Dance Data News

DJ Sakee’s debut solo 12″ EP “Gravitate” for Dance Data captures the energy that defines what people have come to expect from a DJ SAKEE all vinyl set. The title track is built around an infectious sample that demands your attention, embodying the irresistible pull of his live sets—once you’re drawn in, there’s no turning back.

Raised in the center of the Inland Empire in Southern California, Alek Tzul (aka DJ SAKEE) is one of the several DJs contributing to the vinyl-only act currently in Los Angeles. Known for initially playing DIY warehouse parties, and a few cities outside of California, anyone who has witnessed a performance knows he has a driving passion for his craft on turntables and within his music production.

His debut solo 12″ EP “Gravitate” for Dance Data captures the energy that defines what people have come to expect from a DJ SAKEE performance. The title track is built around an infectious sample that demands your attention, embodying the irresistible pull of his live sets—once you’re drawn in, there’s no turning back.

Lens Shift is a meticulously sculpted slab of wax from Fingers of God, made for Dance Data. A continuation of his distinctly sci-fi, brain-scrambling style — warped, psychological club tools engineered to melt dance floors (and maybe some neural pathways too).

First up in the Dance Data Summer 12″ Series: Fingers of God, hailing from Brussels, Belgium.

Lens Shift is a meticulously sculpted slab of wax from F.O.G., made for Dance Data. A continuation of his distinctly sci-fi, brain-scrambling style — warped, psychological club tools engineered to melt dance floors (and maybe some neural pathways too).

We first clocked the young but prolific producer via Da Capo Al Coda, a compilation from Paris-based Grid Records — and instantly knew there was more heat waiting.

Credits:
All tracks written and produced by Phillip Pettauer
Mastered by Raphael Valensi
Artwork by Jesse Pimenta

As most of us now live in a world saturated with information, this album feels like a reflection of how the modern world might sound if it were to process its own chaos through a unified scream. Hailing from the highlands of Bandung, West Java, a city where tradition and modernization intertwine in the rhythm of daily life, Xin Lie unpretentiously translates this cultural fusion into a sonically rich and rhythmically bold debut LP.

The artist’s roots in the hardcore and punk scenes reverberate throughout the album, though they’ve been reshaped and refined for the club. There’s an undeniable pleasure in experiencing the chaos Xin Lie channels—irregular beats, dynamic frequencies, and disjointed grooves collide and expand, each track laced with a sense of unpredictable energy. Yet even in its most chaotic moments, the music feels deliberate, its edges softened by a sense of compositional care.

The album reveals a strange duality: tracks that seem to beckon you to the dance floor but never quite let you settle there. Frequencies flicker and fluctuate in patterns that feel just slightly off-grid, as though resisting traditional structures. Yet, amidst the digital textures, Xin Lie weaves in organic sounds—snippets of native conversations or environmental noise—creating layers that feel both intimate and expansive.It’s fair to say this album extends far beyond the boundaries of today’s club music.

Picture this: you’re moving through your daily routines—mundane, repetitive—and suddenly, the music shifts your perspective. It reframes the ordinary as something surreal, as though it’s deconstructing itself in real-time, breaking into fragments or conjuring entirely new forms. Perhaps it’s best imagined as the soundtrack to a multi-sensory art installation or a performance staged not in a gallery but in an unassuming house down your street. Who’s to say where it might take you?

Spread across two discs for maximum fidelity, this is sound system music with grooves primed for mixing and dialed-to-a-Tee bass weight, but hovering above the grounded structures are fleeting rhythmic textures that veer things off into a world worth getting lost in. Throughout its 11 tracks, “Club Dream” plays out like a full mix, ebbing and flowing through a variety of energy levels and moods. Some of the range you’ll find here includes half-time dream-step, peak time pulses, and dubbed out mid-tempo tech, all done with a cohesive restraint and appreciation of atmosphere. The record imparts it’s own kind of dance floor dream logic onto the listener, inviting us to let go of making sense of things and trust in its fuzzy logic.

DDR004 is "Mapagkeun Kawani," the debut 12" EP from Bandung’s own Xin Lie. This three-track offering skillfully combines the ethos of Bandung's hardcore punk scene with the evocative rhythms of Sundanese Dogdog drums, crafting a sound that is reflective of Xin Lie’s diverse musical background and connection to Indonesia's musical history.

Xin Lie, born Diannov Pamungkas, has navigated multiple worlds, starting from his days in the hardcore punk scene to exploring the traditional performing arts of his Sundanese heritage. This journey informs his approach to production, particularly his use of traditional percussion which he samples and recontextualizes into a modern electronic drum palette.

The EP includes two remixes: producer Bagvs delivers a sharp, stripped-down take on "MAPAGKEUN," while New York's Laenz transforms "PANEN" into a fast-paced, percussive wormhole.

Mastered for vinyl and streaming by Enyang Ha, mastering engineer for Bjork, Arca and Tzusing.

All tracks written by Diannov Pamungkas
Artwork by Spaceheadtr
Design by Jesse Pimenta
Mastered by Enyang Ha / Urbiks
Mixed by Raphael Valensi

New from Dreams (Apron, Private Selection)
Two killer broken techno cuts for fans of Surgeon, Batu and Karenn
Early support from Carista and Identified Patient (‘Paraxotica’ featured in his recent Crack Mag mix)

In 2022, Dreams launched a new label, Dance Data, which has quickly gained the attention of the underground dance music community - and set the stage with a new two track EP called ‘Paraxotica/Vessel’.