From our point of view, things have started to move in a back-to-the-future style in the house & techno underground. Samples from electro’s golden ages got pitched down to a pleasantly  uplifting groove whereas soft acid patterns were encountered in a lot of young producers’ releases. Housier than ever, stepping a bit away from the amphetamine infused dark loops that have defined Romania’s hyped sound for years, a few young artists got our full attention. Their 2018 productions came as a breath of fresh air wherever we had the chance to listen to them, showing a deep level of understanding for the electronic music legacy from the 90s’ and 00s’. So, in no particular order, here’s our list of 5 young Romanian producers that impressed us in 2018

Bucurie

Spend a few moments on Bucurie’s bandcamp page and you’ll fall in love with the smoothness and warmth that come out of his tracks. Otaku Records featured his productions on the Everflow record, released in 2018

 

Dragutesku

Adrian Dragut aka Dragutesku spent most of 2018 in the shades of his own DRG Series label, with two seminal EPs that got overplayed this year. As for 2019, he already announced some fresh work for Feeder Sound, a brand new record label, part of the feeder.ro webzine.

 

Mihai Pol

In just a bit over 3 years, Mihai Pol has passed the rookie status, gaining reputation for his deep house tinged tracks. His debut album met the vinyl format at Lokomotiv this fall.

 

Herck

Techy and uplifting, serious about not taking things too serious, Herck delivered a few concrete tracks this year. Check the cover story we had with Herck, chatting about inspiration, influences and studio gear ;)

 

Los Bastoneros

Keeping a low profile when it comes to official releases, yet highlighting their unreleased stuff and personal edits throughout their DJ sets, the trio behind the Los Bastoneros cheeky name started their own record label this year, Kapture, where we might hear some new stuff from them in 2019.