Music I listened to in 2025
Music I enjoyed in 2025. Check out last year’s list.
I’ve been to several gigs and concerts, but I think I haven’t spent much time digging for tracks. In particular, I didn’t play any gigs in 2025; I just made a few mixsets. Still, here are some tracks and sets I enjoyed this year.
Favorite Tracks / Albums
Yanamaste - Modulation Detected [Mutual Rytm]
Actually, I may recommend the whole album Evil by Yanamaste, but this one is my favorite. There are TOO MANY “hard groove” DJs and tracks these days, but some of them are different from others, and I believe Yanamaste’s tracks belong to that group. I really like the sound of this track (I don’t know the right word to describe it).
Regent - Permean [Spectra]
I played Regent’s track quite often, and this is one of my favorite. There are three other remixes of the same track by different people, but I think this original track is the best. Note that Spectra is a sublabel of Mutual Rytm.
Rikhter - Narara (feat. Garzon Robie) [44 Label Group]
I was very surprised when I realized that the lyrics were in Korean! I have no clue why Rikhter or Garzon Robie did such a thing. Anyway, I think Rikhter has a very unique sound; sometimes it reminds me of Stef Mendesidis, but I don’t know why. I also like the track Sputnik on the same album.
Lars Huismann - Mechanized EP [MONNOM BLACK]
Released last year, but I found it in 2025. I always enjoy these fast-riding tracks, and these match really well with Dax J’s tracks. My favorite ones are Orbital, Somatic, and Aeon.
BT - Flaming June
It’s almost 30 years old. Great trance track.
GUCKKASTEN(국카스텐) - ROLLER
Title track of their new album AURUM. Reminds me of old and raw GUCKKASTEN songs (like Mirror).
All Day Project - Famous [THE BLACK LABEL]
New K-Pop all-gender idol group. You can find all the amazing graphics in the music video, and I actually found that it was made by the same people who made the legendary MV for aespa’s Armageddon.
Soul Sauce, Kim Yulhee - (Who Knows) The Swallow Knows [Eastern Standard Sounds]
I bought this mini vinyl maybe 5 years ago at a record shop that I don’t remember, and somehow I recalled this randomly this year. The climax that starts after 3 minutes drives me crazy.
Favorite DJ/Live sets
Underworld | Boiler Room : London
One of the best Boiler Room sets (along with Fred Again’s one). I prefer older and milder(?) style of Underworld (honestly, I’m not a huge fan of them - I became their fan this year), but I really like this set since they play several different genres together in a live set. This made me go to their gig at SF later (see below).
Héctor Oaks | HÖR x Sennheiser Amsterdam Pop-up
Vinyl set! Great track selections. Especially the remix of Introversion - Unmarried Old Man.
Wallis | 1h full hardware liveset (techno)
The world needs more live sets like this.
Polygonia | themuddshow x BLITZ
If I have a chance, I will definitely go to her gig next time.
Gigs I’ve attended (but not played a set)
aespa | LIVE TOUR – SYNK : PARALLEL LINE at Oakland Arena, Oakland, Jan 30
I wanna be a rich man and buy a more expensive ticket.
Jeff Mills | Throttle 1 year anniversary at 1015 Folsom, San Francisco, Feb 20
My third time to see Jeff Mills. He brought his iconic 808 drum machine and played it with 4 (maybe 3) CDJs. I saw him for the first time at Faust, Korea in 2019 (before Covid), and honestly that was still the best Jeff Mills set among the three sets (although I almost remember nothing except that he played almost 6.5 hours). It is quite surprising that you can make people dance with only a single drum machine.
Nils Frahm | Live at Fox Theater, Oakland, May 19
The only reason I went there is to listen to the track Hammers live (which I found from Max Cooper’s old Boiler Room set). The iconic moment was when he made the audience make funny animal noises, recorded them live, and used them as background music.
Floating Point | Live at Fox Theater, Oakland, August 3
The most interesting part of the show was that the visuals behind were all live - the two people on the left were literally dropping oil paints on water and recording it. Of course, the music was great (it was a live set, not a DJ set).
Max Cooper | 3D AV/Live set at Grey Area, San Franciso, August 28
Max Cooper again. This time, it was not at Midway SF, but at Grey Area, which hosts a lot of interesting live electronic music events. It would be better if the space were larger, since a larger silkscreen for the projection makes the set much better (Midway is at least 3 times bigger than Grey Area).
DJ Gigola, KI/KI, Underworld B2B Brutalismus 3000 | Portola Afterparty by Live From Earth at Midway, San Francisco, Sep 21
I went there to see KI/KI and Underworld. I’m a bit disappointed with KI/KI’s set, since it wasn’t much different from the recent DJ sets I listened to on YouTube. It makes sense since it was a “large” gig and she played more major trance/techno tracks. Also, Underworld B2B Brutalismus was quite interesting, especially since the vocals of Brutalismus fit quite well with the tracks Underworld played. But I actually prefer the old style of them (the set had a similar vibe to the above Boiler Room set).
This is my favorite set from KI/KI:
Se So Neon | Live at Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, Sep 23
One of my favorite Korean rock bands. It was my first time seeing them live. I didn’t know that the members had changed again. The show was good but not extremely good. If you haven’t heard of their name, try this:
Max Gardner, SPFDJ, Klangkuenstler, Dax J, Amelie Lens | The Factory 93 at Cow Palace, San Francisco, Oct 31
It was my first time at a party hosted by The Factory 93. Honestly, the sound was terrible. I don’t think the speakers were the issue (they are Funktion-1), but the place itself. It was a huge garage and the sound just reflected in several directions, which just made me hear noise all the time. Still, it was great to see two of my favorite DJs (SPFDJ and Dax J) for the first time.
UFO95 | Program at secret area, San Francisco, Dec 20
Finally!! I had a chance to see UFO95’s live set. In particular, it was at a small place with a great sound system, where I enjoyed his 1.5-hour set a lot.
Let me end the post with one of my mixsets I made this year. Not the most recent one, but one I like. Happy new year!
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