Spotlight: West Coast bass and video game-inspired trance from the Middle East

Spotlight is our new series exploring evolutions in dance music and its emerging scenes, sounds, and artists, profiling the latest talent from across the globe

April was a titanic month for new music releases. Jungle connoisseur Nia Archives dropped her debut album ‘Silence Is Loud’, already a future touchstone as it climbs its way up the Top 20. Mount Kimbie were back on a lo-fi tip with their ambitious new album ‘The Sunset Violent’, while Justice made a long-awaited return with their first new record in more than seven years, ‘Hyperdrama’. Anticipations were also high for some huge link-ups last month too, from the worshipped collab between Overmono and The Streets, to a remix of pop icon Charli XCX’s latest release from dubstep heroes Skream and Benga.

If rap is more your jam, you’ve probably been keeping up on the back-and-forth feud between Drake and Kendrick over the past month, including the cease and desist case that came with Drake’s Tupac-imitating AI verse on his diss track ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’. And as we plunge deeper into the age of information (willingly or not), there was plenty of talk on AI in modern music, from FKA twigs’ court testimonial advocating for its use, to an open letter from more than 200 musicians backing its demise.

April in music boomed on a smaller scale, too, as we saw emerging talent debut on big bills with fresh UK breakouts like Jasper Tygner and Jockstrap hitting the Coachella Valley for the first time, and Glastonbury adding hundreds of small acts to its dance music stages over the past month. With Ibiza’s summer season looming and festival bills filling out in time for another gallivant around those big open fields, it’s stacking up to be a cracking summer for new music.

Every month in Spotlight, we note dance music trends and pick out five new, emerging artists who are helping to uplift the scenes they’re bursting out of, looking at their influences, their recommended works, and where they’re headed next, selecting projects that best represent the sounds they’re finessing. This month, we’re headed back on a global trip looking at the artists we’ve been seeing more of on this year’s festival line-ups, each ready to take 2024 by storm.

Read on to find out more about Germany’s Bae Blade, India’s Chrms, Los Angeles’ Dara Genesis, Egypt’s Oldyungmayn, and Australia’s Zjoso.