#Need for speed underground soundtrack series#

Pangea’s ‘Installation’, one of the biggest tunes of 2023, also represents a similarly inspiring example. Overmono’s rise to global stardom following the release of their debut album Good Lies encapsulates this beautifully. In the past year, the gap between mainstream and 'underground' has shrinked even further. Fortunately, there are still people out there who are doing their best to make sense – Shawn Reynaldo’s book First Floor Volume 1 and DeForrest Brown Jr.'s book Assembling A Black Counter Culture for instance. Maybe this is for the better, and dance music has always been compartmentalised, but I feel the multiverse has now become so vast that even seasoned writers are having a hard time to get to grips with it. Currently, it feels as if there’s no centre to hold on to. Without strong dance music journalism however, all these phenomena and subcultures, distributed on social media, exist only as algorithm-driven content, lacking context and history, and I hope to see a new interest in 'positive gatekeeping' in 2024, whatever the format. Sucesso’s story is just one example of an ongoing process of decentralisation, and these trends are to be cherished as they lessen the influence of Eurocentrism, and loosen the grip of established dance music institutions. Think of the phonk phenomenon, or the latest 'baile funk renaissance' via artists like DJ Ramon Sucesso – viral TikTok videos brought these sounds to entirely new audiences.

When considering platforms like TikTok, things get rather more complex a wider world is revealed.

#Need for speed underground soundtrack series#

My views on these topics are rather biassed, though, as I look at the dwindling impact of dance music journalism and established mix series from a limited social media bubble mostly informed by millennial circles. Globally, dance music reached its all time high in popularity in 2023, but also gradually continued its demise in terms of cultural relevance, giving way to influencer culture, gaming and other industries. But I could hardly sell them as 'the sound of the future'. Sure, there’s been a lot of exciting new music, albums by Abadir, Rian Treanor & Ocen James, MC Yallah, Loppy B, Sam Goku, Rezzett, Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective and Al Wootton, to name a few. I can’t say I’ve rinsed many records which I’d dare define as groundbreaking this year. Maybe we’ve reached a point where we must accept that dance music, like rock and jazz before, has become so monolithic that you can only find true innovation in its darkest corners. Some might argue we’ve reached a stalemate when it comes to ‘futuristic’ music, but I like to remember one of Mark Fisher’s takes – that the late 20th century was an extraordinary period in cultural history, where we witnessed an acceleration in the production of new ideas and cultural forms, an excess of creativity. But if I look back at the past five years, it seems as though innovation has somewhat halted following the spread of hyperpop-adjacent and post-club aesthetics, and more recent Middle Eastern and Latin-influenced club sounds. Aunty Rayzor, photo by Michelle Isinbaevaĭance music has long been characterised by a collective need to push boundaries, to outdo the competition and push things to the next level.