VA - New Releases by OnlyBeats - [B]

Overview

There is a hidden staircase in this volume, and it runs from 95 to 155 BPM. Down in the basement, two cuts at 101 attack the same idea from opposite ends: Beico's 'Nonstop', which slows floor-ready techno to a trench crawl, and Big Miz's 'Wanna Get Down', half-tempo house built for the warm-up. The 'Regrette Rien' acapella (95), by KURT. and Bella Boo, is the loose tool that stitches that low zone to whatever comes next.

The main body lives between 120 and 128, but in layers rather than as one mass. From 120 to 123, texture rules: Beije's organic house ('Fallen', 'Embers'), the vocal afro of Bollo and Toshi's 'Struggle', the progressive of Beyønd (CL) and Brian Creao. At 125 the muscle arrives: 'Hey BRO!' by Boris Brejcha and Deniz Bul —at 08:46 the longest cut of the batch— sounds like family business, and it is: Brejcha, the man who coined 'high-tech minimal', founded FCKNG SERIOUS in 2015 precisely with Deniz Bul and Ann Clue. The ceiling of the block, 128, is held up by Bassel Darwish's tech house, BAUD's indie dance and 'Shake Down', where Bella Boo —a Studio Barnhus regular since her 2018 breakthrough— teams up with KURT., a rising voice from Stockholm.

From there the record climbs in clean steps: 131-132 with Beico's 'Inner Frequency' and Big Miz's 'Dreamer' (yes, the same Big Miz who sat at 101: nobody covers more ground here), 136 with '8ball' and BRIANNA (AU)'s peak time, 140 with the trance of Ben Stone and Asteroid on FSOE, and an improbable summit: Bel Towers' 'Azul' at 155, tagged as minimal while running almost like a sprint.

Sequenced, the volume plays itself: start in the 101 pocket, climb through the texture layers, settle on the 125-128 plateau and save the upper steps for the final stretch. 'Azul' is not an end-of-night record; it is the door to the afters.