Ekorce - Puzzled

Artwork by Sophie Astrea

Fusing an amalgam of psybient textures and motifs, glitch fundamentals, and rapacious rhythms, the French producer Kyrian Nicolay-Kritter has spent the better part of the last 8 years chipping away at the creative clay of his musicianship. Consequently, The Rust is incredibly proud to host the most recent results of his on-going audiophiliac designs and compositions; the four track Puzzled EP.

Oozing with stereophonic synthesis, syncopated percussive runs, and crystal clear fidelity, Puzzled begins and ends with distinct modes and striking harmony. With the EP’s pendulum swinging from weighty to weightless and back again, each song sits in its own dedicated lane, filling out the release with succinct grip of sound design and emulsive songwriting. Written with fans of downtempo, scintillating productions in mind, Ekorce’s Puzzled EP is guaranteed to become a mainstay in any curated listening rotation.

V/A - Oxidized, Vol. 3

Artwork by Mocktail

The Oxidized compilation series is a charity project we have been working on since the inception of The Rust Music, with Oxidized, Vol. 1 being our very first label release in February 2017. At the end of each year we select a new charity, aid organization, or non-profit, to which all proceeds from the series are donated. In the past we have donated to organizations focusing on natural disaster aid, environmental restoration and preservation, as well as civil/human rights advocates and COVID-19 relief efforts on local, national, and international levels. Proceeds from the Oxidized series in 2022 and 2023 will be donated to support equal rights to healthcare and access to abortion.

Across the last 6 years, we've recurrently tapped into a network of both our roster talent and our close associates across the experimental electronic music spectrum to craft our first two Oxidized compilations. Now, for the final entry in the Oxidized Trilogy, we've brought together 32 producers, songwriters, and musicians from the US, the UK, Germany and Georgia to craft 28 tracks that cross through a medley of motifs in Hip-Hop, Drum & Bass, Downtempo, and more. Please relax and enjoy this curated selection of moods and attitudes, courtesy of The Rust Music and our extended kinfolk.

crawdad sniper - Squid Pro Quo

Artwork: Andrew Bjorke (aab_stract)

Hailing from the D.C. area and falling back on a lifetime of experience behind the drum kit, Crawdad Sniper is a producer/DJ with a significant rhythmic bent. Already boasting a modest catalog of hip-shaking tunes and sprinkles of funkadelic electronic music, his latest collection of tracks fields sharp sound design and pocketed phasing with a polished profile. In a bid to start the new off with a righteous groove, The Rust is especially excited to host his newly minted EP, Squid Pro Quo. 

Tight, pinpoint percussion dominates the runtime of Squid Pro Quo, serving as the consistent foundation for his rhythmic and melodic arrangements. Taking clear advantage of his time as a drummer, it’s simultaneously the backbone and foreground of the EP, with each hit taking up generous sonic bandwidth. Each track flares with an alternate series of forward and laid back attitudes while keeping the focus squarely on kinetics; splices of throaty synthesis mingle with staccato lead lines and harmonized chord plucks, closing the distance between hard hitting neuro motifs and pronounced songwriting fundamentals. There’s an almost liquid quality to the EP’s engineering, producing a listening experience that is as hygienic as it is engaging, and betraying a significant dedication to cleanliness as well as design. For fans and appreciators of rhythmic inertia, funk motifs, and generous synthesis, Crawdad Sniper’s Squid Pro Quo is guaranteed to satisfy.

MantisMash - Blisstorted

Artwork: Natan Lenski

Synchronizing the legendary compositional palates of Israeli electronic music and the contemporary design philosophies of forward thinking producers, MantisMash has been churning out a steady stream of psybient blends for well over a decade. With 7 major releases dotting the long arc of the project, and a clear appetite for sonic exploration, there’s little ground that he hasn’t covered in his own interpretation. Continuing that same gradual expansion of the MantisMash catalog, the syncretic Blisstorted EP covers a wide territory of fusions and rhythms.

Grounded in the lucid repetition of psydub and its fraternal siblings, Blisstorted brings breaks, neuro, drum and bass, and glitch-hop into a fresh focus, pulling classic arrangement hallmarks from each respective pool. With heavy emphasis on melody-driven songwriting and crystal clear mixing fundamentals, each of the five tracks hit the center mark for taste, novelty, and a consistent dance-floor mentality. Juicy mid-range synthesis meets crisp soprano tones and sharp percussive cuts in a medley that feels both at home in the MantisMash musical rolodex and like newfound territory for the long-time stalwart Producer. Pushing past the contemporary, often one-track paradigm, Blisstorted spares no ground covered in its expedition across style and impact, and should be sitting squarely at the top of your next crate-digging adventure. 

maingot. - umami.

More from maingot.

In an epoch of instant uploads, self-releases, and numerous operable streaming platforms, faceless producers and creatives have the opportunity to navigate their own artistic projects through relative anonymity. As a soft rule, it's often those anonymous musicians who have a penchant for churning out hype-free, dialed-in compositions that feel a bit like buried treasure when you first discover it for yourself. Nesting in the center of that dynamic is maingot., and they've come to the table with another fresh iteration of smooth hues and discerning grooves; the umami EP.

Who's under the maingot. mask is irrelevant in a conversation about their musical output, as the mask has been firmly in place since their debut. What is evidentially apparent, however, is their command of rhythm and their stoic knack for charged-up songwriting. Combining subtle glitch palettes with jazz and R&B fundamentals, the 5-song package oozes with the sort of grounded, tangible cadence that makes instrumental music so palatable in the first place. Generous chord phrases stack up against sharp, transient percussion and subdued downbeats, giving each song the characteristics of a modest 4-piece act against a noir backdrop. Whether you're a return customer or a recent convert, maingot. has continued to deliver on their reputable sensuality in sound through the umami. EP, and is poised to continue delivering indefinitely into the future.

lxsh - Flora

Artwork: Justin | @cyberart_by_justin

While it's infusion can be felt throughout numerous contemporary catalogs, jazz as a vehicle for glitch music is often surprisingly sparse of the key inflections and rhythmic shakeups that dominate the better offerings of the genre. Taking a sample-collage approach with an emphasis on happy accidents, the multifaceted producer Ixsh has polished off the finishing touches on his latest collection of lush jazztronica, the Flora EP.

A brassy, fluid blend of neuro synthesis, staccato percussive play, and full blown runs through the pocketed corridors of jazz modes and motifs, Flora paints with wide brush strokes of technicolor hues, preserving the charred, tinny nostalgia of old stereophonic recordings with modern production and transient downbeats. The folding of layered harmonies and blaring horns into new, novel phrases and arrangements pairs graciously with the overt audio fragmentation and spurts of vicious low end, pushing past the natural glass ceilings of traditional instrumental compositions. If you're looking for a fresh and audacious take on the notes between the notes, Ixsh's Flora is sure to leave a permanent and sensuous impression.

Smigonaut - Antithesis [+Vinyl Pre-order]

Artwork: Silas Goewey

Breaking through one's individual mold is a hallmark of evolutionary artistry, with the progression of musical knowledge and execution mirroring the progression of a composition. Time and again, Smigonaut has gone to ground in order to synthesize newfound skills with tried and proven fundamentals, showcasing a creative palette that is in constant flux. After taking the time to sharpen every edge and polish every texture, he's finally pulling back the veil on his largest collection of work to date, the Antithesis LP.

The Smigonaut catalog is first and foremost marked by its bevy of tones and styles, with few aural stones left unturned and unexplored. Consequently, Antithesis is a 12-track dive into every stylistic choice under the Smigonaut purview, running from Neuro-hop to breakbeat, drumstep to drum'n'bass, even going so far as to touch on the steady-beat end of the rhythmic spectrum. Each song is both a contained arrangement and an individual piece of the larger puzzle, pushing high-fidelity sound design and crisp engineering to the upper limit while maintaining the powerful songwriting that separates Smigonaut from the contemporary pack. For fans of virtually every flavor under the glitch-out sun, Antithesis is sure to be an instant add to any discerning audiophile's listening rotation.

Dysfunctional Family - A Day At The Beach

Artwork: Veronika Trasko

The contemporary cross-pollination of electronic genres and styles has a way of bringing out the very best of daring, boundary-pushing musicians and creatives. Hailing from Essenbach, Germany, the contemporary producer and songwriter duo Dysfunctional Family has a bevy of obvious talents all suffusing together; from synth work to drum programming, harmonic interplay, and the massaging of the vibe, their work has a way of setting the bar a few notches higher, and is consequently gestating a particularly driven sound. As a result, The Rust is extraordinarily excited to present their latest minted works, the 10-track LP A Day At The Beach.


Walking through the front door of the album puts the listener on prime, beachfront real-estate; A Day At The Beach is quintessentially a collection of downbeat, IDM-infused tracks that flip between pulsating low end and extremely lush compositional dialogue. The overarching musical narratives are brought to life through potent Reese synthesis and hyper-dextrous percussion anchored to the interplay of chords, leads, lone piano lines, and a panoply of glitch motifs and manipulated audio artifacts. The beauty of the album is both its expansive palette and it's incredibly tight songwriting fundamentals, showcasing a creative mind that's as compositionally focused as it is exploratory, and the marriage of risk and reward plays out across every single track on the LP. Regardless of where your tastes lay on spectrum, A Day At The Beach has the right blend of ingredients and right attitude to appeal to any and all ears and minds at large.

Aeon Voyage - Energy

Artwork: Ayla Alvarez @desygn.la

Through studious years of patient learning and experimentation, Aeon Voyage has gradually suffused the right elements to bring his project into the contemporary lens. Pushing a penchant for frenetic impact to its maximum gear, his latest minted tracks bare all the hallmarks of hyper-saturated, roaring bass music, channeling multiple grooves and a smattering of brackish synthesis. As such, The Rust is incredibly excited to host the release of his most recent exploration in power through sound; the Energy EP.

Combining a history of drum and bass and half-time fundamentals with advances in synth programming and resampling, Energy comes screaming out of the gate with a fierce bite, throwing away any possibility of smooth egress in favor of white-hot bass lines and brick-wall dynamics. Each track is imbued with the pulse of a mid-set climax, keeping the rhythm fully torqued and in its respective pocket. Even at its lightest moments, the EP retains a shredded textural quality that feels as raw as it is specific and purposeful, maintaining its optimal cruising speed throughout each additional timbre and riff. For fans of all things abrasive, brawny, and laser-focused, Aeon Voyage’s Energy EP has your name written all over it.

Zonra - Time Is A Tool

Artwork: Katie Hale

Subverting compositional and design tropes each step of the way, the Zonra project has maintained a striking consistency in its escape from the norms of conventional electronic music. Straddled somewhere between the dance-centric sound of contemporary bass music producers and the aural experimentation developed by IDM pioneers, Jackson Hale achieves a stable balance between groove and intrigue with each subsequent release, moving that needle closer to either end whenever the need arises. In time-tested fashion, his latest LP is a work of beauty from every angle, and as such, The Rust is incredibly excited to premiere Time Is A Tool as our 61st label release.

Previous Zonra records have featured an amalgam of shredded synthesis, mean breakdowns, and carefully threaded melodic elements. Unsurprisingly, Hale flipped the script entirely for Time Is A Tool; The LP’s opening moments involve smooth harmonies egressing into smooth cadence, and that relationship carries on throughout each track. Choice waves of tension and release, told through the intentional splaying of tones and textures into glitched-out symphonies, creates a permeable catharsis within each fold of the record, slowly churning the listener towards the album’s zenith. Opting for slow, caressing tempos and chord phrases reminiscent of serene lullabies, the traditional throaty bass lines and hyper-compressed downbeats are put out to pasture in favor of a record filled to the brim with particularly intentional and resoundingly magical moments of introspection and rest. For those keen on finding their next sonic journey amidst a crowd with a dancefloor focus, Time Is A Tool is assuredly the album you’ve been searching for.

Shapesift - Attic Salt

Artwork: Ayla Alvarez

Working with deliberate focus and a taciturn presence, Shapesift has been steadfastly designing and minting a bespoke catalog of psychedelia-infused electronic music. Across several previous releases, he’s experimented with potent blends of contemporary sound design and time-tested, narrative songwriting. With a superb consistency across his productions, he’s got a firm hold on the ears of his contemporaries, and as such, The Rust is incredibly excited to host his most recent release, Attic Salt.

Attic Salt has all the hallmarks of Shapesift’s notable production palette coupled with a vibrant maturation in his arrangement capabilities and creative risks. Fusing psybient rhythms and melodic tropes with high-octane bass synthesis is a bridge between two often disparate genre umbrellas, and yet this unusual methodology is precisely what struts his dialed-in compositional finesse. Taking the path less traveled, Attic Salt traverses both cerebral and feisty atmospheres, displaying a powerful handling of force and precision with stunning clarity. For appreciators and collectors of niche and novel electronic music, Shapesift’s Attic Salt should be the next addition to your growing collections.

MALAKAI - Breathing Room

Art: Jules Schaeffer

Patience in production has always been a particularly sharp knife in MALAKAI’s artistic multi-tool; from his earliest releases and onward, his deliberate walk-over-run attitude has continuously paid off in the form of an increasingly dynamic and meticulously curated release palette. Consequently, Breathing Room is inarguably the most dynamic MALAKAI release to date.


Breathing Room wastes no time in setting up the pitch, opening up with the fresh break-beat cuts that have already begun to poke through MALAKAI’s discography. Maintaining cruising speeds throughout the entire journey, the EP combines his time-honed penchant for harmony and atmosphere with rambunctious rhythms and the right dash of emotional sizzle. For new and recurrent appreciators of salient, stirring music, Breathing Room is sure to be a revolving favorite.

Wessanders - Talking Points

Art: Ashton Jones

Wessanders’ journey towards the zenith of his own creativity is, by design, filled with curious and unexpected turns and jaunts away from the typical. His aversion to the mundane and clear attraction to ideas and compositions beyond the pale has begotten him a rock-solid catalog of original music, and his latest addition to his growing arsenal typifies the pleasant surprises constantly under his purview. The Talking Points EP contains his clearest, cleanest executions to date, showcasing a producer and composer with a clear bent for breaking the mold.

Talking Points comes jam-packed with the effective and infectious midtempo that Wessanders cut his teeth on, updated, and upgraded to reflect his current command over sound design and arrangement archetypes. Through both melodious narratives and rambunctious low end, he achieves the storied balance between rocking a sound system to the gills and inflecting on pure groove. Rounding off the end of the EP is perhaps the most ambitious Wessanders production to date, featuring a full-fledged journey through the newfound contemporary power of dnb. It’s a complete package, giving listeners a taste of both his time-honed territories and recent explorations within the wide umbrella of bass music. If you’re a fan of pristine palettes and complex arrangements, Talking Points is undoubtedly the next stop on your journey into the novelty of sound.

not yes - Nod Heads

Hailing from Amsterdam and keen to make a vivacious debut on the North American scene, the producer duo not yes has cooked up a distinct serving of broken-beat bass music.

Forgoing the more abrasive, breakneck energy and heavily-textured mixing fundamentals of their often hyper-precise American counterparts, not yes has found an intriguing balance through lithe, groove-driven production palettes and headnod rhythms on their aptly titled nod heads EP.

Each of the four tracks that populate the EP stand out through their own distinct flavors, and create a concise plate of not yes' particular blend of precision percussion and needle-threaded sound design. They're not too brackish, avoiding the often muddy waters of high-velocity bass music, but they're by no means featherweights; if you're looking to cut your teeth on something with whipcord tension and deliberate composition, then nod heads is undoubtedly up your alley.

Rasp-5 x parkbreezy - Transmitting to Space

Artwork by Onlymotif

Artwork by Onlymotif

Fusing New York streetwise sentiments with the rhythm and soul of the Mile High City, Rasp-5 and parkbreezy blend their vocal and instrumental skill sets into the turnkey record Transmitting To Space. With a centerpiece focus on their partnered songwriting and narrative structures, the EP is a clear maturation from both artists in terms of draw and scope, and furthers the burgeoning roadmap of contemporary hip-hop.

As soon as the needle drops, it's apparent that the production and lyrical standards across both individual acts have been thoroughly upgraded. They manage to hit the Nexus between sultry arrangement and walk-along spoken bars, eschewing the mean muggin' archetype in favor of a suede-laden impact. Between parkbreezy's modern meld of trip-hop and jazz modalities, and Rasp-5's inescapable command over poignant prose and mental imagery, it's a true duet of passion and flavor.   For fans of hip-hop's contemporary experience and yesteryear's instrumental rap power groups, Transmitting To Space is undoubtedly the next stop on your musical journey.

Primate - Tortuous

Artwork by Ayla Alvarez

Artwork by Ayla Alvarez

With a sound and style that begets immediate recognition, Primate originally emerged with a design palette that felt honed in beyond its years, presenting a catalog of exceptionally avant-garde electronic music right out of the gate. As such, we’ve proudly hosted his work on numerous occasions, and are just as excited to debut his latest experiments on the Tortuous EP.

The absolute first hallmark of any Primate production is his bombastic percussive arrangement; be it rising swells, crashing climaxes, or veritable rhythmic bridges, his drum shaping and programming across the entire EP is both on par with his sonic aesthetic and a step above previous releases. The liquid-soul underbelly of each track acts as an anchor for daring runs of low end synthesis, mingling the playbook of improvisational jazz with his own brand of space-aged synthesis. It’s a masterclass in phrasing, pacing, and evolution across compositions, bringing breaks, glitch, and instrumental dialogue to the same table. For music minds of all shapes and sizes, Primate’s Tortuous should be next on your list of must-have records.


Universe of Sounds - Resfeber

Art: David Foehring

Art: David Foehring

Taking a departure from the grounded earth-tones and atmospheres featured in Astrophilia, Universe of Sounds has set his sights on the high heavens of space. Regaling the story of an intelligence on a search for meaning and affection in existence, Resfeber is an astronautic landscape of composition. 

With a clear immersive bent and the obvious hallmarks of a songwriter in the midst of a powerful metamorphosis, all three tracks present clear and divisible chapters in the Resfeber experience, taking the rule of 8’s and repetition theory in a resoundingly broken-beat and fantastical direction. 

Rounding off the EP’s audio experience is the inclusion of a multi-part video series, produced by Sieg Mattel and retinaghost, and will create the integral balancing act between each composition’s aural and narrative impacts. For fans and appreciators of delicate textures and emotive elasticity, the Universe of Sounds’ Resfeber EP should be an absolute must-have on your list.

Absalon - The Mind

Artwork by Absalon

Artwork by Absalon

Reaching across the globe with ambitious appeal and obvious creative command, the Israeli producer Absalon has quickly found himself in the nexus of interest in novel electronic music, brandishing extraordinarily viscous compositions and stylized sound design. With a keen eye on appreciators of textured arrangements, The Rust is incredibly excited to present his latest release, The Mind EP.

Absalon’s music is defined by predominantly lush phrases and profiles, with a clear ear for modality and tonal relationships. The Mind begins and ends with the same emotive, melodious egress, with pulsing chords shifting into and out of the frequency spectrum. There’s a buoyancy to his songwriting that is demonstrably refreshing in a scene defined so often by sharp, razor-edged textures and attitudes, and the result is a vivacious and positively charged collection of tracks that fuse precise engineering and emotional resonance with outstanding clarity. For anyone looking to balance out their listening catalog and find respite from the harsher sounds of contemporary offerings, look no further than Absalon’s The Mind EP.

Duffrey - Return to Source

Art: Glass Crane

Art: Glass Crane

Amidst the landscape of American-bred bass music, Duffrey has carved out a space near the tip of the spear, brandishing a reputation as a dancefloor fiasco in his own right and an integral arm of the Ultrasloth producer group. Just in time for a return to sound systems across the continent, The Rust is incredibly excited to host his latest minted release, Return to Source.

In true Duffrey fashion, the EP is replete with a pure head-nod focus, channeling smooth synthesis and pocketed bass lines into inviting, staccato rhythms. The flash and fanfare of contemporary sound design can sometimes feel like an oversaturated veneer, but Duffrey’s straightforward texture palette eases the listener into an experience that does as much justice through easy listening as it does on the club floor. Eschewing both brooding and manic atmosphere’s, his preferences and style instead lend themselves to jovial, petrol-laden anthems that roar with confidence as opposed to sheer ferocity. For the heads looking for a package that oozes with swagger and specificity, Duffrey’s Return to Source should be more than enough to satiate your needs.

Phydra - Exposure

Art: Rolando Ramiro

Art: Rolando Ramiro

Wielding laser-focused synthesis and a two-step sentimentality, Phydra delivers a potent DnB serving through their “Exposure” single, courtesy of The Rust. Interlocking bass lines shred across stereo space, filling in the choice gaps between shimmering percussive breakdowns. The forward half’s rhythmic aggression receives a thorough half-time slice, showcasing the headstrong polar ends of contemporary bass music’s progenitor genre, and putting the production chops of Phydra on full display.