Wave

This month I need to begin by thanking my good friend Ambur. Trying to catch up with everything that happened online after a two-weeks vacation where I unplugged myself from social media was a surprisingly laborious and tricky task. She promptly came to my aid and helped me sort this article out. Let’s start in the US, where Sidewalks &…

The biggest news of September was, of course, the first two-day edition of Symmetry Music & Arts Festival. Described by Ravescoon as “probably the best first-year fest I’ve ever been to“, Symmetry’s debut has been unanimously portrayed as a smashing triumph by the wave community. “It was bigger than I had ever hoped for in every way” tweeted Fyoomz, co-founder…

Despite wave being a genre that traditionally marries long winter nights and gloomy afternoons, Wave Monthly is not going on vacation this August. It’s just slowing down a little bit. This volume is short and sweet, but it will give you a comprehensive overview of the best songs released in the past month and the hottest happenings you must add…

In case you missed it, North Carolina-based wave music producer mvrina released her debut EP, reflections. In terms of sound, this EP toes the line between introspective future garage and soft ‘OG wave’ tropes; in terms of content, this EP is a great example of how tracklisting can make or break a body of work. The way that these four…

Let’s begin this new issue of Wave Monthly by addressing the elephant in the room. Nightdrive IV exists, and it has not only been teased but it has also been premiered live a few days ago in conjunction with Skeler’s first-ever LA headline show, powered by Brownies&Lemonade. Aside from a few leaks, the internet has been peculiarly stingy with videos…

This month there is very little room for words because there’ so much music to listen to. Not only did we curate another extensive playlist with 30 essential songs released during May, but our good friend Matt Wax over at Beat Lab Radio provided us with a further, massive dose of wave music. Right before celebrating the 10 years of…

Rooted in the reggae and dancehall culture, war dubs have spread and been interpreted by many later movements, the most famous of which is certainly the Grime scene. While the format was originally relegated to broadcasting via (pirate) radios and DVDs, war dubs have always kept up with technology, constantly evolving as illustrated by this excellent article on Crack magazine.…

March set a very high bar for the rest of the year. Not only was it another bonkers month in terms of new releases, but plenty of other juicy stuff happened in the last thirty days. To begin with, I must mention the arrival of the notorious ‘Look Forward at 2024‘ mixtape. Curated and mixed by Brett from vibe.digital, this…

It would take an entire book to exhaustively report what 2023 has been for the wave scene and perhaps there will be time for that in the future. For the sake of brevity, today it’s sufficient to remember that there have never been so many (and such big) wave events in a single year, the scene’s top artists have performed…

This year we saw several Wave producers embarking on new sonic journeys. Some have flirted with drum&bass, some with phonk and others have dabbled in trance and other declinations of four-on-the-floor rhythms. ÆSTRAL is one of the heavyweights of the scene involved in this trend, and his new EP, Last Dance, fully embraces these latter genres. Mainly known for his…