cousin.world is a regular newsletter on global music.

Each week, I’ll update one of the following playlists with 10 ascendant tracks from global markets and provide analysis to explain how they’re breaking:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

• cherry soda ⚭ — breaking k/c/p-pop, city pop and indie

• the grid ✚ — sounds of urbano, reggaeton, funk

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

For this month’s run ⇡, I chat to Luke Dighton, owner of the Breaking Breaks TikTok, about music discovery. Elsewhere, new bangers by Niclov & Barlon out of Germany, notes on the closure of a legendary Kyiv club and a new one from Eliza Rose.

Please reply, forward, share, chat to me about anything and keep an eye out for cherry soda ⚭ next week. 📩

run ⇡ 

1. Silva Bumpa — ‘Get 2 Know (Organ Mix)’ (UK)

When I first started working in music in 2012, it was my job to get songs on Hype Machine registered blogs. It was, at the time, the go-to method of connecting audiences to brand new artists. HypeM was also used a lot by A&R scouts to find new signings and by artist teams to parlay blog support into bigger opportunities at print magazines, TV shows and radio stations.

Over time, a lot of music discovery ground was ceded to streaming services who built their own editorial teams and recommendation algorithms, rendering the blogs less crucial to the picture. Innovators in the space like SBTV stayed ahead with original content, paving the way for a few things we have now like COLORS, but nothing quite replaced getting direct new music recommendations from writers themselves.

Recently, the format has been somewhat revived by a community of channel managers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Discord. From pioneers like Keep Hush and TheNeedleDrop to newer pages like andfriendsnyc, these channels now serve as go-to discovery and discussion spaces for fans, A&Rs and labels, many of whom are increasingly trying to look beyond their streaming service algorithms.

Yesterday, I spoke to Luke Dighton who runs one of my favourite new channels covering UK club music, Breaking Breaks.

@breaking.breaks

Can you ID all these tracks from Marlon Hoffstadt 💪 ⛽️💋🚨‼️ #breakingbreaks #boilerroom #marlonhoffstadt #djdaddytrance #fyp

Hey Luke! What inspired you to start Breaking Breaks?

L: “My inspiration came from attending events while I was studying in Birmingham and watching Keep Hush nonstop. I remember when the Interplanetary Criminal Keep Hush came out, I must’ve watched it over 100 times! Also seeing what @wobbly4x4 and @dametalmessiah were doing massively inspired me. They are three sick pages who absolutely kill it every time. Big Big love to them.”

What do you hope the channel grows into?

L: “I try and keep it as open as possible so it doesn’t become pigeonholed to one thing but something I’m really enjoying at the moment is producing more journalistic content about music and its relationship to clothing and art, or the story behind a specific track or event. I’m a big fan of fashion, graffiti and those cultures, so hopefully I could expand a bit into that.”

…and where else do you go to discover new music?

L: “Youtube or TikTok mostly. Maybe more YouTube as I am always scouring the platform watching endless DJ sets. Hate it or love it, I think TikTok is a brilliant place to discover new music. It is really accessible for up and coming artists to promote their work and I think that is so important.”

Thank you Luke! Please select a new UK electronic track for this playlist.

L: “Silva Bumpa - ‘Get 2 Know (Organ Mix)’ on HARD13. One of the best producers in the scene on one of the best labels in the scene. Organs get me going every time.”

2. Eliza Rose — ‘Take You There’ (UK)

Last June, Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal released the song of the summer. ‘B.O.T.A (Baddest of Them All)’ exploded online, was hammered by UK radio and spent two consecutive weeks at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, making Rose the first female DJ to hit #1 in over 20 years. The track was released on her independent label Rosebud Recordings and later licensed to Warner Records.

Since then she has released three singles, the latest of which is called ‘Take You There’ and came out last week. Now boasting over 4.6 million monthly listeners and major fanbases in ex-UK markets like Australia and Ireland, Rose is proof of club music’s enduring mainstream commercial potential.

I think it’s fair to say that here in the UK, radio still has a lot of power in breaking domestic club music. Four days ago, Radio 1 published Eliza Rose’s Essential Mix, their prestigious series for dance music’s biggest names. Since ‘B.O.T.A’, she has also hosted their R1 Residency and spent many weeks in the Radio 1 daytime playlist, which is often programmed downstream of more specialist electronic shows in the evening and the song’s performance on Shazam.

Shahed Ezaydi’s profile of Eliza Rose for her Mixmag cover is really good.

3. human margareeta — ‘Wow There’s More’ (Ukraine)

On Monday, Resident Advisor reported on the upcoming closure of one of Ukraine’s iconic nightclubs, ARSENAL XXII in Kyiv.

Announcing the closure and final party on Instagram, the club said (translated):

“⚔️ ARSENAL XXII IS GOING TO RETREAT!⚔️ Shocked? Calm down, exhale. It was difficult for us to make this decision, but it is necessary at this time. We had a lot of fun together. Think of all the cool parties and just imagine the number of steps danced on our dance floor! That's why, to say goodbye before the next meeting, we are gathering friends for a party! Let's break away for the last time and make this meeting unforgettable together!”

The lineup for their closing party on October 14th includes a set from human margareeta, a Kyiv-based DJ and founder of the queer, feminist electronic music collective CUTIECORE. She’s also a member of the fundraising group Musicians Defend Ukraine.

Check out her great set for HÖR.

4. Niclov, Barlon — ‘Feuer Wasser Sturm’ (Germany)

Until pretty recently, Germany was somewhat of an outlier in digital music. Consumer behaviour in the market was weighted heavily towards physical formats, with premium streaming subscription revenue lagging behind comparable markets like France and the UK. In 2018, just 34% of revenues in Germany came from audio streaming compared to 50.4% here in the UK (per Music Ally).

That all seems to be changing quite rapidly and a crop of German artists are riding that wave. The latest figures (again per Music Ally) show audio streaming at over 68% for the year 2021 and growing, more in line with comparable markets.

Currently topping the Viral Hits Deutschland playlist on Spotify (400.8k followers) is this track from Niclov and Barlon, two young artists who each divide their 800k+ monthly listeners between major German cities and the wider GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) region.

5. Bae Blade — ‘I Like’ (Germany)

Every month, Beatportal — the editorial arm of the online music store Beatport — selects 6 artists to watch. This month, Dortmund producer, DJ and Rinse resident Bae Blade is one of them, plugging her forthcoming Mixed Feelings EP on Partiboi69’s label Mutual Pleasure.

Beatport was established in 2004 and has been (per their bio) “at the centre of DJ culture” since then. It’s pretty interesting to cast your mind back to what state the music industry was in back in 2004 (a window into that from this Billboard article) so starting a legit, paid music downloads service seems almost prophetic for the time. Now, Beatport also trades in streaming, video and has even signed a strategic partnership with Spotify in the past.

Beatport started Beatportal in 2019 to serve their growing DJ community. The latest stats on Beatport suggest it has 45 million annual users and 450,000 active DJs. You can learn all about how the Beatport Charts work via this handy explainer from The Songstats Lab newsletter by Oskar Eichler.

+ Five More…

6. Sammy Virji for DJ Mag HQ (UK)

Sammy Virji’s incredible DJ Mag set went viral last month. His latest release is a set of remixes for his track ‘Peach’ featuring Salute but you should really watch this if you haven’t yet. Virji is now releasing under Positiva. Annoyingly the full DJ Mag set seems to have been taken down maybe for a copyright strike but they did a best bits roundup… I’ll replace it when it’s back again!

7. Prestes — ‘Ondas’ (Portugal)

Rádio Quantica is an independent radio station and cultural institution based in Lisbon. A web cartoon cat called O Gato Mariano has a regular show called A VOZ DA RAÇÃO and Mariano’s latest interview is with Portuguese duo Prestes, whose new EP É Difícil came out a few weeks ago.

8. Skream — ‘My Body’ (UK)

Croydon dubstep pioneer Skream has a new song out called ‘My Body’ off his new album Skreamizm 8. A bit more info on that over on Forbes.

9. Midland — ‘Drift Into the Algorithm’ (UK)

Midland releases his first new music in four years while announcing a forthcoming EP called You Never Take Me Dancing. Read more about it on Mixmag.

10. AFFKT — ‘Coral’ (Spain)

AFFKT is a Valencian producer/DJ whose Sincopat label imprint is this month’s Label of the Month on Beatportal. ‘Coral’ is his latest single out on the label distributed via Global Underground.

The Playlists