Once again, thank you for all the submissions, and all the great music you’ve sent to us. Another month has passed and we’ve been struck once again by the quality of the music we’ve received, spanning all sorts of genres and tempos. It means a lot to hear from you, and we’re grateful for your hard work and for supporting us. We’ve listened to every single submission more than once—and while we could have featured much more, these are the tracks and mixes that stood out. Please enjoy, and keep sending us your music.

You can find more about the submissions portal and how to submit your music here.

Editor’s note: once again, we’ve made a point of linking each artist’s Bandcamp page, or a place where you can buy their music, and we encourage our readers to support these independent artists by buying their music. Let’s keep independent culture alive.

For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by a wealth of amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where you can submit tracks and DJ mixes to be showcased in this feature series and to the XLR8R+ community, as well as exclusive editorial content, mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, playlists, and more. You can find out more here.

kuprion “Plus Bus“

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Since leaving university in 2015, Berlin-based artist Kuprion has dedicated himself to music production, influenced by artists Andreas Tilliander, Âme, Moderat, Sebastian San, Bicep, and Lake People, and by the labels Kann Records, Aus Music, and Whities. His dancefloor-driven music exists in the space between melancholia and euphoria. Under his former pseudonym, Annders, he has released a 12″ on Resopal, and an EP on L’enfant Terrible. Since September 2018, he’s also been working at Oye Records in Berlin. “Plus Bus,” a deep breaks-heavy roller in the vein of Calibre, is one of his latest tracks.

Buy release.

Walk Palmer “Must’ve Been Wednesday“

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Walk Palmer is Anders, a 27-year-old producer living in Århus, Denmark. He’s been playing around with electronic music for 11 years but has really felt the urge to move his music forward recently. He’s inspired by playful percussion, melancholic and lo-fi synths, and big kicks. Here he presents one of his newest pieces, “Must’ve Been Wednesday,” which pairs subtle percussion with melancholic synth work and a head-nodding groove.

Piero Piccioni “Papà Funky” (Funclab Edit)

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Funclab Records is an independent label born in 2018, based in Milan, Italy. The label heads have contributed a new edit to the recent compilation ROLLOVER MILANO & FRIENDS against CORONAVIRUS, which comprises 19 edits from the Rollover crew and friends—as you can see from the list on the artwork above, Rollover has pulled in some heavy hitters. All proceeds will go towards the fight against Covid-19. The Funclab Edit of Piero Piccioni’s “Papà Funky” is irresistibly funky, as you’d expect, with Funclab refitting the original with a swinging club framework. Check out the full release here for more.

Buy release.

Yulio “Paihuano”

https://soundcloud.com/feiyr/yulio-paihuano?in=yulio/sets/yulio-new-release-universos

Yulio released the Earth LP in March 2019, reflecting on climate change, and he’s now re-sharing some of the tracks as part of a compilation that can be downloaded for free from his Soundcloud. The release also compiles tracks from albums Contact Interstellar (2015) and Future Elqui (2013), and serves as a demonstration of the Chilean producer’s great skill in creating experimental environments with harmonics, field recordings, noise, and penetrating rhythms. “Paihuano” is the one we come back to.

Buy release.

Atika Altar “Afloat Against Time”

https://soundcloud.com/atikaaltar/afloat-against-time

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Atika Altar is an artist and DJ from Singapore. She presents her palette of sounds through her psychedelic and playful DJ sets, spanning techno, IDM, bass, trace, and tribal, but also electronica, ambient, experimental, and other obscurities. Her versatility has seen her warming up for Brainfeeder’s Lapalux and DJ Shhhhh. “Afloat Against Time” is one of her first public productions, and like her DJ sets, it’s a wonderous amalgamation of styles, balancing deft rhythms and synth lines with a low slung groove.

Neil Foster “This We Have Now” (Optmst Remix)

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Optmst is the alias of Belfast, Ireland-based, Bangor, Wales-born artist Ryan Macfarlane, who has quietly built a reputation for his distinct take on breakbeat, liquid, and left-field techno. Inspired by primitive trance states,  IDM, progressive sounds, and the breaks era, he blends energetic styles into deep and soulful rhythms. 

Over the past few years, under various monikers and projects, he’s contributed to the culture in Belfast whilst developing his sound and releasing music from other artists on his label, Born Sleepy. With recent movements including this track out on R&S and more releases in the pipeline he’s one to keep an eye on. Here he’s presented a remix of Neil Foster’s piano-piece “This We Have Now.”

Buy music.

smva “Estrelitas“

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Smva is the solo project of Nikola Tosic, a trumpet player from Belgrade Serbia, now based in Vancouver, Canada. The project is an “experimental laboratory for sound and production,” he says, and the first release is influenced by Balkan brass music and a variety of electronic music genres. We’ve picked the head-spinning jazz cut “Estrelitas” to present here, but we suggest you listen to the whole record here.

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Oceanvs Orientalis “Life Above The Sky”

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Founded by Şafak Öz Kütle, Oceanvs Orientalis aims to “challenge the aesthetic perception in electronic music.” Despite being an electronic-based project due to practical reasons, it intends to transform into a dance orchestra where each instrument is played by its own instrumentalist. This is the first taste of what’s to come. “Oceanvs Orientalis, tunes are not in a hurry,” Kutle says, as you can hear in “LIFE ABOVE THE SKY,” a patient and soothing slice of dreamy electronics.

Buy Release.

ke Thu “Every Aspect”

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ke thu are a live act and producer duo based in Detroit. The two have been making music together for the last decade, and conceived the alias ke thu in 2018. Their sound is “an earnest exploration of techno and everything it is capable of,” founded upon an intrigue in the soft, brooding vibes of dub techno, the vast soundscapes of ambient music, and rhythms that often shy away from the typical four-to-the-floor music.” They last released on Symbiostic in 2019, and “Every Aspect” is their latest cut, presenting a masterful take on broken beat, complete with swirling synths and side-stepping rhythms.

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DARSE “Ich Sehe Des Meer Nicht”

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A music lover and synth fanatic, Darse began DJing at the age of 13 and began playing out in Insomnia, one of Italy’s most celebrated clubs. It was only then that he found himself drawn to making music. So he left DJing behind and began working in his studio, building a working process founded upon effects pedals and modular. He first released in 2015 on BeFree, showcasing the cinematic atmospheres and dark pads that have come to underpin his work. The next offering from Darse will be a more dancefloor-orientated track on the Afterlife’s Realm Of Consciousness Pt.II compilation, but he’s chosen to share a track from his upcoming album on Obseqvivm Records.

Buy release.

Wolf Light “Cut My Body Down“

https://soundcloud.com/wolflightmusic/cut-my-body-down-jn/

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Wolf Light is an electronic music project by London-based artist and producer Jason Wolfe. Wolf Light is heavily influenced by Hyperdub, the Seattle darkwave scene, European ambient techno, and UK dubstep.

For “Cut My Body Down,” he had the instrumental pretty much complete and had started talking to John Nolan, a vocalist in New York, who sent him a rough video of him performing a song of his, recorded on his iPhone. “I ripped the audio and used the vocals in this song,” Wolfe explains. “I sent it to him the next morning and he loved it as much as I do, and we decided it was worth releasing!”

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PTMS “Continuous Time“

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PTMS is from Helsinki, Finland, and a lover of electro. Of the tracks they presented, it was “Continuous Time,” a chunky slice of machine-funk, that we picked up the most, but check here for more. The entire EP is killer and available here, and we couldn’t recommend it more.

Buy release.

Heroarky “Taiyo to Yama“

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Heroarky is a Tokyo-born, Sydney-based music producer and audio-visual artist. His music is characterized by the intricate and textured sounds that surround listeners with an otherworldly atmosphere, summed up beautifully here with “Taiyo to Yama.” His approach to music is often conceptual, evoking thoughts and ideas. “Taiyo to Yama” is an unreleased track stemming from self-isolation.

Download “Taiyo to Yama.”

Bostock “Neverland“

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Bostock was raised in the countryside but moved to London, tempted into electronic music by his mother, an ex-raver, and father, a nightclub owner. He’s played at parties across the UK capital, often presenting his own work that he’s now beginning to release. “Neverland” is the among the first music he’s shared and is an inventive dub groover that begs to be played on a big soundsystem.

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Kevin Reed “Dredging Voices”

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Kevin Reed is a producer based in Indianapolis, United States. Little is known about him, but “Dredging Voices” is a deeply moving slice of cerebral techno that we keep coming back to. Check out his Soundcloud for more tracks like this.

Dan Kanvis “With My Bare Hands”

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Dan Kanvis is a Los Angeles-based artist and designer that flew onto our radar with “With My Bare Hands,” the second single from his upcoming album. This song is a “confrontation” that combines Dan’s influences and the music he was exposed to as a kid into a heady and emotive mixture of hip-hop, bass, and pop-punk.

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Fu Dog Isolation Mix

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Fu Dog is an artist based in Cape Town, South Africa, blending jazz, house, acid, electronica, and techno. This is an all-original mix, recorded during the lockdown. Across nearly 20 minutes, Fu Dog showcases his wares, flowing from deeper-than-deep house to swirling dub techno, broken beat, and smooth downtempo, marking him as an artist to watch this year.