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Charli XCX‘s Brat multiverse expands again today (Oct. 11) with the release of its remixed edition. Given that Brat is sonically and spiritually a club record, the remixed version is an apt and perhaps predictable compendium. But that’s not to say the project — officially and very Bratily titled Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat — simply just pushes Brat further into the sweaty dancefloors of Ibiza and New York and London and L.A.
Nah. While plenty of Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat remains as danceable, if not sometimes more so, than the original, the remit clearly wasn’t to toss out a bunch of tech house edits and call it a day, but to genuinely rework each track on all levels. The project is as much about offering new sounds and arrangements as it is about expanding and deepening the themes of each song through new lyrics from Charli and her collection of collaborators.
In that sense, Charli’s mournful Sophie tribute “So I” transforms into a vastly more celebratory but still deeply nostalgic recollection of the good times the pair shared together. In its more meta moments, the remixes consider how Charli’s life has changed following the success of Brat, with the edits on “Von Dutch,” “Rewind” and others including lyrics about fans who say they like you but then seem to hate you, uncomfortable experiences with journalists and suddenly having a lot more money and a lot more to cross off the to-do list. And while the nonstop element was based around relentless partying, here it’s more about going from the show to the photo shoot to the plane to the hotel room in perpetuity because Charli’s career is going so well.
As on Brat, the artist’s honesty and lyrical specificity are one of the most interesting parts of the project, offering windows into her existence (hungover in a Tokyo hotel room, watching a woman on a Lime scooter vomit in London) and the wild swirl it’s become during Brat summer.
Unsurprisingly, following the album’s creative and commercial triumph, a lot of big names are involved in the remixes (with there presumably also somewhere existing a list of artists who would’ve liked to be on it but didn’t get the invite). The assembled crew includes people in Charli’s immediate orbit — The 1975‘s Matty Healy, who’s the bandmate of Charli’s fiancé George Daniel, the 1975 collaborator The Japanese House, Charli’s current tour mates Troye Sivan and Shygirl — along with further afield collaborators who were arguably lured not by the freewheeling creative opportunities of the project (see the stunning contribution by Midwestern polymath Bon Iver), but also by the chance to step into Charli’s level of honesty.
To that end, Ariana Grande’s appearance on “Sympathy Is a Knife” finds her telling it like it is (for her) with a forthrightness that’s refreshing and genuinely interesting. That same invite was, of course, previously extended to and accepted by Lorde, who, by working it out on the remix, helped show the potential for this project — potential it achieves with a success that’s by now predictable for anything Brat related, but which here also feels totally fresh and often even revelatory.
Here’s a ranked of the 16 remixes on Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
“365 featuring shygirl”
This week in dance music: We trekked to the Arizona desert for the return of FORM Arcosanti, spoke with SOPHIE’s collaborators about assembling the late artist’s posthumous album, and talked to LP Giobbi for Billboard‘s just out producers issue. Meanwhile Odetari made his debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; Insomniac Music Group launched Insomniac Publishing; Pharrell spoke about working with Daft Punk during his Hot Ones episode; Rüfüs du Sol released their fourth studio album, Inhale/Exhale (more on that next week); and Charli XCX released the remixed version of Brat, called Brat & It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat.
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And of course, these are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Anti Up, What Is Life
Brit producers Chris Lake and Chris Lorenzo have been collaborating as Anti Up since 2018, and talks of a debut album have seemingly gone on for nearly as long. After a few false starts and a major headlining slot at this year’s Coachella, it’s finally here. What Is Life is as in-your-face as its title is existential, loaded with whomping basslines, heaving tech house and old-school flourishes made for dark rooms — a nod to the Chrises’ U.K.-dance roots. Some of the tracks here are singles Anti Up have dropped over the years, such as the revved-up “Shake” and groovy “Chromatic,” but there’s plenty of new material, too. Check out “Shambles,” a cut of cavernous techno with swelling synths, wailing sirens, and raw vocals channeling Underworld’s Karl Hyde. Altogether, it’s high-energy electronics and massive punk energy that’ll make you eager to f–k up a dance floor. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Flying Lotus, “Ingo Swann”
Steven Ellison has been working on a couple of outside projects in recent years, scoring the Netflix anime series Yasuke and writing/directing V/H/S/99 and Ash. But it seems the producer is circling back to his own work as Flying Lotus. After popping up in August with “Garmonbozia,” his first new material in two years, Ellison is back again with “Ingo Swann,” named after the late American psychic. “Ingo Swann” is full-on four-on-the-floor, a gleaming cut bristling with brisk percussion and bubbling lofi synths. It seems like there’s still more yet to come: In a recent interview with Hypebeast, he shared he’s working on a new album that’s “98% done.” — K.R.
Dom Dolla & Tove Lo, “Cave”
Aussie hotshot Dom Dolla goes drum ‘n’ bass on his latest single and collaboration with Swedish alt-pop artist Tove Lo, “Cave.” The genre is new to their pair’s catalog, but it looks good on them. “Cave” is sultry, self-aware, and a little dangerous, as Lo narrates a tale where the lustful grip of temptation triumphs over self-preservation: “I know all your tricks and you lick your lips, because you know I’m gonna cave.” It’s a killer hook that can shake up the club and the radio.
“I used to play a lot of shows in New Zealand in the early days of my career,” Dom Dolla says. “Drum and Bass has always had a timeless place in the scene there and it rubbed off on me as a youngster. I took the influence with me everywhere. After playing an evening of house/techno at clubs in the U.S., I used to love closing the night out with a DnB record or two. Even if it was simply as an energetic escalation and the audience I was playing it to didn’t understand it at the time. Fast forward to 2024, the genre has exploded, and it’s understood by all. I love that there are no rules anymore.”
“He played me a barebones version of the track, pretty much just the main synth in the verses and some of the chorus drums,” adds Lo. “We started riffing on melodies and quickly had it down. I took the track home with me and worked on the lyrics. I felt like the chords and the beat had this haunted but sexy energy about it. It was giving the hot toxic ex you’re not over. So, I decided to tell that story.” — K.R.
Maddy O’Neal, Vital Signs
Bass producer Maddy O’Neal is out with her third album, Vital Signs, with its 10 dually hard-hitting and etheric tracks emphasizing why she’s becoming an increasingly well known name in the genre. But of course success rarely, if ever, comes overnight, with the Colorado-based producer having hustled for over a decade to get here. Vital Signs thus aptly started coming together at the beginning of the year, when O’Neal had some time off to consider her original influences and how to fuse them with the skills she’s developed while making music for the last 12 years. “I brought it back to the heavy hip hop/soulful sampling influences I leaned into at the start,” she writes, “while really ramping it up with big sound design and taking it up a notch in terms of production. Those effective decisions are heard throughout the album, which fans can also hear live as O’Neal tours through the U.S. through the end of the year. — KATIE BAIN
Camelphat, “Deep Inside”
Coming in the wake of their 2023 album Spiritual Milk, British duo Camelphat release the simply titled B-Sides EP, six tracks that capture the soaring, prismatic big room house and melodic techno sounds the pair have become beloved for since their emergence. “Deep Inside” captures this sound most effectively, with waves of synth and a long build giving way to a dexterous, hard-hitting release. The project is out on the pair’s own When Stars Align imprint. — K.B.
Amelie Lens, “Falling for You”
If you’ve been Shazaming Amelie Lens’ set-closing tracks lately to no avail, you’re in luck. On the heels of two major open-to-close shows in New York City and Los Angeles, the Belgian producer has released her latest and much-anticipated single, “Falling for You.” The track falls somewhere between hard techno and trance, elevating heart rates with its driving beat and sharp percussion. Lens balances that sharpness with softness, overlaying it with soaring synths and a sugar-coated vocal expressing even more saccharine sentiment: “And I, never felt so loved, I am falling for you/ And I, and my body awakes, I am returning to you.” With a closer like that, it’s hard to not go home happy. — K.R.
JoJo Siwa is a fan of Beyoncé, even if a joke she made at the Industry Dance Awards did stir the pot this week.
The Dance Moms alum jumped in on a runaway internet bit Tuesday (Oct. 8) when she shouted out the “Break My Soul” vocalist on stage at the ceremony, telling the crowd: “I also have to say thank you to Beyoncé, just so that we can keep the dancing community safe.”
“Beyoncé, you’ve got great music,” Siwa added at the time as audience members simultaneously groaned and laughed. “We all love to dance to it. We all love you. … Someone had to, and I will be the someone.”
Though the “Karma” singer’s thank-you may seem genuine enough, it actually ties back to a trend of some social media users jokingly giving Bey flowers at every opportunity to stay on her good side and/or maintain prosperous careers. Some people, however, have applied a darker meaning to the joke amid so-far unsubstantiated rumors that the 32-time Grammy winner and Jay-Z are linked to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ alleged crimes, as the Bad Boy Records founder is currently being held in custody as he awaits trial for charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
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When asked about her joke by Us Weekly one day after the Industry Dance Awards, Siwa said, “the internet’s going to run with whatever it is they run with.”
“They do their thing, and I can’t predict what they’re going to do,” the 21-year-old TikTok star added. “I think Beyoncé is great and she’s written a lot of incredible music that we’ve all used [and danced to].”
But while Siwa and other people on the internet aren’t taking certain comments about Bey seriously, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” artist’s legal team is. After Piers Morgan platformed Jaguar Wright on his show Uncensored, allowing the singer-songwriter to make claims about the Carters being “monsters” who have hundreds of victims, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s lawyer instructed the polarizing media personality to remove the content from his channel — and Morgan obliged.
“Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were totally false and have no basis in fact,” Morgan said on another episode of his show earlier this week. “We’ve therefore complied with the legal request to cut them from the original interview. Editing interviews is not something we do lightly on a show called Uncensored. But, like the proverbial cries of fire in a crowded theater, there are legal limits on us, too. And we apologize to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.”
Pharrell Williams is the latest guest to test his taste buds on Hot Ones, and while he was feeling the heat of the increasingly spicy chicken wings before him, the multi-hyphenate artist opened up about working with some of his long list of collaborators.
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When host Sean Evans asked him about his teenage years “jamming out” with soon-to-be fellow superstars like Timbaland, Missy Elliott, the Clipse and more, Williams that it felt like “kids having fun.”
He continued, “We didn’t know where it was going to end up. That’s the thing, falling in love with the process. It’s not necessarily the ‘there,’ it’s the ‘getting there,’ it’s the ‘going,’ it’s the process, it’s the journey.”
Later on in the interview, Evans listed off some of Williams collaborators, and challenged him to share his first thought about them in the studio. With Daft Punk, Williams noted that being in the studio with a “robot” is “euphoric, because you’re around two absolute masters.”
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Beck, Williams says, is “one of the most eclectic people with one of the deepest mental libraries of all kinds of records,” calling him a “walking almanac.” He wrapped up by calling N.O.R.E. “so funny, bombastic with the energy he wants to evoke when he’s making a song.”
Beyond releasing his biographical Lego film, Piece by Piece, on Oct. 11, it’s gearing up to be an exciting next few months for Williams. The star will serve as a co-chair for the 2025 Met Gala among a group of Black men including Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky and honorary chair LeBron James.
This year’s theme is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which draws inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
Williams’ Something in the Water festival will also return in April 2025 after being postponed last month. “Dearest Virginia, I love you with all my heart,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “Nobody loves you more than I do. Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST. So SOMETHING IN THE WATER has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet.”
Watch Pharrell Williams on Hot Ones below.
Insomniac Music Group is expanding with the launch of a new publishing vertical, Insomniac Publishing. The current Insomniac Publishing roster includes 2Night Management (which represents the artists Matroda, San Pacho and Bruno Furlan), Aryay, Avi Snow, Benni Ola, Jasper, Joris Mur, Mattilo, Nuala, Omer Horovitz and Rami Jrade. Members of this group have writing credits […]
Odetari first broke through on Billboard’s charts in 2023, and now he’s officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist.
The Houston producer scores his first entry on the Hot 100 (dated Oct. 12) with “Keep Up.” The song debuts at No. 96 almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.7 million official U.S. streams in the Sept. 27-Oct. 3 tracking week, according to Luminate.
TikTok has been a huge factor in the song’s growing profile, largely due to a viral dance trend. A portion of its audio has been used in nearly 1 million clips on the platform to date. That activity pushed the song 14-4 on the Oct. 5-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart.
“Keep Up” also rises two spots to No. 6 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. It’s Odetari’s 16th career entry on the chart, and sixth top 10. His first hit, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder,” reached No. 10 in May 2023, followed by “Good Loyal Thots” (No. 8); “Look Don’t Touch,” with Cade Clair (No. 9); “GMFU,” with 6arelyhuman (No. 5); and “I Love You Hoe,” with 9lives (No. 3).
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Odetari’s music style is fast-paced and hectic EDM, a genre that he calls “ODECORE.” Earlier this year, Billboard reported that Odetari has a unique approach to releasing his songs. While the original versions of his songs are posted on his primary Odetari Spotify profile, various other versions and remixes of his songs are released under a separate Spotify profile called ODECORE. “[He] frequently has two to three different versions of records coming out a month,” explained Corey Calder, svp of marketing and creative services at Artist Partner Group, Odetari’s label. “If we were to have that all sit on his page, it would feel cluttered and make it hard for his fanbase to follow and track it all.”
It’s a growing trend that has also been adopted by Odetari’s collaborator and labelmate 6arelyhuman, who releases music under his own name, plus remixes under the name Sassy Scene.
Before Odetari’s music career took flight last year, Billboard reported that in February he was substitute-teaching at a high school in his native Houston. He said that he would even upload his music during school hours. “The students were, like, hitting their dab pens in class, secretly under their sleeves,” he said. “The teachers walked in and smelled it and were like, ‘You should have been supervising the class better.’”
By the end of 2023, Odetari wrapped at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Artists annual recap. He also landed six songs on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs ranking, including “Good Loyal Thots” and “Look Don’t Touch” at Nos. 16 and 19, respectively.
When remembering his late sister SOPHIE, music producer and engineer Benny Long constantly comes back to one idea. “I think her brain was just ahead of the technology,” he tells Billboard, a tender smile crossing his face.
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It’s a recurring theme in conversations about SOPHIE, the visionary pop producer who died Jan. 30, 2021, at age 34, after falling from a balcony in Athens, Greece. During her life, SOPHIE persistently forged her own path, crafting industrial electronic soundscapes on early breakthroughs like 2015’s “BIPP” and “HARD” that laid the foundation for today’s growing hyperpop scene. After her death, artists, fans and industry professionals of all stripes celebrated her impact on both pop and avant-garde music.
“[Some of] the most influential pop stars in the world are using SOPHIE as a muse today,” explains Bibi Bourelly, who worked with her on the producer’s 2019 remix album. “They were asking SOPHIE, ‘What’s the sound? What’s the next thing?’ You can’t be a fire producer in the pop world today and not know all of SOPHIE’s sh-t.”
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Benny Long
Renata Raksha
Fans are getting a final glimpse into SOPHIE’s musical world — and producers and artists are receiving one final set of reference points from the pioneering performer — with SOPHIE, the producer’s self-titled final album, released in late September. Comprising 16 expansive new songs that oscillate between techno, pop, R&B, ambient and experimental sounds, the posthumous album aims to encompass all that SOPHIE managed to accomplish throughout her influential career — and continue to push the boundaries of pop music even further forward.
Long and SOPHIE started working on the project shortly after the release of her Grammy Award-winning debut album, 2018’s Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides. Inspired by audience reactions to unreleased tracks from her live shows, SOPHIE wanted to create something that “moved, almost like it was a voyage,” Long explains.
That meant winnowing down dozens of unreleased songs, which each had numerous remixes and rearrangements, making for what Long estimates were “900-plus versions” of tracks to choose from. It took the pair years to determine what the artist’s ideal version of her next project would look like — but after spending the COVID-19 pandemic honing the album, SOPHIE and Long locked in a tracklist at the end of 2020 that spanned the producer’s storied career, including “stuff from 2014 right up to the end of 2020,” he says.
When SOPHIE died, she left her brother with 16 tracks in various stages of completion, some nearly finished, others in need of major reworkings. But SOPHIE had spoken at length with Long about what work remained. “It wasn’t like we’d explicitly discussed in numbers that ‘this one is 73% done,’ ” he says. “But there was rarely a situation where I suggested something and she would say, ‘No, that wouldn’t work,’ or the other way around. We were always pretty aligned, and that gave me confidence to finish this album.”
It helped that both SOPHIE’s label, Future Classic, and her estate were eager for the album to be released. With their sister Emily, a music lawyer, helping creatively and from a business angle, all that stood in the way of the album’s release was Long finishing SOPHIE’s work. “I just had confidence from everyone — family, labels, collaborators, friends — which made the whole process that much easier,” he says.
Chris (left) and Logan of BC Kingdom
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Los Angeles-based electronic R&B duo BC Kingdom — made up of the mononymous performers Logan and Chris — features on three of SOPHIE’s most prominent tracks: lead single “Reason Why” with Kim Petras and electro-R&B tracks “Live in My Truth” and “Why Lies,” both featuring pop singer LIZ. While they finished both “Reason Why” and “Why Lies” in sessions with SOPHIE in 2018 and 2019, “Live in Your Truth” still had missing lyrics when the producer died. “For a while I had writer’s block because I felt like I didn’t know what she wanted me to convey,” Logan explains. “I started asking myself questions like, ‘When’s the last time I saw her? When was the last time we had fun together?’ Those questions became the second verse.”
Bourelly remembers the late-night session at London’s RAK Studios in 2017 that produced her SOPHIE collaboration “Exhilarate,” the new album’s final single. “We were probably in that studio until 8 or 9 a.m.,” she recalls with a laugh. “We would just sit and shoot the sh-t together. We made so many songs that night because we were just trying everything out.”
Kim Petras
Cody Critcheloe
The producer’s sessions were famous for their nonconformity. BC Kingdom’s Chris recalls that it didn’t matter if she was in a proper session or at a house party (as the duo was when it first recorded “Live in Your Truth”); if SOPHIE felt the urge to create a song, she would. “Once she was behind that board, you knew what was about to happen,” he says. “It never felt like work, because she would just tell you, ‘Hop on the mic, have some fun,’ and then she would turn it into a hit.”
That spirit of unbridled fun and rampant experimentation encapsulates SOPHIE’s impact on the music industry at large. Along with influencing the sound of pop music today with her outlandish production and co-writes for artists like Madonna and Charli XCX — who paid tribute to her late collaborator on the brat song “So I” — Long says his sister’s legacy lives on in every pop artist dedicated to making the music fun again. “She never thought that pop and experimental music needed to be different things,” he says. “She thought you could do something wild in pop — to see that happening now is amazing, because that is what SOPHIE was all about.”
This article appears in the Oct. 5 issue of Billboard.
Nestled amid the stark beauty of the Sonoran Desert lies Arcosanti, an experimental urban utopia designed by visionary architect Paolo Soleri.
Located roughy an hour north of Phoenix, Ariz., the remote futuristic eco-city drew roughly 2,500 attendees to the long-awaited return of FORM. First launched in 2014, the three-day music event became immediately beloved for transcending the typical festival experience. As modern festivals continue to compete in a grueling live events industry fighting to stay relevant while competing to be credited for the best-synchronized drone show or which dance stage had more LED screens, FORM rebels against the status quo by cultivating the meaningful connection between musicians and fans. And when it comes time for the music, there are no VIP sections or even artist backstage tents — just musicians walking amongst fans, equally admiring the architectural marvel of the property. And when it’s time to perform, the small stone amphitheater sets the stage for a community of present-minded individuals to sharing a cohesive moment, no frills, just music.
After a five-year hiatus, the festival returned even stronger this past weekend (Oct. 4-6) with a genre-blending lineup of killer acts — including Jamie xx, St. Vincent, Bonobo, Skrillex, Thundercat, James Blake and more.
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Walking into Arcosanti is like stepping onto a movie set from a dystopian sci-fi flick. Brutalist concrete structures, bathed and baked in the Arizona sun, create a visually arresting contrast from the typical major music festival experience. But even after tickets for this year’s FORM sold out in less than 24 hours after the announcement of its return, the boutique festival never lost sight of the key elements that made it so beloved in the first place.
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Here are the top 10 takeaways from the weekend.
1. Stage Dive Into Sustainability
Arcosanti’s eco-conscious philosophy and commitment to sustainability permeated every aspect of the festival. Locally sourced food trucks like Tamale Shoppe and the Phoenix Culinary Collective offered up delicious and eco-friendly sustenance, while readily available water refill stations and a robust composting system minimized waste. The full event execution demonstrated a step in the right direction for the industry and was a tangible reminder that eco-consciousness and a great time can go hand-in-hand.
FORM Arcosanti 2024
Rocco Avallone
2. The Arcology Awakens
The festival stages weren’t just platforms for musical performances; the permanent structures are architectural marvels seamlessly integrated into the landscape and the festival fabric. The Amphitheater, which was topped by a parachute that allowed peeks of desert stars above, captured the intimate essence of St. Vincent, whose Saturday night set was a last minute addition to the lineup. She strummed away on her guitar, sharing moments of bliss with the mesmerized fans seated only a few feet away. Meanwhile, the grand archways of the Vaults stage pulsated with raw energy that enveloped fans in a vortex of bass-thumping sounds.
3. A Starry-Eyed Symphony
The Sonoran Desert transformed into a celestial canvas at night. With minimal light pollution in the remote area, the Phoenix Astronomical Society hosted evening stargazing sessions on the rooftop overlooking the main Amphitheater. On Saturday night, attendees were able to peek into a cosmic light show through high-resolution telescopes as Angel Olsen played in the background, for an experience that was pure magic. The experience was a poignant reminder of our place in the grand scheme of the universe, a feeling that resonated throughout the weekend, even when the music ended.
Beck
Rocco Avallone
4. Beck’s Back in the Desert
Beck, one of the festival’s late addition headliners, delivered a set dripping with nostalgia, tongue-in-cheek stage banter and sonic experimentation. From classics like “Loser” to cuts from his 2019 album Hyperspace, he masterfully navigated his performance, keeping the crowd energized and engaged. It was altogether a testament to his enduring influence and ability to capture the hearts of fans year after year.
5. Jamie xx’s Curated Chaos
Coming off the release of his latest album In Waves, Jamie xx took to the Vaults stage with a cigarette in one hand and beer in the other, clearly prepared to deliver. (Minutes before he went onstage, the British producer was seen still on his laptop, excitedly working on his set.) When the show started, the Grammy-nominated artist flexed his prowess, delivering a masterclass in weaving opposite genres into tunes that left the crowd pulsating with a sense of euphoria.
Overall, his performance was a testament to the beauty of FORM, in how it creates a sonic sanctuary for artists to comfortably experiment, an ambience that helped make it possible for Jamie to dance and smile onstage as he traversed bold transition, like going from trance mix of Ghetto 25’s “Don’t Stop” to a guitar-laden build-up to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”
6. Kim Gordon, Forever a Sonic Siren
Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon brought a dose of raw energy to the Arcosanti Amphitheater. Backed by a killer band, she revisited iconic hits like Sonic Youth’s 1990 song “Kool Thing” and showcased newer material that pulsed with an undeniable urgency. Her voice, a potent mix of vulnerability and strength, resonated throughout a crowd illuminated with moody lighting, reminding us of her enduring influence.
7. Bonobo Unhinged
Bonobo, largely known for his downtempo electronic and ambient soundscapes, delivered a bass-thumping, chest-pounding Saturday night set that invigorated a perhaps unsuspecting audience. With thumping house and high-energy techno mixes, he turned up the temperature and set the audience ablaze, a difficult task in the desert heat, but one he pulled off with style.
James Blake
Rocco Avallone
8. James Blake, Bathed in Sunlight
The U.K. multi-hyphenate’s recent crusade against the live event and ticketing industry saw him filling up independent music venues and cathedrals across North America over the past months, making FORM an idea setting for his emotional sonic landscapes. His stripped-down Sunday afternoon set, which included “Retrograde,” “Say What You Will” and “Godspeed,” was full of intricate nuances and delicate compositions, creating a sing-along that allowed the whole crowd to let their inhibitions go.
9. Community & Self-Reliance
This year’s event was troubled by a record heatwave that brought temperatures up to 100 degrees for campers. (All FORM attendees stay in adjacent camping and glamping areas.) Rather than cover themselves in Crisco and lay on a desert rock to accept their fates, a sense of community and cooperation washed over attendees. The FORM community rallied by sharing umbrellas with strangers, making space for newfound friends to sit closely side by side in air-conditioned listening room activations and offering patience and understanding for the hospitality staff, who worked tirelessly to pass out cold drinks and water throughout the festival grounds.
10. Beyond the Music
FORM Arcosanti wasn’t just about the music, although of course it was definitely a major highlight. Workshops on sustainable living, art installations scattered throughout the arcology, a poolside dance party, ambient outdoor sound stages and hifi vinyl listening experiences offered loads to do beyond the music stages. It was, once again, a festival that encouraged a sense of exploration and childlike wonder. At its core, roaming directionless and absent of intent was sometimes the best way to discover the true beauty of FORM.
Charli XCX is flipping the calendar from Brat Summer to Brat Fall. The singer whose Brat album became the event of the summer has finally revealed the full list of guest stars slated to appear on her cameo-packed Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat remix album. The collection due out on Friday […]
This week in dance music: Anyma added two more shows to his upcoming run at Sphere in Las Vegas, bringing the total number of shows to eight; Barry Can’t Swim picked up three 2024 AIM Awards nominations; Ultra 2025 released its phase one lineup, which will feature the debut “retro5pective set from dedmau5, a new psytrance stage and much more; we previewed the trailer for a forthcoming documentary about the ’90s rave scene in San Francisco; we recapped the best moments of Portola 2024; an auction of Avicii’s personal items including clothing and instruments raised $750,000 for the Tim Bergling Foundation; Black Coffee, Fisher and Chase & Status were among the winners at the 2024 DJ Awards in Ibiza; Beatport announced that it’s again awarding $150,000 in grants to groups supporting diversity and equality in dance music; and to round out it all out, these are the best new dance projects of the week.
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Caribou, Honey
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For 13 years, Dan Snaith has masterfully juggled two music aliases: the folksy-electronica live band Caribou, and the club-minded Daphni. While Caribou’s albums post-Andorra have inched closer to the dance floor, his latest, Honey, sounds like an equal meeting of the two projects. Singles like the sparkling “Volume” and bass-wobbling “Honey” deliver the heft demanded of festival main stages, while other tracks like “Do Without You” and “Campfire” are heavy in their pensive moods, lower-to-the-ground production and vocals. “Climbing” is the album’s standout, all disco and sunshine in its squiggling synth crescendos and buoyant melody. It’s a light-hearted tune for closing a set, and somehow, a bittersweet cap on our own summer. The party’s not over just yet, however, as Snaith tours Honey across North America starting next month. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
2hollis, “gold”
The Los Angeles savant further establishes his hot new thing status with the punchy “gold,” an arrangement of crunchy staccato, skittering percussion and eventual climax of gunfire gabber. These elements are balanced with a woozy, almost sweet melody sung by the producer, who also directed the accompanying music video, which features 2hollis and a group of dancers moshing under a strobe light and rain coming down inside a warehouse, continuing the release’s hard/soft aesthetic. 2hollis just got off tour supporting rapper Ken Carson and is launching his own nine-date North American tour later this month. — KATIE BAIN
yunè pinku, “Reckless Sensation”
UK artist yunè pinku describes her new song “Reckless Sensation” as the “ecstasy of embodying love rather than looking for it.” The serpentine trip-hop track lives somewhere in the haze between haunting and euphoric, with a warmth and sensuality that permeate the spectral space beneath pinku’s soft, siren-like voice. Altogether approaching a transcendence evocative of Massive Attack’s 1998 classic “Teardrop,” the track is from pinku’s new Scarlet Lamb EP, on which she decorates her sonic universe with gothic imagery, citing Jane Eyre, Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as lyrical touchpoints After that, find pinku onstage starting next month when she joins Caribou on his North American tour. — K.R.
Confidence Man, “Real Move Touch”
Confidence Man are coming out of an eventful summer, which entailed performing to a massive crowd at Glastonbury and adding their fabric Presents compilation to the clubbing institution’s mix series. But they’ve got something even bigger waiting on the horizon: their third studio album, 3AM (LA LA LA), which lands on Oct. 18. The Australian band are dropping another preview in the form of a double-single, “Control/Real Move Touch.” Here, they serve up house music two ways: the A-side is a technicolor track bubbling with acid synths and ravey stabs that feel both infectiously joyous and nostalgic, while “Real Move Touch” calls back to the old-school, too, but with glossy ‘90s house that’s both luxurious and lively, as a mash-up of Crystal Waters-esque diva house and sound-system culture with vocals from reggae legend Sweetie Irie.
“I remember him coming into our tiny little studio,” Confidence Man’s Janet Planet says of Irie, “and then he’s like, ‘Do you mind if I blaze up in here?’ And we said, ‘Hell yeah!’ And he was like, ‘Great, I was just checking you guys were real rock stars.’” — K.R.
Ben Hemsley Feat. Rose Gray, “Tidal”
An unstable relationship drifts out into the deep seas on Ben Hemsley’s new single “Tidal,” featuring vocalist Rose Gray. After previewing the track in his sets at Creamfields, A State of Trance, and his Ibiza residency, the British producer has released the track in its entire 10-minute glory. A brisk BPM and sighing vocal loops give “Tidal” a sense of urgency that circles Gray’s distressed vocals, while extended, sweeping builds create a looming wall of sound akin to its namesake and subsequent drop, a euphoric crashing of melodies and textures.
“‘Tidal’ allowed me to really explore what trance means to me on a deeper level,” Hemsley says. “The extended length gave me the space to play with melodies and atmospheres, taking inspiration from ’90s records that I love. Trance was my first love and it’s the direction you’ll see me going in moving forwards. — K.R.
East Forest, Music For Mushrooms
Ahead of the Oct. 10 release of his documentary of the same name, producer, multi-instrumentalist and wellness practitioner East Forest releases his album, Music For Mushrooms. The 10-track project is composed of music played by the artist during guided psychedelic ceremonies, hence its name. (The project firmly sits in the world of music made specifically for psychedelic spaces.) You won’t find ravey beats over the album’s 59 sublime minutes, with the project instead made of gentle piano, violin, flute and a host of other instruments that altogether build a glimmering, soul-stirring world unto itself. To that end, tracks are named for each place the ceremony it was recorded at took place, capturing the sounds of Big Sur, Calif., Vancouver, Canada and the literal and figurative great beyond. — K.B.