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.

Mike Huckaby

Mike Huckaby: The 5 Magazine Interview

Lights burn out; hype fades away & becomes subject to ridicule; bottle rockets roar and then pop. But if you're looking for a guide to charting your way through the underground, Mike Huckaby wrote the...

You Can’t Get Enough of Josh Wink’s Balls

Philadelphia's Josh Wink is releasing his first EP in four years on his acclaimed Ovum label. "Balls", the sprawling title track, is a return of sorts to the rugged 303-based material he released in...
Ludus Pinsky

Ludus Pinsky: Musician, Producer, Maker of Synthesizers

For 5 Magazine's new column focusing on machines and the men and women who love them, we talk to The Analog Session's Ludus Pinsky - "musician, producer, maker of synthesizers". The synth-driven, largely improvisational...

Tevo Howard (Live): 5 Magazine’s New Mix Monday #163

We've featured a lot of people in our New Mix Monday series. Some are legends, some are local heroes, some are people just getting into the game. Our selection process is very much based...
Robert Hood

Robert Hood: The Faith and the Fury

We almost lost Detroit. It's the title of a song, one of Gil Scott-Heron's best, but that phrase often comes to mind when I read another accidental obituary for the Motor City. Detroit's decline is...

Carl Taylor: Debbie’s Groove (w/ Robert Hood Remix)

Blindfolded and the business end of a Glock to your head, you'd guess this is a Floorplan record. And if you've read any of last issue's interview with Robert Hood, you have an idea...
Robert Hoodvideo

Robert Hood: Torque One/Movement (Music Man Records)

Something happened. At some point, we lost our way. "Chicago House" to me was anything but what "Chicago House" now means in the wider world. I'm really not trying to sound naive here -...
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Innerspace Halflife: Cosmology (Machining Dreams)

Call it logrolling if you will, but sometimes a record commands your attention. Hakim Murphy (a senior editor here if you haven't looked at the masthead lately) didn't send me this release from his...
kate simko

Kate Simko and Jeffrey Weeter’s Live AV Experience

Welcome to the future, or one iteration of it. Synesthesia is what they call the association between sight and sound and other sensations, and for most of us it's involuntary. But Chicago's Kate Simko and...
carl craig

Carl Craig, Detroit and Planet-E

Carl Craig was three years old on June 21, 1972 - the day the lights went out at 2648 West Grand and Motown left the city that gave the label its name.
octave one

Octave One: The 5 Magazine Interview

Talk about the great musical families that have come out of the Midwest, and the Burden Brothers (aka Octave One) are finally getting their proper acclaim

Chris Minus: Drained Delays EP

This is just one great Chris Minus EP released in April, but without question the easiest to get excited about. The man from Denmark understands how to create one serious groove. Chez Damier talked about...

Ben Sims and Kirk Degiorgio: Machine

Reading about two artists forming a new label in 2012 is about as exciting as watching cardboard age. As an example, in the 31 days of March, I received no less than five Kickstarter...
area m50

Area: Where I Am Now

Where I Am Now is the debut LP from Chicago-based producer Area (aka m50) released on Francois K's Wave Music imprint. Featuring 12 tracks of pulsing, adventurous electronic music, of moody lows and exhilarating...

Christina Chatfield Interview

  Getting to know San Francisco-based producer and Beretta Grey recording artist Christina Chatfield - on live PAs and performing, the Bay Area techno scene and the art of (not) DJing.   You're in San Francisco now,...
dj rush

DJ Rush: The 5 Magazine Interview

Isaiah Major is an international man of mystery.

Area: Youth EP

Sometimes I love living in this cold and heartless meatgrinder of a city. Nowhere else in the world could I pick up a record outside of my own private free speech zone, fall in...
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Afrikan Sciences: Means and Ways EP

Seriously, I almost flipped my wig when I first heard the tunes on this 12" from Oakland's Eric Douglas aka Afrikan Sciences. This is soundscaping at work as unique waveforms are presented with three...
kate simko

Kate Simko: The 5 Magazine Interview

With her album Lights Out, Kate Simko joins an illustrious club, taking the ambient sounds of a city and showcasing them with exquisite skill.

Hieroglyphic Being: Music is Mathematics

A sound artist, an experimental composer, a music-making savant with analog machines - this is Jamal Moss, aka Hieroglyphic Being, the next in a lineage of Chicago's electronic producers driven by a vision to...

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