August has a reputation for being a quiet month. Festivals drain attention, artists vanish, and releases get pushed to September. But this year proved again that less can mean more. Quality over quantity. The few records that did arrive carried enough depth and character to linger.

Sciama’s debut on Samurai Music was a pure craft effort: halftime drum & bass dialed in with surgical focus, a match made in heaven. DYL and Tammo Hesselink found strange pockets of groove on Aura Sonora, flipping pace and rhythm without ever losing drive. Hong Kong’s Bionickle made its entrance with Insomnior, a four-track polyrhythmic workout that announced the label’s intent straight away. Elsewhere, Jan Jelinek and Mads Emil Nielsen traded roles as remixers of each other’s work, turning in two abstract, inward-facing studies that feel more like sonic essays than tracks. Laima Adelaide delivered her most mature vision yet on Predawn Records, while Stone’s eclectic, trip hop–anchored album nods to the early ‘00s while sounding entirely timeless. On the lighter side, Angel Hunt’s Short Span release danced between breakbeat and ambient with an easy hand. LFOkid’s Huinali outing paired deep-ambient sketches with remixes from familiar names close to our orbit. Skee Mask kept his streak alive with another self-released labyrinth that refuses categorization. And Aniara brought out heavy artillery, Skudge and Dorisburg together, for one of those records destined to stay in DJ bags for months to come.

Curated by Irina Kotik