On Repeat: Harold Heath looks back at some of the best electronic music albums of 2025 in this special series for 5 Mag.

An album of detailed, careful hinterland house, thoughtful new-techno, and pulsing, chiming post-new age, French artist rRoxymore’s Juggling Dualities confidently ignores the lines between club and home listening, charting what lies beyond the city limits of house and techno.

Juggling Dualities opens with “Am I Human?” a casually beautiful collection of interlocking electronic peals underpinned by heavy-duty club-derived bass waves warping underneath, letting you know exactly what kind of high-quality, rarified sonic territory you’re entering.

Across the seven other tracks, she demonstrates her ability to create affecting and emotive music from unlikely and unpromising elements; “Upward Spiral” consists of some sequenced elastic chimes, ghostly wordless vocals, and a smattering of stuttering electronic FX, yet coalesces into something that not only makes sense but that’s also full of emotion, before descending into a collection of electronic, digital and analog sounds that are somewhat redolent of forests and fairytales.

“Modified,” meanwhile, is a kind of nu-new age techno cross-pollination that blends FM synths and UK bass stabs, folded up into a ticking, self-propelling forward motion engine, effortlessly moving at speed. rRoxymore’s timbre juxtapositions — the way things sound when they’re placed next to other things — are executed with expertise and panache: softly rippling waves of pad chords and metallic, machine tooled lead lines perfectly mix and match with space age machine blips and a sleekly elongated bass tone on “Embracing the Unknown.” The communion of atonal sonic itches, creaks and glitches on “Nectar” gradually move and morph to reveal the clear bright melodic light at its heart.

An album with tracks that are often musical journeys that begin somewhere understated and finish somewhere full of unexpected warmth and feeling, with repeated moments of subtle, electronically generated musical beauty. It’s not immediate in its effects, but worth taking a bit of time with, letting its fluttering, shifting subtleties work their way into your subconscious.

⚪️ Juggling Dualities Tracklisting

rRoxymore: Juggling Dualities (!K7 / 12" vinyl + digital)
1. Am I Human? (04:49)
2. Upward Spiral (04:58)
3. Moodified (06:15)
4. Embracing the Unknown (04:39)
5. Nectar (05:28)
6. Bonded for Eternity (03:44)
7. Solace (05:04)
8. Lows and Attractions (05:14)

⚪️ Disclosure Statement

This record was not submitted as a promo.

 

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