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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The post Wave Monthly | March 2024 appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

NOCTURNE, arael’s new gargantuan project, fully falls into the latter category and gives us a journey through no less than 18 unreleased songs by the Canadian producer, with guest appearances by Sage, Djedi, Theos, and Helix. “I had the idea [for NOCTURNE] shortly after a previous mix I made last year called UMBRA. I wanted this release to be a step up from its predecessor, with a more cohesive sound and flow” arael tells us, adding that “in a music market that prioritizes singles and virality over longer-form projects, it was a nice change of pace to work on something more cohesive”.

Actually, NOCTURNE’s greatest asset is probably not the amount of single IDs, but the evocative and immersive power the full project has. Across the forty-six-minute runtime, albeit switching between epic moments, introspective sections, and even gritty bangers, the tracks roll on fluently and, even when the mixes are not technically brilliant, the atmosphere in which we’re immersed does not crack.

It’s an experience worth listening (and watching) from top to bottom to experience its purest essence. “The sounds found on NOCTURNE were inspired and written as a love letter to the early wave of SoundCloud phonk artists such as DJ smokey, Mythic, Soudiere & Myrror while pulling inspiration from wave/witch house.”  Going into more detail, arael continues, “the tracks themselves have been in the works for over a year now, and were inspired by late-night drives, 90s IDM culture & the moodiness of cold weather.” The moody nature of NOCTURNE shouldn’t be a surprise if you’re even slightly familiar with the phonk and wave scene. It’s clearly not a soundtrack that can flavour every moment of our days, but when the perfect moment comes along,  NOCTURNE should be one of your first choices.

Listen and watch NOCTURNE below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIySrUl5p4?si=29du3Is8Vw6DhbHj]

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