Chicago House Music Festival 2026

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic music featuring driving 4/4 beats varying in tempo from 120 to 150 beats per minute.

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Chicago’s Tied Collective Launches New Label with Memo Boys EP

Made in Chicago like God intended and on vinyl for the pleasure of man, Tied001 is, as you might reckon, the debut release from the Chicago artist collective and party people Tied, who in...

Farewell, Little White Earbuds

Chicago-based website Little White Earbuds is shutting down, according to site founder Steve Mizek. The site has published nearly 300 podcasts and some of the most thought-provoking, no-bullshit think pieces in the electronic music scene,...
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Listen to Mystic Bill’s Ferocious Throwback “U Won’t C Me”

Nothing sensitive or subtle about this one. Mystic Bill - the man who DJ'd for your favorite DJ's DJ - teams up with German label Snuff Trax for the forthcoming EP U Won't C...
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Oktave Turns 6 Years Old This Weekend At SmartBar

One of the most reliable dates on the calendar over the last six years, Oktave remains one of Chicago's most underrated residencies. The SmartBar night presided over by resident DJ Jeff Derringer turns six...
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Preview: Dave Angel at Primary – September 18 2015

Chicago is in store for a rare pleasure this Friday when the UK producer, pirate radio legend and duty-bound 909 hardhat worker Dave Angel visits Primary. One of the godfathers of the British techno...

Chicanismo: The 5 Mag Interview with Santiago Salazar

"Chicanismo is a concept that integrates self-awareness with cultural identity, a necessary step in developing spiritual consciousness. Therefore the term is grounded in a philosophy, not a nationality. Chicanismo does not exclude anyone, rather...

Metamorphic Reissues Titonton’s Classic Embryonic

The Midwest massive gets better with age - just glance at any credible chart from week to week and you'll see new records from House Music and Techno producers who came of age in...
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What We Love: MISC Brings Pittsburgh Center Stage

Oh man is this the truth. More good music from Pittsburgh - hotbed of American electronic music that it is - with a comp put together under the banner of a new imprint, “MISC,”...

What We Love: Dave Clarke’s White Noise Retrospective

After 500 episodes of his White Noise radio series, Dave Clarke has put together an eclectic collection of ferocious techno and scrapyard electro for your enjoyment. Dave Clarke Presents: A White Noise Retrospective is out...
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Uncompromising Techno from Tunnel’s Diaspora EP

In a dance music landscape which seems to be becoming more musically conservative by the day, it's always hugely refreshing to hear something uncompromising and different. Chicago's own Tunnel has been steadily building the...
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Marc King: Ever Forward (FXHE)

At a time when most American labels are having trouble getting records pressed, the greatest problem Omar S and FXHE are having is keeping them in stock. As of May 2015, Detroit's FXHE has...
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Leigh Morgan vs Lucatwana: Made In Jupiter

Leigh Morgan sends his greetings. The founder of what had been one of my favorite labels, Urban Torque, has reappeared with a new release on a new label, Fancy Human. That hiatus was always...

Dan Curtin’s “Deserted Station” on 10″ Wax for Melodymathics

Melodymathics consistently releases terrific records from some of my heroes and my heroes' heroes: Alex Agore is a frequent flyer by now, and had a fantastic Record Store Day release with the label that...
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Various Artists: Deep Club

It's usually with a bit of embarrassment that I write about the records of ex-Chicagoans. The "brain drain" is real, it's been going on for decades now and it's never going to stop. Deep...

Hakim Murphy & Rev S: CPH Sessions

This right here - this is the good shit. CPH Sessions is the best work Hakim Murphy has done and I say that knowing just how many amazing records he's got under his belt....

Road Trip? Tec-Troit is a Free 3 Day Festival This Weekend in Detroit

This Friday, Tec-Troit - a free, three day, all ages festival - takes over Harmonie Park in Detroit and doesn't let go until Sunday night. The festival features local talent from the city, ranging from...
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Spirit of the Black 808: Invasion of the Black Bass

Sometime between Record Store Day and Summer, Spirit of the Black 808 will release at least an album's worth of material on two labels. Combined, the two EPs - Infroduction on Hizou and this...

Sequences: The World According to Tevo Howard

The Sequence Project: Vanity Tevo Howard's Black Electro Orchestra: Holiday EP Someone I respect very much - the rare man that got old without getting mad - once told me that how much you love something...
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Robotnick and Pinsky’s Analog Session, Mark Two

We now join in on another exhilarating adventure with theoretically obsolete technology manipulated by two guys who know their way around a synthesizer and a 4/4 beat. Ludus Pinsky has soldered his share of...
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Robert Hood & Floorplan: Shaker/Ritual

Nostalgia is an illness, or at least that's what doctors once believed. Today, it's less a communicable virus than a kind of collective mania. In times of uncertainty, frustration and personal and economic dislocation,...

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