Music I've Been Listening To
Instead of just making an unreadable thread on Bluesky (god, I miss Cohost) I figure I’d sum up some trance, techno, and other music stuff I’ve been catching up on. Buncha releases I missed cuz I’m bad at keeping track of things and/or plugged into other more specific niches for a bit.
Nhato - Various
I don’t think I’ve listened to a Nhato release that I disliked. Not even sure he’s had one I wasn’t wholly in love with. The guy just knows how to blast every band of the spectrum with the good shit. He’s always been king of piercing leads but “Lines” and “Rust” are also both really sick dark club thumpers. I know all things are cyclical but the Return to dark rave shit that I’m seeing in the J-core scene is giving me life.
Logos
Mat Zo - ZOCASE
I loved Sine of the Times as an entirely DnB-thing from the master-of-many genres but ZOCASE is a really exciting return to his really early trance sound that he had with Anjuna in 2011-2012ish.
Full EP: https://anjunabeats.com/us/products/469506-zocase-ep
Shingo Nakamura - Solace
As a follow up to one of my favorite albums it leaves me a little wanting but Solace is another great prog trance release from Shingo Nakamura. It’s very Monstercat-coded, in that it has a bunch of vocal features that are interchangeable and immediately forgettable, but the instrumentals (in both the backing sense and vocal-less tracks) are as silky as ever.
Full album: https://monstercatmedia.bandcamp.com/album/solace
Nakashima Antenna - Frameworks:Me
Stumbled into this EP through one of its singles that is on the works.13 compilation from Diverse Direct. Some incredibly classic-sounding Japanese trance. “Focus Light” in particular is my favorite but you can’t go wrong with any even if they all cover different sub-genres.
Charisma.com - ERROR40
Holy shit, what a return to form. Their return from hiatus a few years felt so hollow that I was sorta worried we’d probably never get to see Itsuka flex ever again, doomed to drone over sorta-generic pop beats until she also left the entertainment industry. I was relieved when the Mobstrong EP hit in 2023 and it rocked. Like, oh, thank god, you found a producer who’s got the juice and is letting Itsuka do what she does best which is rap with her trademark low-drone voice.
ERROR40 coming so shortly after and flooring me with every track was something I really wasn’t expecting! It picks up from Mobstrong and gives her a ton of space to sing, to rap, to be funny, and to have a variety that showcases everything I’ve loved about her best past work and how much she’s still been able to grow since. We’ll never get the raw weirdness of Ai Ai Syndrome ever again but that we get something this good after so much time away makes me really happy.
Full album: https://www.amazon.com/ERROR40-Charisma-com/dp/B0DK4TLSX6
Darude - Together
I’ve blogged about this album in the past on Cohost but I spent a bit of time revisiting some older stuff of his (and other adjacent acts like ATB and Ferry Corsten), which naturally got me thinking about Together again because it’s simply sublime. I don’t think there’s anything especially mindblowing on the album but the efficient precision of his production leaves me in an awe that more maximalist stuff doesn’t. His synths still Sound Like That (why wouldn’t they!) but he also doesn’t rely on much else. The melodies he’s capable of crafting are so addictive on their own and his ability to mix a soundscape gives him no need to make any track anything other than what it is. If you played any song from Together at a rave, you’d light up the room in a way that would be really hard to top, and what more could you ask for than that.
Full album: https://music.apple.com/us/album/together/1710399921
珂拉琪 Collage - Deux Ex Machina
A really terrific follow-up to their debut album. It’s interesting to hear bits and pieces of production that feel informed from the ending theme they made for Nine Sols but overall this feels like a way more confident album than MEmento-MORI. I do miss the tonal variety of the first album but Deus Ex Machina offers more of a sound so incredibly unique that I’ve no ground to stand on saying that like it’s a bad thing. Collage’s music is something that should be on everyone’s radar.
Full album: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0DPPWQ3LF
Various TANO*C stuff
Updating the blog because I forgot to add these handful of tracks. TANO*C is my hearth in a way that can become so ambient I don't think of mentioning it ever. This mostly skews in the harder end of j-core so if you're not a fan of the high hundred BPM range, it might not be for you!
t+pazolite - "Netstalk Neglector"
USAO - "Got It Bad"
Various - MEGATON KICK 6
Redalice - "Falling"