In each volume, I played on the subtle balance between popular releases and lesser-known cuts. I wanted you to hear the craftsmanship of the selection, to feel the human hand rather than the algorithmic one. Occasionally, I admit I sought nerdiness to an excessive degree, excluding excellent but already trendy tracks in favour of left-field pieces, but overall I’d say I achieved my goal. Another side of the same coin was the precise choice to include the most prolific artists with nauseating regularity. The presence of Juche’s releases, for instance, soon became a recurring inside joke, but fit perfectly into my search for realism. Artists like him, or MRJay have been, in some ways, undisputed protagonists of 2024, so why not represent this trend? Ignoring, at the end of the year, all this effort in favour of a more classic ranking seemed unfair, even if it meant to exclude high-profile releases.

Before jumping into the list, I’ll indulge in some general reflections on the macro trends that have marked (in good or bad ways) the wave movement. I’m going to start with a response to all the people who complained about the lack of ‘og wave releases’ on Reddit, X, and Discord. Look harder. Get out of your bubbles and learn to scour the web better. The songs you’re looking for are there. They’re just waiting to be found. Besides, if you miss the early days of the genre, I don’t think you lack material to listen to. If your culture only gravitates around wavemob’s compilations and little else, that’s on you.

Moving on, we’ve witnessed the definitive lofi-zation of wavephonk (yes, I vouch for this term). Despite being the majority current, in terms of volume of releases, the creative offering of the combo of rap vocals and wave instrumentals has proved sterile, relying mainly on stereotyped formulas and copycat solutions. As in the case of lofi, it has mainly become muzak, perfect for passive listening while doing something else, like playing or driving, or a stylistic choice that artists fall back on for promotional or economic purposes.

Speaking of driving, it can be said that ‘Nightdrive’ has officially become a sub-subculture of wavephonk. skeler is clearly the undisputed father figure of this niche, which however remains, to a large extent, a pale imitation of the Australian artist’s style. With his NightDrive 4 mix he has further demonstrated that he’s in a league of his own and at this point, the car-based imagery might be the only contact point between him and most of the other actors in this space. It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. Everything goes in cycles, and although wavephonk is at a standstill, I’m sure it’s creating the hummus for the new sounds of tomorrow.

At another point in the wave universe, Hardwave 2 became a thing. A real thing. Yes, the name may sound cocky or, on the contrary, overly formulaic, but it represents the group of producers I have enjoyed following the most this year. If the Hardwave has always been the noisy twin of the wave, the Hardwave 2 is its punk cousin who snorts lines of coke at family dinners. Over the years the definition of hardwave had already expanded (watered down some would say) to embrace tracks that flirted significantly with riddim, colour bass, and other bass sub-genres. Hardwave 2, however, bypasses simple flirtation and shamelessly jumps into sonic orgies where the Y2K trance component reigns supreme. Hardwave 2 is loud, massive, irreverent, fun, and, last but not least, emotional. It’s exactly what I’d expect to hear if Armin Van Buuren played Lost Lands. Artists like crowit, Altered Soul, Exodynamix, CNQR+, KENOK, and Teneki are responsible for the most daring and unpredictable releases I heard in the wave space in 2024. Hearing trancey arpeggios side by side with dubstep snares or amen breaks blows my mind every time. All that glitters is not gold though. Many Hardwave 2 tracks are still experiments from a technical or writing point of view but this is the kind of creativity I’m looking for. The kind that can stop me from scrolling and make me say “something is happening here.”

To cap it all, let’s take a quick look at the list. Again, these are the best songs picked from the eleven editions of WAVE Monthly I compiled through 2024 and they are placed in no particular order. In addition, some tracks that met the criteria were still excluded because they’ve been already included in our Top Songs Of The Year list. Most of the wave scene’s pantheon is present though. skeler, barnacle boi, Juche, Sibewest, enjoii, Klasey Jones, Pholo, vowl. have continued to develop their respective styles, further consolidating their leading position in the international scene. Some of these songs, in my opinion, must be considered among the best of the genre ever.

In the spectrum ranging from og wave to neo-grime, you find the future-garage-esque collab by calicry & FIVESUN ‘hamadryad’, Planet V and LOSTMANE’s ‘Immersion’, EVERYST and BACKWHEN with their beautiful ballad ‘Lovespell’, Gladkill’s ‘Future Unknown’, ‘Water’ by EONE and forget, MYSTXRIVL and Soko’s collab ‘Pixel’, SHXPE with ‘SOUL’ (the only 4/4 entry in the list), ‘Redemption’ by ovmegacvrse and heimanu’s bootleg of  ‘Red Stars’ by The Birthday Massacre. Among the best bangers of the year are Affectwave’s ‘CODE:NIGHT’, ‘Decrypt’ by crowit. and Exodynamix, the dreamteam REMNANT.exe and Noah B with ‘TRANSMIT’, MRJay’s ‘Break Away’, Teneki and CNQR+’s ‘Mirage’, ‘Broken Dreams’ by MitroWave and KENØK’s ‘LOVE AI’.

The post Wave Monthly | Best of 2024 appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

If December is canonically a month monopolized by throwbacks and charts, January is the month devoted to IDs. As expected, in the past few weeks SoundCloud and YouTube have been flooded with unreleased-original production-deep dive mixes, stuffed with songs that could become hits in the next twelve months… or never see the light of day. It’s always a fun yet tricky game to play. You could spot an early banger whose knowledge you can flex to your friends at the next rave or find your new obsession that will never be available to buy or play on streaming platforms.

If you’re willing to get involved in this wicked game, we have handpicked eight unmissable mixes, spanning UKG, wave, trap, club bass, which altogether will feed you more than 100 IDs.

The post 9 ID Mixes To Kick Off 2025 appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

Talking instead of releases, April will go down as the month that saw the release of one of the best compilation albums of the year. Curated and released by Interval Audio, hands down the best compilation-dealer in the game, Neo Subculture 3 is a 33-track masterclass in Wave, Hardwave, Trance, and Neo Trance. With 46 artists involved, it is a comprehensive testament to the power of this artistic community that never stops opening their hearts and minds to the unknown to redefine the boundaries of these genres. Due to the relevance of this album, I decided to reserve five spots on this month’s playlist for extracts from Neo Subculture 3. You’ll find them mixed among singles from familiar faces as tearsofmine, enjoii, KTrek (via vibe.digital), Klasey Jones, Pholo, SBU, but also newer names like nibiru’, FQYL, kub0, Michiya Mirai, anølemma and many more. In case you’re wondering, yes, there’s a Juche release this month as well.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1817636619″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

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

‘Venom’ is an absolute weapon of a tune. It encapsulates and represents both UZ and barnacle boi’s passions wonderfully in a satisfying and suave fashion. From an automatic catapult of energy swirling through listeners’ heads right away, to a pure bright beam of heaviness within the chorus itself, there’s never a dull moment in this adventure as it completely captures the beauty of the classic electronic trap sound. Those hard and earth-shattering drums combined with such swift sound design are nothing but exhilarating to the ears. Creating an intoxicating and addictive nature. Making you want to experience it again again.

It’s an automatic classic for 2024 and will easily go down as one of the heaviest and most iconic tunes this year. So make sure to show your support by streaming ‘Venom’ everywhere via Monstercat!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1765439136″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

The post UZ And barnacle boi Descent To The Underworld With ‘Venom’ appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

I don’t say this for dramatic effect, or with the purpose of instigating competition, but simply taking objective data into consideration. In the year that saw the highest number of wave events ever, barnacle boi took his iconic blond hair and moustache literally everywhere, performing from Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh City, touching down in Central and East Europe and touring the length and breadth of the States, playing DEF and Waakan among others. I have to say that, following his adventures tweet after tweet,  filtered through his irreverent and relatable personality, has been one of my guilty pleasures (I’m convinced that a video vlog of the tour would’ve been a hit).

Now, to nitpick, one could say that barnacle boi lacked a blockbuster release to platinum this 2023 (pardon the gamer quote but I’ve been watching a lot of gameplay lately). But things change tomorrow. Or rather, starting from today thanks to this exclusive premiere. In fact, as his brand new EP, titled INTROSPECT, goes public in twenty-four hours, we give you the chance to get an early listen of the single ‘In The Dark’.

Despite the strong competition (both’ U Were Everything 2 Me’ and, especially, ‘Love Hotel‘ have the potential to become future classics), ‘In The Dark’ immediately became my favourite cut from INTROSPECT. The intro comes in the form of forty seconds of pale and spectral pads with vaporous vocals on top hauntingly chanting “You’ll find me, waiting in the dark.” A combo that effortlessly tickles the soft spots of waveheads like me and sets the perfect warm-up for the main event. Then, out of nowhere, here comes the star of the show. A cavernous synth arises from the darkness, ripping through the air and saturating our senses in a very Lovecraftian fashion. After these initial moments of apnea, during which we were swallowed up in this sonic black hole, ‘In The Dark’ quickly becomes airier again, absorbing the overflowing personality of the synth and integrating it with other elements. Once past this turning point, barnacle boi continues to stratify and evolve the composition during the breakdown and the second drop. The track we find in the second half, truly sounds like a chapter of a whole different story. Personally, I don’t have any doubts, ‘In The Dark’ should be listed in the manuals under the ‘perfect wave track.’

Listen to ‘In The Dark’  exclusively here on FUXWITHIT for the next hours, and be sure to dive into the INTROSPECT EP tomorrow.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1661818431?secret_token=s-8uHQxYMbWXu” params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1720011024″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

The post PREMIERE: Get An Exclusive Early Listen Of barnacle boi’s ‘In The Dark’ appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

This seventh chapter comes almost two years after the previous one, and adds, to the already prestigious guest list, two of the hottest artists of the moment: Juche and barnacle boi. However, the real strength of this volume doesn’t lie just in the singles, but in the quality of the entire musical journey. Proof of the outstanding work done by Jutrø and Kosa on the curation, which continued to subvert my expectations from start to finish.

On first listening, there were only a few tracks that really stuck with me. ‘Tokyo Nights’ by sapphyre, for its fantastic use of different kinds of vocals, ‘Exulansis’ by all your friends for its apocalyptic and movie-score inspired vibes, and ‘ICore’ by Juche, from whom I didn’t expect such a phonk oriented tune. But one re-listen after another (a reminder of how important it is to consume music slowly, alienating ourselves from the fast-food practices of streaming culture) many more memorable moments emerged within the album’s runtime. First and foremost are the vocals in ‘Lesley’, a song produced and sung by longtime collaborators Jutrø and Linda. Heartbreaking in some passages, cold and cynical in others, this performance never ceases to give me chills. Then I need to mention the, equally unexpected, up-tempo beats of Kosa’s ‘Demons’, the classic OG wave atmospheres in barnacle boi’s ‘Falling’ and ‘Isolated’ by OLDFLOP, who somehow managed to flawlessly blend together an instrumental that reminds me of nvrmore and a stereotypical phonk vocal sample.

I found it interesting to note that W#7 is the wave compilation with the least presence of hardwave in recent years, and vice versa, the one that has embraced phonk influences the most. It’ll be interesting to observe whether this is a global trend or whether it is a peculiarity dictated by geographical influences. Leaving aside genre subdivisions, this album has, first of all, the credit of having surprised, amazed and entertained me over and over again. 

 CZELUŚĆ’s W#7 is available below, on Spotify and Apple Music.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1558084129″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

The post CZELUŚĆ Releases 16-Track ‘W#7’ Wave Compilation Featuring Juche, Barnacle boi, ÆSTRAL. + More appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

Pantheon kicks off on Thursday, with the official pre-party at the High Dive, which will see calicry and Static Angel behind the decks, two of my favorite producers in the game at the moment. The festival reaches its climax on Friday and Saturday nights, where more than 30 artists will take the stage at the Substation. The gargantuan lineup includes some familiar names such as Remnant.exe, barnacle boi, brothel, Noah B, Falldren, Ramon Pang, Angel Cannon, and many more.

You can find the last tickets for the pre-party and the two-day festival here and here.

The post Pantheon Debuts This Weekend As The Biggest US Wave Festival appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

brothel. (not the first time I write about him) and barnacle boi are the cremé de la cremé of the US wave scene, two undiscussed legends and full members of the global pantheon of the genre. The number of classics that have their signs is notable. They both have already played plenty of guest mixes, radio shows, URL festivals and even international live shows, something that doesn’t have to be taken for granted when talking about a young movement such as Wave and after nearly two years of the pandemic. Talking about that, brothel. stated that ‘SLIDE’ was actually created while on tour: “Ian and I were touring Russia last year and we straight up wrote this song in the back of a van on our long 8-hour ride to the next country.” They both can count a solid following and a devoted fanbase that is reflected in the hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners they currently have on streaming platforms. End of the lesson. Let’s jump right into the track.

First fact: ‘SLIDE’ is actually a remix. Or maybe a bootleg, a flip, an edit, whatever you like to call it. In short, it features a vocal sample of H.E.R, from her 2019’s song ‘Slide’ (which, in turn, contains an interpolation of Jermaine Dupri feat. Jay-Z ‘Money’s ‘Ain’t a Thang’). Second fact. It doesn’t matter if the vocals aren’t original, ‘SLIDE’ is an absolute beauty that shines of its own light. Barnacle Boi and brothel. twist the dry, bouncy, warm mood of the original and replace it with a thick, vaporous, synthetic texture that delicately accompanies the vocals from the intro all the way to the end. The effect is that of a morning mist on an Autumn day, which wraps the landscape with its unpalpable presence as the first light of dawn appears over the horizon. In the very short breakdown, synths and pads take over and give us an instrumental moment of pure peace of mind. In the second drop, brothel. and Barnacle Boi mainly follows the footstep of the previous. They add a further injection of reverb and decrease the volume of the vocals making the division between the various layers more blurred. The beat never becomes too predominant and performs very well its role of dictating a slow pace to the track. Its most characteristic elements are definitely its highly reverberated snare and the rainfall of hi-hats in the last segment. ‘SLIDE’ is just the latest example of the highly successful contamination between wave, trap, and hip hop, which is having an unexpected longevity as well as a less unexpected, impressive popularity.

Stream ‘SLIDE’ by brothel. and Barnacle Boi below, on Spotify and grab your free download here.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1142396470″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

The post brothel. and Barnacle Boi Release Highly Addictive Collaboration ‘SLIDE’ appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

The first track off 2020 is titled ‘begging,’ and it is a welcoming start to the LP, offering classic melodic dubstep vibes. ‘wanderlust’ transports listeners to a world of rich atmosphere, trap beats, and an evolving synth that pulls at your heartstrings. The title track ‘2020’ is a standout on the LP, with powerful vocals and lush synths, it’s a track that is hard to miss. In ‘flux’ barnacle boi creates a rush of energy by mixing haunting vocals and an arp loop that is beautiful and moving. The entire 2020 LP is a memorizing journey; in which barnacle boi masterfully combines elements of lofi and trap, mixed with heavy emotional overtones.

Listen to 2020 below.

The post barnacle boi Creates A Dreamy Trip On ‘2020’ LP appeared first on FUXWITHIT.