2026 Discovery

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Dub / Dub Electronica
• Secondary Influences: Jazz, Reggae / Dub, Downtempo
• Textural Identity: Deep basslines, echo-soaked spatial mixing, jazz instrumentation fragments (horns, piano) processed through dub effects
• Energy Axis: Low → Mid (meditative groove rather than dancefloor intensity)

Jazz Gone Dub by Gaudi sits fundamentally within the Electronic root genre because the album’s sonic architecture is defined by studio production techniques, bass-heavy mixing, and dub effects processing rather than traditional band performance.

Discovered on social. #spotify

• Root Genre: Rock
• Primary Branch: Indie Rock (Art-Punk leaning)
• Secondary Influences: Post-Punk, Noise Rock, Experimental Rock
• Textural Identity: Gritty, angular guitars; loose-tight rhythm interplay; slightly chaotic but controlled dynamics; wiry, theatrical vocal delivery
• Energy Axis: Medium-High → High (restless, nervy propulsion rather than stadium bombast)

Getting Killed sits firmly in Rock’s amplified band tradition, but it avoids polished indie gloss. Instead, Geese lean into tension: jagged riffs, rhythmic friction, and a sense of barely-contained unraveling. The album channels post-punk’s skeletal urgency and art-rock’s unpredictability rather than classic alt-rock melodicism.

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Ambient Techno / IDM
• Secondary Influences: Modern Classical, Post-Rock atmosphere, Experimental Electronica
• Textural Identity: Expansive, melancholic, textural, spatially layered, cinematic
• Energy Axis: Low → Mid (mostly introspective, occasionally rhythm-driven but never club-forward)

A Hum of Maybe feels like walking through a quiet city at dusk, when everything is still but emotionally charged. Sascha Ring strips electronic music down to breath, space, and fragile texture — soft synth swells, distant pulses, and understated vocals that seem to dissolve into the atmosphere. There’s a gentle tension throughout the record: rhythms emerge but never fully dominate, melodies hint at resolution without delivering catharsis. It’s introspective, slightly melancholic, and deeply cinematic — electronic music not designed for the club, but for reflection, solitude, and slow thinking.

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Ambient Techno
• Secondary Influences: Detroit Techno, IDM (early Warp aesthetic), Space Ambient
• Textural Identity: Lush pads, cosmic atmospheres, deep 4/4 pulses, dubby spatial depth
• Energy Axis: Low → Medium (meditative propulsion rather than peak-time drive)

Visions of the Past (released under Leiner’s Source Experience alias on Apollo/R&S in the mid-90s) is quintessential European ambient techno. Structurally, it belongs firmly to the Electronic root: sequencer-based composition, drum machines, analog synth pads, and studio-constructed spatial design define its DNA.

What makes it distinctive is its cosmic introspection — it’s not club-forward techno, but rather a floating, transportive form aligned with early-90s Belgian and UK ambient movements. There’s a subtle Detroit lineage (à la deep, emotive futurism), yet the album leans more toward expansive, astral immersion than groove-centric functionality.

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: House (Italo / Balearic-leaning)
• Secondary Influences: Disco; Funk; Afro-Latin
• Textural Identity: Lo-fi; Raw; Analog
• Energy Axis: Mid-tempo groove-driven

Whodamanny, a key figure of Naples’ underground scene and founder of Biloba, delivers Onda Biloba — a vibrant blend of Latin Italo-Disco flair, dancefloor gems, and laid-back cuts, showcasing his bold studio experimentation and signature groove.

Discovered via Album Whale. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Ambient; Downtempo
• Secondary Influences: Leftfield Pop
• Textural Identity: Dreamlike; Nocturnal; Introspective

Strut proudly presents the debut album from producer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist, Momoko Gill.Fresh from her critically acclaimed collaboration Clay recorded with cult electronic artist Matthew Herbert, Momoko steps forward in her own right for the first time with her remarkable debut solo album. Momoko has long been one of the UK electronic and jazz scene"s best-kept secrets. A self-taught drummer, producer, songwriter, and vocalist, she has brought her unique touch to collaborations with Alabaster DePlume, Matthew Herbert, Coby Sey, Tirzah, and Nadeem Din-Gabisi (her musical foil in An Alien Called Harmony). Extensive touring behind the drum kit, at the keys and in front of the mic have honed her compositional and production instincts.With Momoko, Gill emerges into the spotlight with an album that is entirely her own. Throughout, you can hear the stylistic flavours of jazz musicians as much as singer-songwriters, experimental artists and electronic producers.Though Gill rejects imitation, sculpting her sound through feel and expression rather than tradition. Based in London and having grown up in Japan and the US, Gill channels her breadth of perspective through her musical ideas and storytelling, with a unique voice developed through instinct, collaboration and solitary study.

Discovered via Album Whale. #spotify

• Root Genre: Rock
• Primary Branch: Post-Punk; Art Rock
• Secondary Influences: Indie rock minimalism, spoken-word performance art, 80s UK post-punk**
• Textural Identity: Dry, wiry, skeletal; clean but tense guitar lines; detached vocal delivery; negative space as structure
• Energy Axis: Medium-low physical intensity, high cerebral tension; restrained but rhythmically driving

Dry Cleaning’s core move is still that deadpan, hyper-observational vocal presence over tightly controlled, rhythmic band playing—but Secret Love is often described as a step more expansive and emotionally integrated than the earlier “pure” post-punk framing: more color in the arrangements, more shape in the hooks/choruses in places, and a producer fingerprint that nudges them further into art-rock weird-pop without sanding off the band’s bite.

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Psychedelic electronic; synth-driven funk
• Secondary Influences: Thai-inspired psych rock; Disco; Krautrock motorik; Global groove
• Textural Identity: Analog synth leads; Repetitive hypnotic basslines; Tight disco-influenced drum grooves; Bright, kaleidoscopic tonal palette; Minimal vocals, instrumental focus
• Energy Axis: Medium → High energy

Limited to 200 copies on red vinyl that are only available to HHV customers On their fourth album Yatta!, the celebrated Dutch quartet YĪN YĪN extends, bends, and ignites a joyous mix of disco, funk, surf, psychedelia, and Southeast Asian motifs. UNCUT magazine previously dubbed their highly addictive sound “cosmic disco”— a fitting starting point — but as Yatta! proves, the band's sonic footprint is an ever-evolving kaleidoscope of sounds, textures and beats. As with their breakthrough album Mount Matsu (2024), their devotion to getting the dance floor moving remains front and center. That impulse, already strong, has intensified — Yatta! lifting it to an ecstatic next level. The result? An album that reveals a band whose groove just keeps getting deeper.

The opening track on YĪN YĪN’s new album, Yatta!, begins with a sample of the philosopher Alan Watts expounding: “There is no Yang without Yin and no Yin without Yang.”

Appropriately enough, the track – a jubilantly upbeat slice of disco action – is called “In Search of Yang,” and begs a question about the meaning of the group’s name. The group’s drummer and co-founder, Kees Berkers, explains: “Yin Yang is about balance between two different forces and Yin Yin would essentially mean two negative forces that cannot reach a common ground. So, YĪN YĪN is about finding a balance in the unbalanced.”

Certainly, over the last six years, the quartet from Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands has built a reputation for balancing an eclectic range of influences and using them to forge something that is affectionately retro and, at the same time, fresh and forward-facing.

The group’s origins lie in an experimental jam session in a remote village ballet school in 2017, leading to the release of the single, “Dion Ysiusk,” the following year. The debut album, The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers was released in 2019, followed by The Age of Aquarius in 2022. After a few personnel changes, the quartet’s line-up had, by 2023, arrived at its current form of Kees Berkers (drums), Remy Scheren (bass), Jerôme Scheren (keyboards) and Erik Bandt (guitar). 2024 saw the release of Mount Matsu, now followed by the group’s most complete statement to date, Yatta!

Across the album, YĪN YĪN specialise in creating the soundtracks to dream journeys, opportunities for the listener to visit places that exist in realms of the imagination.

Discovered by sy_c_m. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Downtempo / Leftfield House
• Secondary Influences: Jazz harmony, Balearic, Ambient, Indie-dance
• Textural Identity: Warm, groove-led electronics with organic instrumentation layered over steady 4/4 pulses. Soft synth pads, melodic basslines, subtle percussive detail, and a slightly sun-faded, cosmopolitan atmosphere. There’s a tactile quality—less club-maximal, more boutique hi-fi lounge energy.
• Energy Axis: Mid-energy → laid-back propulsion. Rhythmic enough for movement, restrained enough for home listening.

Et Al sits comfortably in that contemporary European electronic space where house rhythms meet tasteful musicianship. Chez de Milo lean into groove without chasing peak-time intensity. The album feels curated rather than explosive—something you’d expect to find via HHV or Bastard Vinyl while browsing modern leftfield dance records. It’s music for stylish interiors, late-evening DJ sets, and careful listening through a good system rather than festival main stages.

Discovered via HHV. #spotify

• Root Genre: Electronic
• Primary Branch: Deep House (Detroit House tradition)
• Secondary Influences: Soul / R&B, Jazz, Funk, Gospel
• Textural Identity: Warm, dusty, analog; vinyl hiss; looping grooves; intimate vocal fragments; late-night atmosphere
• Energy Axis: Low–Mid energy (hypnotic, groove-locked rather than peak-time driven)

Black Mahogani is a defining statement of Detroit deep house — not the polished, festival-facing version, but the inward, sensual, crate-digger lineage. Moodymann (Kenny Dixon Jr.) builds tracks around repetition and feel rather than obvious drops. The grooves breathe; samples feel lived-in; vocals appear like memories rather than hooks.

The album blurs club functionality with personal expression — part DJ tool, part soul meditation. Compared to more mechanical Detroit techno, this record leans human: imperfect drum programming, emotional sampling, and a heavy Black American musical lineage running through it.