XLR8R+025 is here and is our biggest edition to date, focusing on the Romanian minimal scene and featuring tracks and content from Amorf (Cristi Cons, Vlad Caia, and Mischa Blanos), Priku, Sublee, Cosmjn, Dan Andrei, and Orli.

We’ve written extensively about the deep and trippy minimal music that’s been seeping out of Bucharest, Romania. Back in 2015, we presented a long-form dig into the scene, and since then, have featured a number of the community’s key artists, including Priku, Dan Andrei, Cristi Cons, SIT, and Lizz on our pages. For the latest edition of XLR8R+, we decided to revisit the scene, releasing six new tracks, plus an exclusive look at an investigative feature that gives an unprecedented insight into what’s a notoriously elusive collective of DJs and producers.

On the music front, we have previously unreleased and exclusive tracks from some of Bucharest’s heavy-hitters, as well as its rising stars, including a new introspective cut from Amorf, the collaboration of Cristi Cons, Vlad Caia, and pianist Mischa Blanos, recorded specifically for this edition; a deep and dubby track from Priku that perfectly encapsulates his work; haunting low-slung grooves from Sublee; a rolling acid cut by Cosmjn; broken-beat synth mastery from Dan Andrei; and a sub-bass speaker-rattler by Orli.

Alongside the tracks, we’re also publishing an excerpt of William Ralston’s long-form story “Sunrise in Bucharest,” in which the UK writer traces Romania’s minimal music scene from clandestine parties and pirated tapes under the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu to international prestige. It was originally published by Berlin Quarterly in print in 2017 but sold out. Digital copies are currently available here.

This segment, which comes towards the end of the original article, reveals how the community of artists, including Rhadoo, Raresh, and Petre Inspirescu, formed around Sunrise Booking, the agency at the center of the music scene.

There’s also a Studio Essentials feature with Vlad Caia, one-third of Amorf and one half of SIT. Caia gives a detailed insight into his favorite machines and how he uses them.

And we’ve included a mix from Orli, specifically recorded for this edition and dropping as an XLR8R podcast in the next few months.

The artwork is by Amphia’s designer, Claudiu Stefan, and mastering duties, as always, are handled by Kamran Sadeghi.

The music, PDF. zine with artist profiles and design, and wallpaper artwork can be downloaded once you SUBSCRIBE HERE. If you’re already a subscriber, head to the member’s area to download the package.

You can stream the tracks on the release below, along with a preview of this month’s zine.

For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated subscription service. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by 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 across XLR8R’s channels 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.