Ibizafication: The Enshittification of Dance Culture
The underground is not a product. But, the steady creep of Ibizafication has dismantled our culture’s resistance, transforming the raw narrative of the dance floor into a static, easily packaged commodity. When we look at the current state of our scene, we aren’t seeing a movement; we are seeing a marketplace. Defining Ibizafication Ibizafication is…
Navigating the Humidity and Hypnotism at Donato Dozzy’s Extended Set at FVTVR, July 2026
We headed down to FVTVR on the Quai d’Austerlitz with high expectations, drawn by the prospect of an immersive musical journey that would take us deep into the night. Having spent countless hours replaying his Rome Boiler Room set (below) from last year and witnessing his incredible outing earlier this season (as explored in The…
Astropolis 2026 Review: 30 Years of Subcultural Rave Resistance
Here is our review of Astropolis 2026, where the electronic music universe converged in Brest for a weekend of intense rhythm, generational communion, and a few unexpected twists. The Mega-Festival Illusion and the Astropolis Exception Regular readers of this blog know we have long been critical of the massive, over-commercialized events dominating the modern circuit.…
The Fall of the Jet-Set Dancefloor: What the Cercle Crisis Teaches Us
For a decade, Cercle was the undisputed poster child of electronic music’s cinematic age. They gave us breathtaking, pristine imagery: Carl Cox at a French château, Nina Kraviz at the Eiffel Tower, FKJ on the Bolivian salt flats. It was high art meets high production, the ultimate translation of electronic music into viral luxury. But…
EDM PR Networks: How They Buy the Dance Music Press
Behind the headlines of major electronic music platforms lies a marketplace dominated by Sponsored Content. If you are an independent producer pitching to commercial EDM PR Networks like We Rave You or EDM.com, you are no longer seeking editorial coverage – you are purchasing space. Curation has been replaced by a commercial real estate market…
Can Psychedelics at Raves and Ceremonies Help Heal Childhood Trauma?
When we think of places where deep psychological healing happens, a quiet, sterile therapist’s office or a high-tech clinical research lab usually comes to mind. We don’t typically picture a bass-heavy, neon-lit electronic dance music (EDM) festival or an all-night communal ceremony. Groundbreaking new research suggests that for adults living with the heavy, lingering echoes…
Richie Hawtin at Mia Mao: A Night of Mixed Signals June 2026
It is an inevitable truth of the electronic music landscape: even the most revered veteran DJs are prone to experimentation. Sometimes, those shifts lead to a transcendental breakthrough, and other times, they simply miss the mark. Our recent evening at Mia Mao to see Richie Hawtin fell firmly into the latter category. Richie Hawtin remains…
Manifestive and the Fight for the Free Party Movement June 2026 Paris
Electronic music has always been a tool for reclaiming space, but right now in France, dancing has become a literal act of political resistance. On Saturday, June 13, 2026, the streets of Paris transformed into a massive, mobile underground dancefloor. This wasn’t a commercial, heavily ticketed corporate festival—this was a manifestive. For those unfamiliar with…
Hypnotic Endurance: Rødhåd and A.mo at essaim June 2026
There are nights that ask you to dance, and then there are nights that demand you surrender to the rhythm entirely. Our latest venture into the dark, immersive confines of essaim was firmly the latter. Stripped of distractions and focused entirely on the communal energy of the floor, the room was primed for something deep…
Navigating Tension and Patience Quelza All Night Long essaim May 2026
tribalism – Quelza – all night long There is a point in an all-night set where the music stops being a collection of tracks and becomes a psychological negotiation. When an artist takes control from doors to close, they aren’t just playing records; they are constructing an ecosystem. Berlin-based producer and DJ Quelza took us…
MAIN ROOM x reshape – Barker Live at essaim, Paris May 2026
In a club landscape where many live electronic music performances feel comfortably safe, often constructed more like traditional, predictable DJ sets, Barker’s performance for the MAIN ROOM x reshape showcase at essaim in Paris stood out as something entirely different. Going into the night, we didn’t quite know what to expect. In fact, we didn’t…
The Sonic Highs and Lows: Our Nuits Sonores 2026 Journey
Another year, another pilgrimage to Lyon for Nuits Sonores. As one of France’s (at times) most forward-thinking electronic music festivals, our expectations are always sky-high when we roll into the city. The 2026 edition, however, proved to be a weekend of extreme, fascinating contrasts. We oscillated between the pure, sophisticated, deeply Purist, Classic, Hypnotic &…
The Hypnotic Resonance of Claudio PRC & Luigi Tozzi live at Fvtvr April 2026
A Study in Psychedelic swampy drug music Immersion Fvtvr remains a uniquely harsh environment, a space where the industrial architecture dictates the mood as much as the music does. The crowd was, as expected a very Parisian international Saturday night techno gang, a study in contrasts: the fashionable set, with the dedicated unfashionable techno nerds,…
Hofesh Shechter II – In the Brain at Théâtre de la Ville, Paris April 2026
We recently had the pleasure of experiencing In the Brain, the latest full-length work by Hofesh Shechter’s junior company, Shechter II, at the Théâtre de la Ville (Les Abbesses). It was a raw, electrifying dive into movement and rhythm that successfully bridged the gap between the intensity of a rave and the focused artistry of…
Top Techno and House DJs – 2026 (So Far)
This List is a work in progress and it will change … Best: Oscar Mulero, DJ Nobu, Wata Igarashi, Jane Fitz, DVS1, Juan Atkins, BASHKKA, Rrose, Marcel Dettmann, Jeff Mills, Nørbak, Voices From The Lake (Donato Dozzy and Neel), Koboyo, Laurent Garnier, Colin Benders, Kenny Larkin, Ben Klock, Misstress Barbara, Perc, Miley Serious, Rødhåd, Elli Acula, D’Julz, Luigi…