needs to come out. Maybe the transition needs less automation. Maybe the idea is fine and you have been trying to force drama into a part that already works.

That is the whole point of the exercise. You are training yourself to notice before you react. You are building a habit where silence comes before the edit, and over time, that can make the whole production process feel less crowded.

If you want more production ideas that support better studio decisions without filling your day with extra noise, subscribe to the Magnetic Magazine newsletter and save this article for the next time a session starts to feel unclear.

For a fuller system around quiet routines, creative direction, and repeatable studio habits, Sequencer: A Music Producer’s Guide to Building an Artistic Life is the next logical place to go. You can also browse the creativity archive for artist conversations that connect back to the same problem.

The post Silence and Creativity: Why Quiet Helps Producers Make Better Decisions appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The official DMC41 launch party happens Sunday, August 16, 2026, at the Amphitheatre in Stables Market, Camden Market, from 3 PM to 7 PM. There is no ticket, no registration, and no overcomplicated access system. People can walk in, catch the sets, and get a first taste of the return before the full championship takes over Camden in November.

Cutmaster Swift, a DMC titleholder himself, will perform alongside UK turntablism figure DJ Pogo, with MysDiggi hosting. The event is also set to include free DMC merch, vinyl, slipmats, and giveaways across the afternoon.

Tickets to DMC41 are available now from See Tickets with DAY ONE starting at just £22 and DAY TWO starting at £35.75.

DMC Comes Back to the City Where It Started

DMC began in London in 1985, which gives this return a little more pull than a normal event announcement. The competition has moved across cities and eras, but London is still the origin point for the thing.

The full 2026 championship runs from November 12 to 14 across Camden venues, with three days of competition, performances, and DJ culture built around the turntable as an instrument. Tickets are already available, with Day One starting at £22 and Day Two starting at £35.75.

For anyone who came up on DJ culture through battle routines, vinyl control, scratch videos, or the first time they saw someone rebuild a track live on decks, DMC still has a different kind of aura around it. It is technical, but it is also showmanship. Precision is part of it, and so is personality.

The Free Launch Party Keeps the Door Open

The smartest part of the Camden launch party is how easy it is to enter.

A free, walk-in event at Camden Market puts turntablism in front of people who might never buy a ticket to a championship first. That is how scenes keep oxygen in them. Put the culture where people already are, let the music do the convincing, and give newer listeners a way in without asking them to know the full history before they show up.

That feels especially right for DMC. The competition has always been about unknown DJs stepping into a public arena and proving what they can do with the format.

Magnetic has covered that thread before, including Rane’s TWELVE controller being accepted as DMC performance hardware, a move that showed how battle culture keeps absorbing new formats while still protecting the discipline at the center of it.

Turntablism Still Feels Different in Person

Turntablism is easy to flatten online. You see the clip, catch the punchline, maybe replay the hardest few seconds, then move on. In person, the whole thing reads differently.

You hear the cuts in the room. You feel the timing. You see the hand movement, the mixer work, the body control, the tiny moments where a routine either locks in or slips. That is a big part of why events like DMC still work after four decades.

The competition has helped put names like A-Trak, DJ Qbert, Craze, Cash Money, Roc Raida, C2C, Scratch Perverts, DJ Fly, and Kentaro into DJ history. It also keeps creating a place where a bedroom DJ can walk in unknown and leave with a name people remember.

That same legacy shows up in our Point Blank feature on Rena Hyashi, a DMC World DJ Champion, where the championship context sits right inside the larger path from practice room to public stage.

The free launch party is simple: Sunday, August 16, 3 PM to 7 PM, Amphitheater at Stables Market, Camden Market. Cutmaster Swift, DJ Pogo, MysDiggi, and no ticket required.

For DJ heads, that is an easy one to circle. For anyone newer to the culture, it is probably the most direct way into DMC before the championship weekend gets serious in November.

The post DMC41 Returns to London With a Free Camden Market Launch Party appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

The ambient pedal first appeared in 2022 as a tiny 25-unit run, then slowly found its way onto around a thousand pedalboards around the globe. Now the company is calling time on it, with 50 final units built and a price drop from 399€ to 299€.

Once this run sells out, Nocturnal is done.

That alone gives the pedal a different kind of pull. This is not a normal “new finish, new batch, new campaign,” and insteas is the last chance to grab a pedal that has built its following slowly, mostly by doing the kind of texture work ambient players, synth users, and guitarists tend to keep in their chains once it clicks.

Nocturnal Was Built for the Ambient Corner of the Board

Collision Devices describes Nocturnal as one of its own favorite ambient pedals, and that description does most of the work here. The appeal of a pedal like this is rarely about one obvious effect. It is about what happens when a sound gets stretched, softened, blurred, or pushed into the space around the notes.

That is also why ambient pedals are so easy to keep around after the first honeymoon period. They can turn a simple synth line into something wider, make guitar feel less literal, or give a small hardware rig the kind of depth that is harder to get from a plain send effect.

I wrote about a similar instinct in my Hologram Microcosm review, where the conversation was less about treating a pedal as a guitar accessory and more about how electronic producers can use hardware effects as writing devices. Nocturnal sits in that same larger territory.

The Final Batch Is Small Enough to Move Fast

There are 50 units in the final Nocturnal batch, with distribution planned from USA and UK hubs. That should help some buyers avoid the usual anxiety around international shipping, depending on where they are located and how the batch is allocated.

The price cut is also meaningful. Dropping from 399€ to 299€ makes the final run easier to justify for people who were already watching the pedal from a distance.

My article on Meris Ottobit X touched on the same reason producers keep reaching for physical effects: a pedal can change the way you play, record, and commit ideas. Nocturnal belongs in that conversation because ambient hardware is rarely just about sound design. It changes the pace of making decisions.

A Quiet Exit for a Pedal That Found Its People

There is something fitting about a pedal called Nocturnal leaving this way. Small batch, lower price, a nod to the music it helped shape, then gone.

For producers and guitarists who like pedals that create atmosphere instead of obvious tricks, this is probably the run to watch. The company is clear about the number: 50 final units. After that, Nocturnal leaves the Collision Devices lineup.

At 299€, this is less a casual pickup and more a last-call buy for people who already know they want that late-night ambient corner covered.

The post Collision Devices Is Ending Nocturnal With One Final 50-Unit Batch appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.

Guided by a clear creative vision, Profetik draws inspiration from ancient themes and weighty conceptual narratives, shaping a sound that prioritises both cinematic textures and emotional resonance. Currently in the depths of a new creative chapter, returning to the scene following a five-year hiatus, Profetik brings consistency, commitment, and a preexisting foundation of expertise and experiences to his approach. Having previously released on labels like Ride Recordings, Armada, and Black Hole and earned support from industry figures such as Armin van Buuren and Above & Beyond, he turns a new page, now embracing complete creative independence to embody true authenticity in his creative identity.  

With ‘Feels Like Home,’ Profetik layers driving percussive grooves with haunting, warm synth elements, crafting a dense low-end foundation that keeps the track moving steadily forward. The vocal performance from RO cuts expressively through the atmospheric textures, introducing an emotive, elevated contrast to the rolling bassline and soaring arpeggiator motifs. Cinematic and expansive in its arrangement, ‘Feels Like Home’ blends warmth with a driving intensity: capturing tension and atmosphere in equal measure. 

Through ‘Feels Like Home,’ Profetik reinforces his artistic evolution and dedication to evocative sonic storytelling. The next addition to the Seraph Records roster – a label founded by Profetik to preserve his artistic freedom and share his evolving musical identity directly with his audience – ‘Feels Like Home’ is available to stream and download across all major platforms. 

So, take a deep dive into Profetik’s new release today and be sure to keep up with the Producer by following him across social media for updates on his upcoming releases and news. 

Listen and Buy ‘Feels Like Home’ Now:     

https://www.beatport.com/es/release/feels-like-home-extended-mix/7123898

Profetik Online          

Website | Instagram | Spotify     

RO Online          

Instagram | Spotify     

Seraph Records Online  

Website | Instagram 

The post Profetik and RO Present “Feels Like Home” via Newly Established Seraph Records appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.