skeler wasn’t the only one cooking though. Thirty days is a long time frame in the modern music industry and June was another month filled with freshly baked songs. June also means it’s time for the traditional mid-year reports and I was glad to notice how this column makes this process incredibly fluent. I won’t geek out and bring up stats and analysis here, but take a few minutes to go through the previous playlists if you want to get a more three-dimensional picture of the scene over the past six months. You’ll find interesting creative and release patterns that otherwise are hard to spot in the boisterous Friday-to-Friday routine.

If I had to highlight two artists who have stolen the show over the past six months, I would select Bafu and Juche. Bafu wasn’t a new name for me, but with a superlative streak of devastating remixes and originals, he rightfully became the unpredicted hero of the first half of 2024. On the other end, Juche‘s massive impact on the scene was everything but unpredictable. He’s already a superstar, but despite his status, he deservedly earned this shout-out for having released a staggering total of fourteen original singles so far (collab with Sublab included).

In addition to tracks from these two champions, in this Wave Monthly playlist, you’ll find charming and introspective tracks from STATIC ANGEL, BL1THE and cali.xo, glyte and Øtherside. SBU, Teneki, crowit., ZETMO, KENØK, Exodynamix, and the dream team REMNANT.exe & Noah B brought in some hardwave-ish energy while if you’re eager for obscure and mental cuts you have to check Cirrus Minus, GAZHELL and SAGE & KYLLER’s collaboration.

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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 mix series (which in this edition features around 100 tunes from 60+ artists) is comparable to an annual religious fixture for all of us in the wave scene. Like Ultra Music Festival for the EDM scene, it’s a proper trendsetter that shows what the hottest sounds are and hints at how the rest of the year will unfold.

Talking about festivals, following the tragic events that occurred on the 22nd of March in Moscow, IMMINET’s crew postponed the second edition of their ARCADIA festival, which was set to be the biggest wave event of the year. The new dates are yet to be announced, but for real-time updates you can join their Telegram channel.

At the beginning of the month, Ravescoon’s first ever Wave & Rave curated event took place in Denver, featuring performances by barnacle boi, brothel, Ktrek b2b Remnant.exe, Djedi b2b w/out (plus a two-hour set by Ravescoon himself). Rumours say that the video recordings of all these sets will surface on YouTube very soon, so keep an eye out!

Last but not least, my fellow writer Ambur Masen published an excellent report on the state of the wave scene on Electric Hawk. I can’t recommend this article enough as it’s filled with essential insights and contributions and provides the basis for understanding and approaching the movement in 2024.

Going back to the music itself, I guess no one was surprised to see Juche dropping two new songs in March too, bringing up to nine the number of official releases in 2024 so far. Besides his collaboration with Sublab, in this Monthly Wave playlist you’ll also find extracts from aeral’s final project LOOSE // ENDS and Just Connor’s new EP Another Realm. Remixes of fred again’s ‘stayinit’ and skeler’s ‘AYEN’, an 8-minute fusion experiment of trap, wave, and French underground rap (it’s not even the only eight-minute track this month), and dozens of new singles from Affectwave, Aekae, axiøs,  lvst, MIRAJ, Klasey Jones, Krull (his debut release) and many, many more.

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“For some good time, I felt stuck with making music, everything felt the same and sounded the same making the typical Wave sound I was so used to. I felt the need to change the trajectory a bit” ÆSTRAL tells us about the nature of the project.

The three singles that preceded the full release of Last Dance, ‘Regret’, ‘Despair’ (one of my favourite songs of the whole year), and ‘Affection’ (a beautiful Rufus Du Sol-like ballad) were already a clear and unequivocal manifesto of the direction taken by ÆSTRAL, but the three unreleased tracks that complete the EP further enrich and broaden the project’s scope.

“I feel like Last Dance is a mixture of everything in my head. There’s techno, there’s a house tune with STAHL (Hope), witchwave and even some dark witch house with enjoii (Grief). I wanted the project to be an experience!”  ÆSTRAL adds. “As any other artist,  90% of the songs you make never come out to the outside world and at that time, most of those unreleased material was four to the floors tracks and experiments with analog sounds. After a while, I told myself, “Why won’t you just release it and see how it goes?” I’m happy I did it. The reception from the fans has been nothing but warm so far.”

In addition to the roll out of the three singles, over the past few months, ÆSTRAL has been busy taking his EP-themed show, LAST DANCE:LIVE, on tour across Center and East Europe, playing in cities like Warsaw and Eindhoven. 

For long-time fans of ÆSTRAL’s signature sound, however, there is nothing to fear. Although touching upon new genres, the beloved aery and melancholic touch that characterized his previous creations is deeply rooted in these six songs as well. “I feel like dropping EPs and albums is kinda like getting tattoos, some people give them meaning and some don’t. To be honest, I never do, but in this case, I did give Last Dance a meaning. It’s supposed to feel like that last dance you might have had with somebody you loved, someone important. As the tracklist says, from the beginning to the end, from Affection to Grief, it’s a whole process that most humans have to cope with at some point in their lives. I tried my best to portray these emotions in my own way.”

Listen to Last Dance below or on your favourite streaming platform.

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Now, before anything else, I have to bring up this point. Is it just me, or do the first chords of the songs remind you of Robert Miles’ ‘Children’? Maybe I’m just tripping but I swear the first time I played to the song I thought I was listening to a remix. Anyway, delusions aside, I really appreciate the approach with which ‘hypnotised’ seems to start directly with a build-up when instead it’s just hyping up the listener before the debut of the vocals. Those consist, as usual when it comes to ÆSTRAL (and most of the wave tracks), in haunted, empyrean female vocals. I know I sometimes stress out how this stylistic choice is getting a clichè and alternative solutions are more than welcome, but when they fit perfectly as in this case, I don’t dare to criticize. ‘hypnotised’ completes the package with massive reverb-doped synths that create that steamy vibe that I like so much. This is the hardwave I love. Epic, emotional, straightforward.

Listen to ‘hypnotised’ by ÆSTRAL and shxpe on your favorite platform here and check the official video on YouTube.

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Pardon this out-of-context suggestion note, but if you’re not familiar already I highly suggest you also check out Aestral’s remix of ‘Silence,’ released last year.  A true masterpiece.

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