VA - New Releases by OnlyBeats - [U-Z]

Overview

There is a hidden spine running through this volume: A minor. 'Champagne' by Monolegato and U-Jeen (126 BPM), 'Keep Raving' (126), 'Divided Souls' with Diddy (125), 'Sun Goes Down' alongside ZHU (128) and the breakbeat of 'Kariya' (135) all share the key, so you can build an entire stretch of a set without leaving the scale while the tempo climbs almost ten points.

Who runs this one: Wax Motif

The heaviest block in the pack is a catalogue dump from Divided Souls, the label Danny Chien —Australian-born, LA-based— launched in 2019 off the back of his Diddy collaboration of the same name, included here as an extended cut. It is prime-time ammunition sitting mostly between 121 and 134 BPM: bass house with Phlegmatic Dogs and Taiki Nulight, tech house with DJ Jazzy Jeff on 'Sync Button', vocals from Ty Dolla $ign. Two booth warnings: 'Waiting' is 2:33 of breaks at 132, a pure tool for switching lanes, and the dance-pop cuts at 70 and 100 BPM ('Live For The Night', 'Eyes Closed') work as closers, not set material.

For the warm-up there is long-form to spare: Venao signs the longest cut of the lot on Rude Resonance —'One Day in Oregon', 9:04 at 120 BPM—, Xplore lines up five deep minimal pieces between 118 and 124, all past the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and the organic house of Yash (SL) and Waxman (CA) rounds out the first hour.

The ceiling: 140-145

Peak time is split between UMEK —two raw cuts at 140 and 142 on 1605, the label the Slovenian founded in 2007 as a gateway for young producers— and Yuuta, who plants three cuts between 144 and 145 on Children Of Tomorrow ('Guatavita', 'Medellin'). Yahel's psy-trance remix at 140 bridges the two worlds.

Then the detours: four drum & bass cuts on Celsius Recordings at 87-88 and the garage of 'SPECTRUM' at 84 open the halftime door if the floor can take the turn. This is not a volume you play front to back: you strip it for parts.