🔴 Welcome to the new issue of 5 Mag!
5 Mag Issue 221 is out now!
In our latest issue, 5 Mag talks to Mark Knight, founder of Toolroom Records, but not about Toolroom Records. Knight also runs a second label, Fool’s Paradise, featuring some of the best soulful + deep sounds of the underground from artists such as Grant Nelson, Opolopo, Dr. Packer, Sebb Junior, Hatiras, Richard Earnshaw and more. Three years into it and Fool’s Paradise has a pretty outstanding catalog and an audience “driven by the quality of the music.”
“You can’t market people into loving a record,” Knight tells 5 Mag. “They have to arrive at it through their own ears.”
Also in this issue: Yuu Udagawa takes over our cover mix feature, Gene Tellem on the making of one of the best records of 2025, looking back on the Tampa rave revolution, how an early streaming media giant of the early internet became a key player in the surveillance state and more.
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🔴 CONTENTS — INSIDE 5 MAG #221:
❇️ Mark Knight: Fool’s Paradise.
If deep house, soulful house and disco aren’t the first things that come to mind when you think about Mark Knight’s music, you might not know Mark Knight very well. The founder of Toolroom Records on his latest passion project. Photos: Abeiku Arthur.
❇️ Inside the Tampa Rave Revolution.
TRiP MAGAZEEN 1992-1994 reproduces every issue of the seminal Florida rave zine, spotlighting an overlooked chapter in dance music history.
❇️ Yuu Udagawa.
A classy blend of electronic, jazz and leftfield grooves from the Japanese DJ and producer and one of our favorite new artists.
❇️ Vinyl Vanities.
Soundcloud’s new partnership offers no-cost vinyl pressings to artists, but it looks a lot like a vanity press.
❇️ trackID: Gene Tellem.
The making of Phantom Vibrations for Love Injection.
❇️ V-MODA announces the new M-100 Pro DJ Headphones.
Heavy Machinery: Designed in Milano, engineered in Japan.
❇️ Arturia probes a UFO edition MicroBrute.
Heavy Machinery: A special release of the first edition MicroBrute gets a cosmic makeover.
❇️ Buffering: The Second Life of Real Networks.
How an early streaming media giant of the early internet became a key player in the surveillance state.
❇️ Dense, dreamy sound design with Haze.
Screen Grab: Free plugin from Lunacy pairs full manipulation of sound with stunning visual design.
❇️ Tracks 221.
New music and reissues: your home for longform reviews including music from Ossie (Heist Recordings), DJ Spinn: Break Yo Back EP (Teklife), Ron Trent & Chez Damier (Vessel Recordings), Jimpster, Ash Lauryn and Oveous (Freerange), Porfi Jimenez & Retro Roland Riso (Matasuna Records), Shawn Rudiman (Pittsburgh Tracks), Number (Ramrock Red), Abacus & Haf S: Analogue Stories Vol 4 (Re/Think), Crooked Man: Don’t Leave Me This Way (Vicious Charm), Ten City: The Next Generation (Nervous Records), Luca Olivotto: Say Who?! (Small Great Beats), Jon Dixon: Paradise Valley (No Speakers), DJ Rae, DJ Spen & Mike Dunn (Let There Be House Records), Ground16: Structural Disruption (Sofa Movements Records), La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cinco (Hostel La Torre Recordings), Medlar (Delusions of Grandeur), ASHRR (2020 Vision), Echols Brothers, Santonio Echols & Makeda Rose: Inside My Love (NCM Label Detroit), Demuir: TruSkool LP (Purveyor Underground), Payfone (Otis Records), MissFly, David Bailey & Sean McCabe (Good Vibrations Music), The Illustrious Blacks (Soul Clap Records) and more.
❇️ Random acts of acid with Sting 2.
Screen Grab: Click the eyes for a big surprise! From the maker of the popular Max for Live device Sting.
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