This is a 2025 retrospective with “musical gifts” discovered on bandcamp. The music here is shared as name-your-price by artists and labels we admire. You can download the music for free, but please support the artists.
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Italian producer Endless Nothing presents his debut X-IMG release “Forever Gone”, a tightly assembled and refined seven track album of brooding club cuts and finessed sound design topped off by a remix from SARIN. With sonic and creative concepts rooted in exploring themes of urban isolation and the harshness of modern capitalist existence, Endless Nothing weaves between techno, body music and post-punk influences to deliver his distinct sound characterized by crushing basslines, martial rhythms, and distorted, nihilistic atmospheres. Beyond his original productions, Endless Nothing has also made a name for himself as a remixer, working with key operators within the dark electronics underworld.
‘Shifting Bits’ marks the first full-length statement from 2:29, a rising young artist from the Netherlands. Rooted in shadowy, melody-streaked electro, the five original tracks (including one self-rework) revolve around the idea of transition and transformation. The title Shifting Bits reflects 2:29’s background as a software engineer: in computing, shifting bits alters values, creates new ones, or even causes loss, an irreversible process that parallels the way sound, workflow, and artistic intention evolve. Moving from DAW-based attempts to a more tactile hardware approach, these tracks capture the moment where experimentation starts crystallizing into a distinct voice. The cassette is rounded out by three remixes: a distorted and vintage-melodic rework from fellow Dutch producer Betonkust, a darker, driving version by Croatian veteran Le Chocolat Noir, and a contribution from Budapest’s Hadron Lundgren, his third appearance on the label, who reshapes the original into cold, atmospheric form.
Two vocal tracks and two instrumentals. The classic EP structure reflects the class act that is Fred Ventura and Paolo Gozzetti. Italoconnection are back at the Bordello weaving their synthesizer magic. And those analogue lines are what immediately wash over the listener in “Like A Star.” Crisp percussion and sailing melodies break to a glorious hook before Ventura’s unmistakable voice takes hold. Paying homage to Moroder’s “From Here To Eternity”, Italoconnection deliver a vocoder dipped love affair as smouldering vocals pitch ever higher. The instrumental strips back all lyrics, but allows the breathy keys to remain and keep that human touch amidst the addictive chords and rich textures. Bold machine brass introduces “Make It Real.” These blasts form the melodic backbone for this ballad to self-belief where Ventura’s impassioned words are impeccably coupled with Gozzetti’s sparkling synthwork. That synthwork comes to the fore in the finale. With lyrics pared back, the machines sing a different song as that energy packed melody is charged with even more intensity. Quality through and through, as always with Italoconnection.
A new edit from DayVentura to wrap-up the year 2025.
A pioneer of the NYC underground returns to Psionic. After a highly sought after release in the label’s early years, Reade Truth delivers once again with the Life In Review EP. With decades of experience shaping the sonic landscape, his signature blend of analog vintage textures and modern flair shines across four diverse cuts. From hazy minimal electro and dusty broken beats to hypnotic, mind-bending energy, this is Reade Truth in full force. A vital new weapon in the Psionic arsenal from a legend, one of the true originals.
Dungeon Acid’s latest on Borft Records is a proper good example of new school acid house that manages to tap into dark, hypnotic energy but retains plenty of melodic sophistication. Across five tracks, the Swedish pioneer explores dreamy dubby textures, jazzy solos and glitchy, punky edges to create a parallel-universe version of what acid house could be in 2025. Standouts like ‘101-303’ and ‘Unlock Rewind’ showcase haunting elegance and tension-filled build-ups, while ‘Lonely Acid Boy’ and ‘Shnukki’ explore atmospheric contrasts and subtle melodic surprises. Closing with the chaotic yet compelling ‘Chiliflex BB’, the EP is full of contrast and acid house reinvention.
“New World Vol. 3” marks the final chapter in Tiger Weeds’ VA trilogy and celebrates the label’s three-year anniversary. The compilation moves across Electro in its many forms, opening space for new directions while remaining rooted in the elements that define the Tiger Weeds sound.
The Xuntanza series returns with its sixth volume, reaffirming the collaborative spirit that has made it a reference within contemporary electronic music. In this new chapter, five artists from singular sonic universes come together on one record to shape a collective journey: Legowelt, Synth Alien, Vema Diodes, Irrational Language, and Sound Synthesis. The result is a mosaic of sounds in tune with the open and daring identity of Fanzine Records.
Das Beste Aus Hagen Redux is an icy transmission from the early circuitry of European minimalism. A² revives the pulse of proto-electro with surgical precision—pure voltage, no excess. Cold synth lines snake through monochrome rhythms, delivering drama without decadence. It’s music for neon-lit silence and synthetic nostalgia, built from tape hiss, static tension, and analog dreams. Minimal synth stripped to the bone—resistant, elegant, and eternal.
For the first time, Endrik Schroeder and The Hacker have joined forces. Their unique sounds and styles have combined seamlessly to produce a 12” that draws on their own musical histories. The title track pulls the listener into a darkened sweaty basement, a space where neon lights leer and quivering speakers vibrate. Melting elements of new beat and rave revelry, the track is bawdy and bold. Robotic samples cut through siren blasts, clean snare rolls skidding in thick basslines and creamy breaks. Two remixes follow, both care of fellow French producer: Back From The Wave. First up is the “Breaky Remix”. Adhering to the club origins of the source material, this remake sends melodies ever higher as drums lift elated lines to the stern refrain of “Emergency”. The “Indie Remix” closes. The glowsticks are sheathed in this version, instead it is the soaring keys that are given the limelight with beats bolstered for extra bite. Three tracks set to delight and ignite dancefloors.
After the storm of their self-titled debut, Geneva duo Bound By Endogamy return to Pinkman with an album that trades brute force for precision. The rage remains, but it’s sharpened, disciplined, and driven by melancholy rather than rupture. Their minimal synth and industrial instincts rise to the surface, carving out room for melody without softening their confrontational edge. Angular basslines coil beneath Kleio Thomaïdes’ voice, at times detached and at times devastating, while Shlomo Balexert’s drum programming and synth work build a taut metallic tension. The result is both intimate and mechanical: love songs for disenchanted souls, post-punk electronics stripped to the bare wire. Bound By Endogamy have always blurred the line between performance and survival, and here they do it with minimal gestures and maximum impact.
Emerging from the sun-drenched haze of their previous releases, the Belgo-Italian duo, soFa elsewhere and Nicolas Boochie, descend into the shadows with ‘Trabajando El Flex’, their third record to date. This is their gloomiest strike yet – a mutant wave manifesto built on a raw DIY ethos. Imagine pulsing basslines and ghostly vocals soundtracking your deepest, most illicit desires. Channeling the spirit of a major influence which is Coil, this album could have been called “Music to Play in the Dark(rooms).” It’s a lethal fusion where New Beat, EBM, Dub, Italo, and New Wave lock into a singular, hypnotic atmosphere. Their world is a wild ride from Bear-Santa Claus Fantasms to Burning Churches and Amphetamine rooms, reflected in both their playful – not-to-be-taken-seriously – lyrics and a genre-shattering sound. Their debut was a lost reel; their second, a dream, Trabajando El Flex is the raw, slow-burning, and beautifully unclean night that consumes both. It’s a flawless fit for the after-hours ruin of the Pinkman universe.
Violet Poison returns to KRI with a full-scale assault of warped electro, mutant EBM and haunting wave. After previously appearing as a remixer and EP collaborator, Francesco Baudazzi expands his earlier contributions into a full-statement solo record that stretches from sub-zero electro programming to early-90s synthetic nostalgia and 80s romanticism. A diverse record by the veteran Italian producer is completed with remixes from Slow Motion affiliate Karolina BNV and long-standing KRI comrade Dj Nephil.
It’s that time of the year when Anthony Rother comes yet again with a new album, EXIT UTOPIA, as always available as ‘name your price’ on his bandcamp.
Leonardo Marletta’s astounding ‘Percussioni ed effetti’ was originally released by Cenacolo in 1983 and is the one and only album of the Italian composer. Other than a handful of compositions which appear on other Library albums from the era, very little about him remains known, adding an air of tragedy for what might have been, as the first sounds of the album ring through the air.
The word Datasal paints inner pictures for most people growing up in Sweden during the 1990’s. The datasal (a classroom for computers) was an ordinary classroom with few changes to fit the school’s 10 newly leased computers. The room represented the change of times in Sweden during this period: the fixed institutions and the awaiting digital flood wave. The music of Datasal sounds captures the feeling of printing a downloaded picture of your favorite hockey player or music artist or the expectations building up as you wait for the modem to log in to interact with the thousands of users of the internet in 1995. The tracks this release manifests the excitement but also the bit of fright you felt connecting to the world in the mid 90’s – a time when the internet still was fun. The sound is built around repetitive sequencer loops and programmed beats where electric bass, electric guitar and flute improvise around a theme, creating a sound that is best described as cosmic flute house. Datasal is an harmonic reminder of a time where digital progress seemed less harmful than today.
‘Mirage’ is a musical phenomenon that arises in the atmosphere due to refraction and total internal reflection of analog sound rays at the boundary between layers of trance of varying density, tribal ambient, and futuristic dub. Thanks to this effect, the observer sees imaginary images of distant objects that are normally hidden behind the horizon, as well as their distorted shapes or reflections.
The Hipodrome Of Music 