Are you looking for another full album of house and techno bangers? Well, DJ Zinc has you covered with Crackhouse Vol. 3.
The opening moments of “Conditioning” (with Chris Lorenzo) are designed to get you jumping. “That Sound” is a stand-out, building to a thumping floor-filler. “Close My Eyes” is classic house music, mixing fun beats with lovely vocals. “Amergency” dives back into straight-up jungle madness.
“Everywhere” blends the two into jungle-house with looped gospel-like vocals and popping boba bass to keep you caffeinated and on a sugar rush. Kamakaze joins Zinc for “What I’m On” – a head-swirling jungle track that makes the room feel like it’s spinning. “When I” brings us back to soulful house music. “Dollars” practically turns on the strobe lights for you with its bright synth riffs.
“Goldin” adds vocals from President T to the party, bringing in a rough edge to Zinc’s booming beats. Ever helps Zinc close out the mix with the sweaty breakbeat cut, “For My People” that leaves you out of breath by the end. It feels over too soon, as most good raves do.
Annie-Claude Deschênes presents the first in a series of remixes of “Main de Fer“, her latest single released in April. Produced by Shit Robot (DFA Records), it is available now on all platforms. The track is out now via Italians Do It Better (US) and Bonsound (ROW).
“I chose Shit Robot because his unique sound and creative vision felt like the perfect match to reimagine Main de Fer in a bold, new way”, explains Annie-Claude. The Irish producer and DJ, known for his affiliation with the DFA Records label, brings an analog touch to the track by using a variety of synthesizers and sequencers straight out of the 90s. “This was one of those great projects where you fire up the machines and everything falls into place really quickly. I was very excited to get started on this as the original vocals are great and the energy of the track is infectious”, adds Shit Robot, who also mixed the final result alongside LCD Soundsystem member and Grammy Award winner Korey Richey.
Annie-Claude Deschênes will perform at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg on September 18th and at Rialto Hall at POP Montreal on September 25th before embarking on a European tour in October. This series of dates will take her to Brussels, Strasbourg, Lyon, Luxembourg, and Paris, among other cities, after which she will return to Canada for dates in Toronto and the province of Quebec. She will also be part of M for Montreal’s official selection in November. See the list below for all tour dates.
Multidisciplinarity is an integral part of the creative process of Annie-Claude Deschênes, who continues her perpetual personal quest of uniting music and performance art by bending the pre-established conventions of stage presence. A key figure on the Montreal independent music scene for almost twenty years, she made her mark as a singer, musician, songwriter, performer and visual artist with Duchess Says and PyPy, two bands that are renowned as much for their electrifying performances as for their artistic sensibility. Over the course of her career, she shared the stage with a number of internationally renowned bands, including The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, The Black Lips, The Hives, The Hot Snakes and Buzzcocks. Duchess Says and PyPy’s extensive touring has taken her all over North America and Europe, playing venues and festivals (Primavera Fest, Eurockéennes de Belfort, OSHEAGA, Sled Island, etc.) as well as unconventional locations such as golf courses, factories and churches. Her exploratory approach to staging and sound design takes a new direction with this solo project: the urgency that characterizes her work remains, but frustration and aggression give way to introspection and vulnerability. Annie-Claude Deschênes explores and reinvents herself under her own name, driven by a constant need to create outside of her comfort zone.
Inspired by minimal pop and the pioneers of electronic music, LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE, her first solo album released in spring of 2024, is as danceable and melodic as it is disquieting and dystopian, proposing to set the table differently by deconstructing the social codes of politeness imposed on us. LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE earned a spot on the Polaris Prize long list and garnered attention from international media outlets such as KEXP, BrooklynVegan, CLASH, The Guardian, Les Inrockuptibles and Radio Nova, as well as landing on several year-end lists.
Tour dates: 09/16/2025 – Berlin, DE – Berlin Experience (Reeperbahn Festival) 09/18/2025 – Hamburg, DE – UWE (Reeperbahn Festival) 09/19/2025 – Hamburg, DE – MOPO Stage (Reeperbahn Festival) 09/25/2025 – Montreal, QC – Rialto Hall (POP Montreal) * 10/03/2025 – Brussels, BE – Botanique (Festival FrancoFaune) 10/04/2025 – Mulhouse, BE – Motoco (Festival Microsiphon) 10/07/2025 – Reims, FR – La Cartonnerie 10/09/2025 – Longwy, FR – The Long Way 10/10/2025 – Strasbourg, FR – La Grenze *** 10/11/2025 – Lyon, FR – Le Sonic 10/14/2025 – Luxembourg, LU – Les Rotondes 10/16/2025 – Tours, FR – Le Super 9 10/17/2025 – Metz, FR – Les Trinitaires 10/18/2025 – Troyes, FR – Midi O Halles (Festival Off Off Off) 10/22/2025 – Dunkirk, FR – Le LAAC *** 10/23/2025 – Paris, FR – Le Hasard Ludique *** 10/31/2025 – Toronto, ON – Wavelength @ St. Anne’s 11/07/2025 – Alma, QC – Café du Clocher + 11/08/2025 – Jonquière, QC – Côté-Cour + 11/15/2025 – Rimouski, QC – Salle Desjardins-TELUS +
* Opening for Bolis Pupul *** Opening for Camilla Sparksss + Opening for Choses Sauvages
Apart from having a cool cover that looks like it could’ve been an Asia album, Karassimeon‘s AethernovaEP is loaded with hot beats, killer cyborg synths, and dance floor jams that combine his homeland’s French disco with Italo disco, synthwave, and a touch of industrial edge.
“Panique Synthétique” is a track you’ll want played whenever you walk into either a nightclub, a gym, or a haunted house…or a haunted gym below a nightclub. The horror movie scream and police siren samples, the spooky synths, and the classic rave sounds bring back a lot of memories for this original raver. It’s sibling track, “Analog Anxiety,” is, somehow, a bit creepier and the edge sharper…like a giallo film maniac lurking around the fringes of the dance floor with a straight razor in his or her black gloved hand.
The title track is a sizzling breakbeat cut that will have you stomping the pedal in your real car or the one you’re driving in the latest edition of Mario Cart. “Final Flash” closes the EP with bumping techno tailor-made to launch you out of your seat or off your spot on the wall and shove you onto the dance floor. This is a perfect track to get over that “Why am I doing this?” moment during a cardio workout.
Underworld are one of those bands I wasn’t certain I’d get to see live. Most of their tours are in the UK and Europe, and I didn’t get to see them the last time they were in the Midwest at Detroit’s Movement Music Festival years ago on a Sunday night.
Lo and behold, they announced a brief U.S. spring tour with only five stops, and one was in Chicago at Radius. I snagged tickets from the presale as soon as they were available. To my further delight, they announced it would be an “open to close” show with two full sets and no opening act.
They brought in a big crowd and instantly had us dancing with them. They barely let up during the first set, banging out classics like “Low Burn” and “Techno Shinkansen” while a simple and effective light show played out behind them.
During the twenty-five-minute intermission, I met a family of three who’d flown in from Atlanta, Georgia for the show. The mom and dad had brought their fourteen-year-old son (It was an all-ages show.) there for his first concert ever, and they all had a great time. I’m sure there were many people like them in the crowd, as Underworld was only doing six shows on this U.S. tour: One in Brooklyn, the Chicago show, and then four out west — Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Bakersfield, California. It was a rare opportunity to see them east of the Mississippi River.
The second set was loaded with fan-favorites, including “Pearl’s Girl,” a fun version of “Dark & Long (Dark Train),” “Two Months Off,” a faster, almost jungle version of “Cowgirl,” a hard-hitting version of “King of Snake,” and, of course, “Born Slippy” to close it off.
As we walked back to our car after the show, I could hear behind us a father asking his daughter if she enjoyed it. She did. He explained how “Born Slippy” “was from this movie called Trainspotting. It’s a really good movie that’s from before your time.” Most of Underworld’s music is from before his daughter’s time (They are still making excellent albums.), so it was great to see so many younger people at this show and for Underworld to make it an all-ages performance. We need more of that…and them.
I found this two-disc collection of great French techno, house, and jungle tracks in a record store’s used CD bin for less than five bucks. It practically felt like I was shoplifting it. The Wagram Music collection from 2008 has thirty-one tracks on it from heavyweights of the genre and covers a wide ground of EDM.
Dim Chris starts us off with jungle (“Sucker”) and then big-time DJ David Guetta drops “Baby When the Light” on us to get the floor jumping. Charles Schillings‘ “Be Gone” is pure house, while the “Mike 303 & Baxter Baxter radio edit” of Superfunk‘s “Electric Dance” has so much thick electro-bass that it might clog your speakers. “Samplemousse” by Brian Arc is a fun house jam that builds just like you want a house jam to build. You’ll definitely want to get down to Antoine Clamaran‘s “Get Down,” and David Vendetta‘s “Bleeding Heart” (the “Arno Cost remix”) is quirky, funky, and junk-in-the-trunky.
Kiko‘s “Requiem for a Dream” brings in a touch of synthwave to the mix. Arias‘ “Flynn” practically reinvents “The Percolator” for 2008. Jaochim Garraud‘s “Street’s Sound” is a house track that’s both lush and a bit creepy. Are you looking for a naughty song to put on the next bedroom mix you’re planning for your lover? Look no further than DJ Gregory‘s “Breeze.” “Naughty” barely describes it. It borders on “filthy, almost to the point of absurdity.”
Alex Gopher goes big beat on us with “Aurora,” bouncing loud, bright synth sounds off the walls. “Punk” by Etienne de Crecy is a salute to Daft Punk, who appear with the “Para One remix” of “Prime Time of Your Life” after Surkin‘s “White Knight Two.” There’s even a bonus remix of ZZT‘s “Lower State of Consciousness” by Justice to round out disc one.
Yes, all that is just on the first disc. The second disc is a collection of fifteen “classics” (from way back in 2000, just eight years earlier than the tracks on disc one). “Intro” by Alan Braxe and Fred Falke starts it off with a great bass-heavy house track, and Cheek‘s “Venus (Sunshine People)” continues the house party feel. Bob Sinclair‘s “Visions of Paradise” ups the disco beats to keep you moving. Martin Solveig‘s “Heartbeat” takes that disco groove to Italy and back.
Julian Jeweil‘s “Air Conditionne” is a cool introduction to Super Discount‘s bossa nova-touched “Prix Choc.” The “Todd Edwards Vocal Radio Edit Mix” of St. Germain‘s “Alabama Blues” is a showcase of mixing techniques that will leave you impressed. The bass groove on “Use Me” by Alex Gopher with Demon Presents Wuz is infectious to say the least. Daft Punk returns with a fun remix of I:Cube‘s “Disco Cubism.” Arno Cost then returns, along with Arias, for their synthwave banger “Magenta.”
Da Fresh drops a “Fuckin Track” on us that’s as heavy as the growling synth bass on it. Didier Sinclair‘s “Lovely Flight” sounds like (and, by now, is) an old school house track. Speaking of old school, Sebastien Leger harkens back to old school raves when he suggests you “Take Your Pills.”If this song doesn’t take you back to dancing in an old high school gym with a leaky roof and the floor covered in straw, then Jack de Marseille‘s track will “Bring Back That Feeling.” The compilation wraps up with Laurent Garnier‘s “Wrap Up,” which will give you enough energy for the afterparty.
This whole thing is solid, and a fun mix of old school, house, jungle, and even synthwave. Start crate digging for it.
Montreal based multidisciplinary artist Annie-Claude Deschênes returns with new single “Main de Fer“, out now via Italians Do It Better & Bonsound.
On “Main de Fer”, Annie-Claude Deschênes fuses minimal techno with avant-garde to trigger a disorienting exploration through emotional isolation. An invisible grip engulfs the mind and erases the contours of the self, leading to a silence where breath is extinguished as the soul dissolves in the shadow of control. Its disturbing soundscapes and fragmented textures challenge the blindness of the self and others, offering us the opportunity to free ourselves from our inhibitions in a controlled chaos.
As a key figure on the Montreal independent music scene for the last two decades, she has left her mark as a performer & visual artist with Duchess Says & PyPy; two bands that are renowned as much for their electrifying live shows as they are for their artistic sensibilities. Always forward, her exploratory approach takes her into uncharted territory with her debut as a solo artist. The urgency that characterises her work remains, but frustration & aggression give way to introspection & vulnerability.
Over the course of her career, Annie-Claude Deschênes shared the stage with a number of renowned bands, including The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, The Black Lips, The Hives, The Hot Snakes & Buzzcocks, among others. Her debut solo album titled ‘LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE’ was released last year via Italians Do It Better & Bonsound.
Sextile’s new album, yes, please. is a floor-filling, club-shaking banger that encourages us to embrace life and not let the bastards get us down. It’s a record that skewers misogyny, politics in general, the United States’ health care and education systems, and the music industry…all while giving you a rave freak-out.
After the early 2000s video game opening credits-like “Intro,” we’re let in on the not-so-secret information that “Women Respond to Bass,” with Melissa Scaduto and Brady Keehn instantly making you sweat within the first throbbing bass riff. This song will make you want to turn your lights on and off at rapid pace to simulate a strobe light if you don’t already have one within arm’s reach. Keehn takes over lead vocals on “Freak Eyes,” in which he sings about the pressure of making the album just as good, if not better, than the last, and to make it now (“I’m trying to get my shit together. People say I should be working faster.”). The warped sounds are probably reflective of how his brain felt at the time.
“Penny Rose” delves into what schools and education will become in the near-future thanks to AI and carefully chosen subject matter. Hip hop artists everywhere will want to steal the beats and bass on this. “Push Ups,” with guest vocals from Jehnny Beth, builds and builds until your workout becomes a mid-1990s aerobic VHS tape played in fast-forward. Speaking of fast-forward, wait until you hear the bass on “Kids,” which seems to be going faster than anything else on the album. It’s pure trance music that will lift you off the floor (and listen for the additional vocals by Izzy Glaudini of Automatic).
“99 Bongos” is a fun one, with the titular drums slapping down sick beats while synths never seem to stop rising around them and someone tells a tale of tripping on acid and taking a road trip they were lucky to survive. “S is For” has Scaduto spitting a sexy tongue-twister that is probably being played in S&M clubs even now. “Rearrange” calls out how many things have been changed for everyone, and not for the better for most of us. Scaduto’s vocals sound like they’re coming through a staticky radio tuned to a pirate channel. Its sister song, “Resist,” calls / yells for women to fight for their reproductive and health rights. The pulsating bass on it is fuel for action.
“Is this it? Is there something I’m missin’?” Keehn sings on “Kiss.” He’s wondering what the hell happened around here, how did he end up in the middle of it, and what does he do now? Apparently, you dance until you’re a sweaty mess because the last half of the track is a full-on industrial ripper.
If you’re wondering why so much of this album is about calls to action and to embrace life and, let’s face it, pleasure, part of it is because Scaduto spent a good chunk of time before this album was recorded in a New York nursing home after an accident that almost caused the loss of a leg. “Hospital” and “Soggy Newports” detail the experience, with “Hospital” being the wild synth-wave dance cut about her trying to figure out why health care is such a damn mess, and “Soggy Newports” being the low-key song about how health care can be so damn depressing (“Please get me out of here, because I’m going out of my head.”).
If you’re looking for a hot dance record, look no further. If you’re looking for a sexy record, look no further. If you’re looking for a boring record, look elsewhere.
Los Angeles duo Sextile are celebrated for a stylish, albeit unflinching electronic punk sound. Today, the band shares the new single “S is For,” which arrives ahead of the album, yes, please., out May 2, 2025 on Sacred Bones. The track is a defiant clap back at feminist connotations, with singer Melissa Scaduto leaning into lyrical repetition “Sex / S*** / Swell / Stiff / Slag / Snap / Shut,” she repeats, her talk-singing outlined by bloopy synthesizers and techno drums. Like the best Sextile songs, “S is For” marries danceability and heartfelt spunk. The video accompanying the track follows Sextile on their exhilarating recent tour with Molchat Doma.
On the track, Mel Scaduto of Sextile shares:“It’s not super relevant to Sextile but with my other project ‘S. Product’ I was always asked what the S is for – it’s always really been a Scaduto product to me. But this song is sassy way to explain how many things the S could be.”
“The video originally had a completely different concept and was scheduled to be shot a week before leaving on a 7 week tour. However due to the heartbreaking and tragic LA fires the video shoot was cancelled of course and we had no other choice but to shoot the video while on the road. The video is a collage of performances, audiences and backstage moments across several different shows during our US tour with Molchat Doma.”
LIVE DATES
May 23 – London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival
May 24 – Bristol, UK @ Dot to Dot Festival
May 25 – Nottingham, UK @ Dot to Dot Festival
May 27 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
May 28 – Manchester, UK @ White Hotel
May 29 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East Instore
May 20 – Brighton, UK @ Dust
May 31 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
June 01 – Margate, UK @ Where Else?
June 03 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
June 04 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo
June 05 – Le Havre, FR @ Le Tetris
June 06 – Saint Point, FR @ Les Mouillotins Festival
Cie‘s newest EP, Adventures II, contains four rock solid tracks of booming, bumping deep house that you’ll want to throw on at your next party or anytime you need to feel like a bad-azz mofo.
The opening, swirling, pulsing, grooving bass of “Reichenstein” grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go for the next six minutes and fifteen seconds. “Der Turm” (“The Tower”) has cool tribal beats that put a neat spin on this house track. It’s a well-crafted blend of house, jungle, and a bit of synthwave. Nicely done, Mr. Cie.
Side B of the album contains two versions of “Stenzelberg” — the original and a remix by Mar io. The original’s funky bass groove is enough to sell you on the entire EP, and the rest of it is a flat-out house banger (Do I sound ancient using that term?). The remix is almost a minute longer and swaps out the house funk for more jungle flavor and darkness along the edges.
This is one of the best house music EPs I’ve heard so far this year. Go snag it.
Pascal Hetzel‘s 2022 album, ASLM, gets an update three years down the road and becomes ASLM Remixes – featuring a lot of sharp talent and enough beats to power your next workout or dark afterparty.
Starting with JakoJako‘s remix of “RBBRMN” (“Rubberman?”), the album drops snappy electric percussion and throbbing sub-bass that gets into the back of your brain. GAEL‘s remix of “TWST” (“Twist?”) pulses like the heart of a final girl in a slasher film.
Up next is Kaiser‘s remix of “SLT” (“Salt?” “Slit?”), which you’ll want for your next HIIT workout because the bass on this makes you feel like you could either dance all night long or kickbox a dozen opponents. It’s followed by another remix of the same track, but this one by Projekt Gestalten. Their version adds an underlying sense of menace, almost like you’re dancing in a club with hornet nests hanging from the ceiling that might drop at any moment if the beats get too heavy.
The record ends with Luis Flores‘ remix of “PPPR” (“Pepper,” right?) throws you into some sort of futuristic, slightly dystopian sci-fi movie battle sequence with its buzzsaw synths, mechanical beats, and orbiting war machine bass. Good stuff, really.
