Opium Hum

*narrator voice* in fact, he was some hot s**t

Caught up with Charlie Sparks, just in time for the release of his long-awaited debut album tomorrow! Grown up in the trenches of the Drumcode-fueled dance floors of UK warehouse raves, his sound has travelled through drum and bass, tech house, and techno before settling into his own brand of hard and happy, he's rapidly become one of the more compelling voices in British hard dance.

We trace the evolution of his productions, find out why got him through some hard times, revisit why the crowd at the legendary ranks as one of his favorite world-wide, discuss why is his dream b2b partner, and explore his deep admiration for 's technical mastery, on top of getting his essential picks for three rising talents from his label: , , and .

Music: Charlie Sparks - Run the Bassline #

Caught up with dubstep and grime legend Kahn!

With a new album about to drop via , the Bristol-based producer is one of UKs quietly essential artists. Known for his deeply atmospheric and bass-heavy sound that carries the weight of Bristol's rich sound system heritage while remaining entirely forward-looking.

We explore the surprising influence of Indian violinist L. Shankar on his new album, discuss why the best advice he ever received was that not everything you make has to be your definitive statement, get into why Hans Zimmer needs to put the duduk down immediately and why producers should be expanding their sampling palette, find out which records he considers as close to perfect as anything he's heard, Kate Bush's Hounds of Love and Tricky's Maxinquaye, and get his essential picks: Irish artist .dss, Bristol's , and live dub act Elijah Minelli.

Music: Kahn - Streets of Rage (2015 dubplate mix)

Caught up with Olof Dreijer, the legendary Swedish producer and one half of The Knife whose influence on electronic music runs far deeper than most care to admit.

Now based in Barcelona after years in Berlin, he just dropped his long-awaited debut solo album Loud Bloom on .co, a 14-track statement that balances pure kinetic dancefloor pleasure with a deliberate push against the white, male, Western homogeny that still dominates electronic music.

We explore his enduring love for the raw gut-punch of the SH101, discuss why patience is the most underrated skill any musician can possess, hear about the fan messages that reminded him why any of this matters in the first place, and get his essential recommendations for three artists whose vibe he can't stop thinking about, .no, , and !

Music: Olof Dreijer - Cassia

How do you do fellow kids, it's me high-key promo maxxing and clout mogging other promoters

After two editions with guests like DJ Spinn, RP Boo, Jana Rush and Bianca Oblivion that hit harder than anyone could ever expect, Breaking Tempo returns to Berlin's favourite bass bunker on April 25th.

Footwork remains firmly at the centre of the series, with everything else orbiting and mutating around it - and with this night we remain fully committed to the cause, bringing Chicago footwork prodigy Heavee to Berlin for the very first time. A dancer before he was a producer, like so many who came up through Chicago's footwork scene, Heavee has spent years pushing the form into territory that is entirely his own. His critically acclaimed debut album Unleash on Hyperdub is a case in point: footwork's 160 BPM chassis is still there, but what's built on top of it draws from R&B, jazz, grime, computer games and Detroit techno. This one has been a long time coming and we are not taking it for granted.

Co-headlining will be Amsterdam's T.NO - if you've been anywhere near a good dance floor recently, you've almost certainly already heard his tracks without knowing it. Drawing on his Surinamese roots and a restless ear that spans gqom, bubbling, kuduro and bouyon, T.NO is quietly rewriting what Amsterdam sounds like from the inside out.

Alongside them, Breaking Tempo doubles down on the importance of Afro-Caribbean club music. Berlin's Psycho Calypso do exactly what it says on the tin — a full-throttle carnival of sound where dancehall, Latin and electronic music don't so much blend as collide, loud and gloriously messy. Hamburg sister duo Cho Room bring their command of Jersey club, Gqom and Miami Bass with the kind of effortless range that makes you wonder how two people can hold that much music in their heads at once.

Breaking Tempo co-founder and Berlin bass lifer O***m Hum brings it home.

See you in the circle on April 25th!