2025 Top 3 – Readers List
We take the chance to thank you, our readers, for your continuous support and we also have a look at what you enjoyed the most on hipodrome. This is a summary of the top 3 albums, compilations and recordings that you liked the most last year.
Continue reading “2025 Top 3 – Readers List”2025 Best Tracks part. 10 (of 10)
We present our favorite tracks from 2025, more or less in a chronological order and finally we are at the last set of 10 tracks.
Kapote presents Wildstyle House Vol. 1 LP [TOYT180]
Wildstyle House is a new compilation series where Toy Tonics invites producers and DJs that have a very special, funky, unique sound to make one new track. The compilation should show the variability and diversity of house and disco today. Like the wild music mix you can hear at the Toy Tonics events and the way Toy Tonics DJs combine many different styles of “4 to the floor” music into one new soulful, multi-style, and warm-sounding blended “genre.” It’s about the groove, about a new soul sound, the human feel, the organic and Y2K-inspired dance music that is growing and appeals to a new generation of dance music lovers.
Afrobot – Rough Tropical Edits [Afrobotic Musicology]
After years of lighting up dance floors around Europe and beyond, Afrobot it’s finally opening the vault. Dozens of unreleased edits – tested in sweaty rooms, peak-time moments, and long nights between 2009 and 2020 – are coming out at last. This new compilation series will travel through Africa, Disco, New Wave, Pop, Bollywood and electronic mutations. Raw cuts. Heavy grooves. Dance-floor weapons.
Doctor House – Mix To Groove LP [MH002]
The legendary album from South Africa’s House and Kwaito master Doctor House is being reissued for the first time with a full remaster from the original DAT. Nelson Phetole Mohale released a series of albums as Doctor House. Cutting his teeth in the 80s as a session player for a host of big names like Volcano, Senyaka and Obed Ngobeni, he moved on to programming for acts like La Viva and Jivaro, also contributing to Carlos Djedje and others. Still barely out of his teens he became one of South Africa’s first rappers as part of PT House, co-written and produced by Danny Bridgens. Their debut album Big World was released in 1991 and followed by Big City Taste a year later.
Altın Gün – Garip LP [GBLP182]
Altın Gün, the Grammy-nominated Turkish psych-groove quintet from Amsterdam, return with their sixth studio album Garip — their most ambitious and diverse release to date, and a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Turkish folk bard Neşet Ertaş, a beloved icon of Anatolian music. Garip (“Strange” in English) features ten of his compositions, each reimagined and richly expanded through Altın Gün’s distinctive lens. An electrifying live band with an ever-growing global following, Altın Gün push their sonic boundaries even further on Garip — weaving in lush Arabesque string arrangements, bursts of saxophone, glimmering synth balladry, and a fresh surge of tightly wound rock ’n’ roll.
ARMOR – La Balade de Misrakis Feat. Feras Turk [PINKMAN] [FREE DOWNLOAD]
ARMOR, a new alias from Pascal Pinkert (Ambassade / Dollkraut). La Balade de Misrakis is the first single from the upcoming album Love Chaos, out this spring. A few years ago he visited Turkey and Lebanon to collaborate with artists such as trip-hop legend Zeid Hamdan and Egyptian singer Maii. While many of these recordings found their way into Dollkraut releases, revisiting the material sparked the need for a new outlet. With ARMOR, Pinkert dives deeper into the space between folk traditions and electronic experimentation. Hypnotic drones merge with Middle Eastern percussion, while subtle rhythmic structures fuse with immersive soundscapes.
Smackos – Come for the Universe Stay for the Clowns LP [NW048] [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Danny Wolfers presents a brand new Smackos album as name-your-price on his bandcamp page. ‘Come for the Universe Stay for the Clowns’ is dedicated to the memory of Koen van Someren Gréve and includes nine synthetic hardcore ambient synth folk ballads.
Sun Electric – Episodes LP [ASGDE055]
Sun Electric — the legendary Berlin duo of Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer — returns with Episodes, an enticing new album. While the pair has been active and creating over the years, Episodes marks their first album of original material in nearly 20 years. Now, with a renewed way of working together, they present fresh and captivating music on the Belgian De:tuned label, built from recordings made with the vintage 1960s Subharchord Synthesizer. Across 6 tracks, Sun Electric takes listeners on a strange yet wonderful journey through shifting moods and sonic textures, capturing their unmistakable sense of exploration and atmosphere.
DYL – Achordat 002 [Achr-002]
Achordat returns with its second release, continuing its commitment to experimental sound explorations. This chapter comes from DYL, who weaves dub textures with jazz inflected elements, moving fluidly between 170 and 140 BPM. On the journey of the second track, DYL is joined by Roberta, adding another layer of depth to the release. Shaped by the arrival of the cold season, the record embraces melancholic moods and raw, sometimes harsh atmospheres, reflecting winters introspective and uncompromising edge.
Second Storey – Descend To Ascend [FR062]
Descend To Ascend brings back our favorite drummer boy with more of his signature hyper-advanced beat physics. And if you don’t understand any of this, please take a step back and try again.
Der Zyklus – Truth Matrix [CAL-X]
Kidnap Syndicate – Direct Target [PANZERKREUZ SPACE WAR 2019]
US based Oliver Vereker’s debut on Bunker under the Kidnap Syndicate moniker. Harsh and disturbing psychotic industrial soundscape music telling tales of terror. Originally released on Endangered Species as a limited cassette in 2024. Remastered by Guy Tavares.
Damage Code LIVE @ Ombra Festival 2025
Filmmaker – Diffractions LP
“Diffractions” is a new album by Colombian artist Filmmaker AKA Faunes Efe, self-released on his bandcamp page.
Mule Driver – Stone Pine Nut / When Does the Everyday Become History? [CM28]
Mule Driver returns with his yearly 303 Day ritual release – a tradition dropped in acid. Leading the charge is “Stone Pine Nut”, an unfiltered acid banger recorded live, capturing the raw voltage and untamed pressure of his performances. No polish, no safety net, just the pure, driving force pushed to its limits. It’s sweat, pulse, and machine energy locked in the moment. Alongside it, “When Does the Everyday Become History” shifts the perspective inward. A contemplative 303 vamp circling themes of inner gaze and suspended time, it stretches and breathes while never losing its grip on the floor. Hypnotic, restrained, yet fully capable of holding dancers in its spell. Two movements within the same frequency – instinct and introspection.
Ali Renault – Circle Of Sins EP [VIVOD026]
Ali Renault re ignites the Vivod catalogue after a four year hiatus with Circle of Sins a solo EP built for italo fiends, horror romantics, and synth obsessives alike. You already know the vibe: detective-noir disco, low-slung BPM swagger, basslines that churn like midnight fog, and those unmistakably icy Renault melodies slithering through the mix.
Dream Days – Liberate Your Body EP [NOP020]
With Liberate Your Body, Dream Days charts a new course within the label’s catalog, shifting the focus from the celestial void to the atomic vibration of matter. While previous releases explored the solitude of the stars, this EP is a brutal and necessary invitation to reclaim the only territory that still belongs to us: our biological shell.
Delkom – Sexploitation (Facets Edit) [AUFO017] [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Dark Synth aficionado and renowned New York City party starter Facets lands on our ‘A UFO’ free edit series with an energetic rework of Delkom’s “Sexploitation.” He preserves the entrancing vocals from the seminal 1990 release, keeping them loose and sultry while infusing the percussion with his signature snap.Facets mindfully rearranges the track, bringing the groundbreaking instrumentation to the forefront and letting the lyrics pierce. By maintaining the commanding essence of the original, this Serbian native revitalizes the track, allowing it to soar once again on today’s dancefloors. Facets continues to enhance his impressive collection of reworks, leaving his uniquely forward-thinking mark on a classic from another golden era.
Benedek & Tom Carruthers – Process 9 [LIES225]
Sounding like a lost Nu Groove record dug up in Detroit basement and played at the clubs of Ibiza in ’93, Nicky Benedek and Tom Carruthers team up for a dream collaboration with the six track “Process 9” LP. These are detailed and anthemic tracks to be played at the night club, the perfect balance of rough drum programming and deep, lush synthwork, everything has fallen into place when these two hit the studio together. Absolute essential gear for lovers of the late nites and endless mornings.
Böhm – Jack Tracks [CJFD46]
Stripped bare and driven hard – this is Jack at its most physical. Filthy, saturated drum work meets crunchy, uncompromising samples as Böhm channels the genre’s raw core across four relentless tracks. Each cut is engineered to whip crowds into a frenzy and lock the dancefloor in. Pure warehouse ammunition. Essential addition to any serious recordbox.
Da Posse feat. Martell – The Other Side [ILR001V]
Originally released in 1988 on the compilation Acid Tracks Vol. 3 via Needle Records, ”The Other Side” has long been recognised as a potent example of early Chicago acid house. Now, more than three decades later, the track receives its first official 12” release – and, crucially, its first release with the original artists correctly credited. While historically attributed to Maurice Joshua, ”The Other Side” was in fact produced by Da Posse (Hula Mahone), with vocals by Martell. The release is issued by Island Life Records, a Bali-based label. The release is accompanied by a set of new remixes that respectfully extend the track’s legacy into the present day. Remix duties come from Island Life Records founder Garry Todd under his Clouds Of Kouros alias, Johnny Aux (one half of Paranoid London), and Age Of Hyperion each offering a distinct contemporary interpretation while retaining the spirit and tension of the original recording.
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