”Djrum – I Wander (Houndstooth)”, Cyclic Defrost

An in demand skilled DJ, with a reputation for thrilling 3-turntable vinyl sets, Felix Manuel AKA Djrum recently expanded his performance repertoire with his “Improvised Live” concept. Programmed into Berlin Atonal last year and recently featured at the Barbican London, the British artist performs bespoke instruments built on site from locally foraged materials. After my first listen to Djrum’s new release I Wander, I found myself wondering: “What is this music made of?” Designed as one continuous piece on limited edition etched vinyl, it is split into seven edits for it’s digital release, although IV and V are one file.

Read the review at Cyclic Defrost.

Sunken Cages – “Neram Pularumbol (As The Dawn Breaks) (Mahorka)”, Cyclic Defrost

Ravish Momin is an established percussionist based in New York City. Working across jazz, improvisation and pop, he is rooted in Indian and Black music traditions. His project Sunken Cages showcases his style of layering live percussion with digital techniques of sampling, looping and signal processing, blurring distinctions between composition, improvisation and live performance.

Read the review at Cyclic Defrost.

Beatrice M. – “Sinking” (Tectonic Recordings), Cyclic Defrost

There seems to be a renewed interest in bass musics and sound system culture with some recent discussion about dubstep entering into its second generation. Now well beyond its formative years in South London in the early 2000s, where the genre emerged out of garage and alongside grime, young producers around the world are pushing 140BPM forward with a range of influences. US producer Skrillex is often credited for developing a punchy alt-rock version of “brostep” that he took to stadiums around world circa 2010—if you’ve prompted Suno with “dubstep” you might know what I mean. And while Skrillex has influenced a generation of musicians since, twenty-something-year-old Beatrice M. draws on their experiences in France, and notably “the golden age of tech-house.” Their debut album, Sinking, drops on 5 June one of dubstep’s formative labels, Tectonic Recordings, founded by Bristol-based DJ/producer Pinch in 2005. It follows on from their debut EP on Tectonic Midnight Swim (2025), released last year.  

Read my review at Cyclic Defrost.

Lyra Pramuk – “Hymnal (Resung)” (7K / pop.soil), Cyclic Defrost

On June 5, Lyra Parmuk will release Hymnal (Resung) on 7K and her own imprint pop.soil. The EP is a suite of “reworkings” of music from her lauded sophomore album Hymnal (2025). Made in collaboration with the Berlin-based Sonar Quartet string ensemble, Hymnal expands Pramuk’s pallette of processed vocals with strings and recomposed lyrics penned by poet Nadia Marcus that were selected by slime-mould! You might guess that Pramuk’s approach to wordplay emphasises the experimental, textural and emotional rather than the literal.  

Read my review at Cyclic Defrost.

“Here for the Sound”: Rewire Festival, 9–12 April, The Hague, Netherlands, Cyclic Defrost.

My review of the 15th Rewire Festival, The Hague, 9–12 April 2026. 

I’ve been noticing the phenomena of “adventerous music” festivals in Europe, that bring together a wide range of artists engaged in institutional, commercial, experimental and “fringe” practices. They tend to be multi-art affairs that include film programmes, exhibitions, dance and performance art and invariably have a discourse stream featuring researchers and writers alongside artists. CTM in Berlin and Unsound in Krakow are two well known examples that I have attended and reviewed. Peers had recommended Rewire in The Hague and I was forutnate to attend its fifteenth edition, 9–12 April 2026, which felt like a sweet spot in the festival’s trajectory. Rewire occurs in early Spring and it was a sunny weekend. The festival had sold out, yet I rarely had to queue and organisers, artists and attendees were open and friendly.  

Read at Cyclic Defrost.

KING GONG – “The Lisu” (Discrepant 2026), Cyclic Defrost

Born in France, Laurent Jeanneau became a nomadic DIY ethno-musicologist as a young man in the 1990s. He earned a reputation for documenting music made by people of the Zomia region which stretches across the highlands of Southeast Asia and Northeast India, encompassing parts of Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, China and India. The 100 million inhabitants of this region represent numerous minority language and ethnic groups. According to James C. Scott in his renown book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (2010), over thousands of years these groups adopted organisational, social and cultural practices to avoid being governed or dominated by surrounding empires and states. Now their culture is at risk due to the appropriation of land for plantations, dams or other “developments” and under pressure to conform to commercial sensibilities.  

Read at Cyclic Defrost.

"Gaza Biennale", Springerin

My review of the Gaza Biennale, Berlin Pavilion published in Springerin. So far only in print, and in German! Contact me if you want to read it in English.