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’.

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As for September’s playlist, the spotlight is deservedly occupied by Sibewest and his brand-new album Fallout. Presented as “the epitome of the past year of my life, my condition, thoughts, attitude and inner struggle with myself. Self-disappointment, emptiness and weakness”, the project indeed sounds like an emotional autopsy that lays bare the Russian producer’s inner self. Conceived by Sibewest as a story divided into chapters, Fallout oscillates between moments of contemplation characterized by wave and ambient tropes, and tumultuous segments that embrace electro and post-rock influences. The ten songs compose a journey that unfolds through passions, nightmares, and epiphanies, and which serves Sibewest (and all of us) “as a reminder that even after the darkest times, the light ones will surely come“. Excluding the tracks already published during the rollout, ‘Thunder’ seems to have quickly become the fan favorite cut. If you don’t feel like listening to the whole album, this is a single not to be missed.

Other personal highlights among the thirty songs featured in the tracklist are MitraWave’s ‘Last Call’, vowl.’s ‘The End’, and ‘Gateway’ by HAIKU. This month we also have a solid remix and bootleg section courtesy of lvst, Førgøtten, DIGITAL ENTITY, MIRAJ, and Myrmax. rvnti’s wave arc keeps getting better and better as well as Heimanu’s recent release streak. Juche showed no signs of letting up and dropped three releases in September as well.

Out of the blue, MYSTXRIVL and Sokos decided to release (or re-release) their 2017 classic, ‘Pixel’, on SoundCloud. I have no idea if there is a deeper meaning behind this choice, but in the meantime, I didn’t miss the opportunity to sneak such a timeless masterpiece in between all the new releases.

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In terms of releases, the spotlight goes to cali.xo’s brand new EP ‘luv‘. This new concept project from the American singer and producer taps into wave, but goes beyond drifting to more instrumental and ambient soundscapes that highly remind me of one of my all-time favourite wave-esque albums. With ‘luv‘ cali.xo shows once again her strong artistic personality and her unmatched ability to create intimate and vulnerable atmospheres. The playlist features many other slow-burning pieces from Gladkill, Klimeks, søul., Cirrus Minør, Blut Own, and many others. Juche included.

August sees the long-awaited second edition of Arcadia festival. The first show is happening this very weekend in Moscow, while at the end of the month, it will be St. Petersburg’s turn. The lineup is simply immense and you can probably understand how much it pains me that I’ll not be able to attend either of them because I’m on holiday in the weeks between the two dates. Last, but clearly not least, Night Drive IV is coming next week. Should I add something? I don’t think so. If this playlist (and the previous ones) aren’t enough to get you through till the 7th, you can watch some spoilers to fight the FOMO.

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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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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.

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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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There was no shortage of major releases that raised the OG sound to new heights, but at the same time there was no lack of artists venturing into largely virgin territories where they mixed the wave approach with drum&bass, trance, house, planting the seeds for a promising future for the movement. To be remembered in the same way as its predecessor, 2024 will have to hold no small surprises in store for us. For the time being, I believe the premises are there. On my side, to help you keep track of all the music to be released in the next eleven months, I will compile a monthly summary with the best releases, here on FUXWITHIT.

Easier said than done. If the next months are anything like February,  this will be one hell of a journey. To make amends for missing the January issue, I’m doubling down this month, but still, where can I start? cali.xo released her long-awaited EP ‘cry‘ at the beginning of the month, a suggestive project that alone would fill this list. Then Juche decided to show us no mercy, delivering one new release per week (one better than the others, of course), forcing me to make choices I didn’t want to make. He’s not alone though. Heimanu, Nick Neutronz, vowl, Kareful, Enjoii, Øtherside., all published multiple tracks this month as well. Then there’s Static Angel, who gifted us with one of her classic euphoric pieces, obey who went on remix duties on skeler’s ‘my fight‘,  KENOK who managed to squeeze hardware, breaks and trance in a single track and MitroWave who dived into electroclash territories with his latest EP. And that’s not all.

Check the full playlist below.

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The post Wave Monthly | February 2024 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.

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After teasing us with exquisite treats such as ‘From Above‘, ‘Float’, and ‘Everfield’, it was finally time for the wave master to unveil the main course of his 2022. With this brand new EP, titled Story Prologue, Juche offers us the natural sequel to his widely acclaimed 2019 long play debut Future Love Story. “I understood on a personal level that, to emancipate myself in my art, larger projects, such as albums, allow me to express myself fully, tirelessly,” Juche explains in concomitance with the release of the project. And indeed, it’s in his more structured projects that we are able to enjoy his storytelling on a deeper level. When in his comfort zone, he’s not afraid to eviscerate his creative process and put it to the test.  While in the first chapter the tracklist was characterized by marked stylistic differences, Story Prologue offers a more mixtape-like experience.  Some cuts are definitely more trance-oriented (‘Now Infinity’, ‘Stream’) others display a more “classic” take on hardwave (‘Looking For Us’, ‘SPAM’) but the overall perception is that of listening to one, long session.

I often see Juche’s sound referred to simply as “futuristic” or “sci-fi,” but personally, I find that these definitions are falling short. What started out as a way to tell a fictional story is turning further and further into an autobiographical narration where Juche’s present, past, and future merge together in timeless pieces of art. To look into the future he first looks within himself, digging into his life experiences to find answers to what he does not yet know. His music is tremendously imbued with humanity and can inspire us to look forward as well as backward. If Future Love Story had already convinced us, Story Prologue confirms how irresistible Juche’s musical adventure is and how worthwhile it is to follow it. Right to the end.

You can listen to Story Prologue below or on your favorite platform here.

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“I’m currently working on so much projects, alone in the city where I live, only me and my imagination”. This was the last major update we got from Juche and I was super excited to be able to taste some new outputs.  ‘From Above’ had no easy life from the beginning. It came as the sequel of two mesmerizing releases, but still, it lived up to the expectations. It doesn’t reach the level of perfection of ‘Float’ (very few tracks have made it this year), but I think the two tracks are indirectly linked by a double thread. They resemble each other but likewise are mirrored. While ‘Float’ was pure, positive magic, a bliss, ‘From Above’ indulges in a gloomy atmosphere. The world it creates sounds doomed, as it was covered by an undying semi-darkness. The same feeling you might get from watching a beautiful landscape on a day when the sky is completely covered by a thick layer of grey clouds. What was classic, elementary beauty is twisted into a more complex kind of allure. Which doesn’t automatically translate into a negative feeling. It can instill sadness or melancholy in us or, depending on our temperament, hope and curiosity. Just as I said before, by giving us these musical journeys without any “compass,” Juche lets our imagination roam free without any bias.

Stream ‘From Away’ on your favorite platform here and if you want an extra dose of Juche’s music be sure to listen to his b2b set alongside Imer6ia for Rinse France.

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