“Compliment” by Rare DM has been sitting around on my laptop, waiting to be played, since the album, Attention, came out a couple weeks ago. Last night, it finally turned up in between Depeche Mode and Boy Harsher earlier in the night at Underground.
You might have seen Rare DM, the analog synth project of New York-based Erin Hoagg, before, as she played Substance LA a few years ago. Attention is her second full-length. It’s a poppier sort of darkwave, sounding somewhere in between Boy Harsher and “Bad Guy” Billie Eilish, but with a stronger techno influence. My actual favorite track on the album is “Significant Other,” a killer minimal synth/techno instrumental that reminds me of a cross between Soft Cell’s “A Man Could Get Lost” and early Matthew Dear. It’s a solid album, so check it out on Bandcamp when you have the chance.
Full set list from last night at Underground is below. New-ish songs (less than two years old) are linked back to previous mentions on this site. As always, thank you for dancing.
You might not expect to read this, but I’m way into Nature Is Healing, the new album from horsegiirL. If we’re IRL friends, though, you might think, yeah, Liz would totally be into something that sounds like the rave at an anime convention. And that’s true. But, there’s also a lot more to horsegiirL than DDR beats and pitched up vocals.
Just to back up a second for anyone who is like, wtf are you talking about? HorsegiirL is a DJ/producer/singer known for wearing a horse mask, or horse prosthetic face makeup, who had a viral hit some time back called “My Barn My Rules.” She’s known for playing hard, fast dance music- roughly equivalent to what ‘90s ravers would know as hardcore or happy hardcore- and has been buzzy for a good while. She played Coachella in 2025, made guest appearances during Wet Leg and PinkPanthress’ sets at this year’s Coachella and will be opening for Robyn at the Forum in September.
Nature Is Healing is horsegiirL’s debut album. It dropped yesterday and it’s a genuinely strange and subversive album. Musically, it’s not really something you can categorize. You’ll have something like the single “That’s My Beach!” that brings together a summer party sound with a play on words to talk about respect for the beach or “Only the Best,” which satirizes materialism. Then there’s “An Apple a Day,” with its relentless kick drum and campy, Europop-style lyrics and vocals, and “Fun Guy Fungi,” an avant-garde, new age interlude. Last night, I tried out “Hands Hands Hands,” a synthpop tune with bit of a Kylie Minogue vibe and a touch of house percolating underneath. Hopefully, sometime soon, I’ll have the chance to play “Music Goes On” because I love how it morphs from euphoric rave track to Pure Moods jam. The sounds are all over the place on Nature Is Healing, but it makes sense as an album because the songs all seem to tied to this very My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic-meets-Nausicaä Valley of the Wind message about taking care of the planet and each other. Right now, it’s not too often that we see people making art that’s both light-hearted and serious, so, if you’re looking for something that hits those notes, I recommend checking out Nature Is Healing.
Last night’s set list from Club Underground is below. As always, the new-ish stuff links back to previous mentions on this blog. In addition to horsegiirL, the other brand new song from last night is “Every Single Weekend” from The Avalanches and Jamie XX.
This Friday, May 29, is darkwave night at Club Underground. I’ll be playing from open to close and you can check out this set list from last month’s darkwave night if you want an idea of what you *might* hear on the dance floor. Friday is also the night that Ladytron plays The Novo. For those of you who are going to the concert, stop by Underground afterwards and you can enter for free. Just show your concert ticket at the door. Otherwise, tickets for Underground are available online now and in person at the Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown when the doors open at 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 2, is primary election day in California and Cal State L.A. put together a guide to voter guides, which is super helpful if you happen to have a very healthy distrust of everything you’ve read or seen lately. And now for this week’s recommendations.
I’ve been trying out songs from Wor$t Girl in America since the new album from Slayyyter came out a handful of weeks ago. So far, the songs have done pretty well, but last night, “I’m Actually Kinda Famous” kinda popped on the dance floor. TBH, it was a song that I had been thinking about playing since the album came out, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it work. But, hey, you gotta take some chances in life and your DJ sets.
Anyhow, last night I was DJing at Club Underground. (I know I said I wasn’t DJing this weekend. Surprise!) It was somewhere after midnight. Sextile “S Is For” (also on this month’s mix) was playing and people were getting really into it, especially a group near the DJ booth. I mixed in Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Heads Will Roll,” the A-Trak remix, and that group by me screamed and danced even harder. I thought, okay, if they’re down with Sextile *and* Yeah Yeah Yeahs remixed by A-Trak, they’re my people and probably already into Slayyyter. So, I slowed down “Heads Will Roll” a pinch, sped up “I’m Actually Kinda Famous” a lot and mixed them thinking, this is either going to suck or it’s going to slayyy. I guess the latter happened because the group I had been eyeing was now all over the dance floor and other group at the back of the dance floor started jumping up and down and screaming for the song.
Anyhow, kids, the moral of the day is to go with your gut and make it work. Here’s the set list from last night. Songs from the past year or so are in bold and link back to other other mentions on this here blog.
Come Closer, the debut album from Tomora, was released on Friday and I’m already way into it. Tomora is Tom Rowlands from the Chemical Brothers and Norwegian singer Aurora and, if you’re into either/both of those artists, you have to hear it. Come Closer pulls a lot of different elements from across the club music spectrum and, in the process, becomes something so strange and cool and completely different from what’s been dominating dance music for the past five or so years. I went with “Somewhere Else,” the second single from the album, last night at Underground and it did pretty well for a first spin. There were more people on the dance floor when the song neared its end than when it began, so it will probably stick around in my sets. That ‘do do do” Aurora sings is such an earworm of the classic rave “It’s a Fine Day” variety. I love it.
Last night was Darkwave night at Underground, but I’ve been meaning to play something off Fcukers’ album, Ö, for a minute and I figured that “if you want to party, come over to my house” was electroclash-y enough to work with the crowd. Basically, if they were into Green Velvet— and they were— then they would get Fcukers. The song went over really well, which is a bit unsurprising given how much the resale price are for tickets to the duo at The Fonda. The whole album is killer. I’m impressed at how Fcukers basically fit the arc of a raging party into an album that’s less than a half-hour.
The set list for last night is below. Songs from 2025 and 2026 link back to other references on the blog. Thanks for dancing!
Cover of “Fenian” by Kneecap, which came out on April 1, 2026
It was great to see people dancing to “Fenian,” the single from Kneecap that came out last week, upstairs at Club Underground last night. It’s such a killer song. Plus, it fit into the ‘90s Nite vibe. TBH, a lot of today’s dance music does.
I wasn’t in the theme room last night, so it was kind of anything-goes upstairs, but I did dig up some of my ‘90s to drop in the set. “Born Slippy,”“Halcyon and on and on” and “Papua New Guinea” are all songs that are pretty formative to my taste, as in I heard them when they were new and was like, “WTF is this?!” Also got in some early 2000s jams that I haven’t played in a minute, like “La La Land” from Green Velvet, which I used to play so often that I have multiple copies on vinyl with multiple remixes.
As for new tunes, “A Death in London” from Ladytron was also in the set. I really like the sax on that song and it sounds so good early in the night. It might end up becoming my go-to from the band’s latest album.
Anyhow, thanks for dancing at Underground last night. See you next week! Set list is below. Songs from the past year or so link back to other mentions on this blog. Also, three songs from last night are on this month’s Beatique mix, so give that a listen on Mixcloud when you have a chance.
The April 2026 edition of Beatique is now live on Mixcloud. This month’s installment features new music from Slayyyter and Kneecap, throwbacks from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Armand Van Helden, plus lots more. If you want the whole tracklisting, you have to listen, but there are links to posts related to the songs and/or artists at the bottom of this post.
Gelli Haha “Klouds Will Carry Me to Sleep” single cover by Daniela Buvat
I have to admit that it took me a minute to get into Gelli Haha. “Bounce House” kept coming up on my Instagram feed and I thought the song was fine, but not as interesting as the video. So, it wasn’t until a month or so ago that I sat down and listened to Switcheroo. What a fun album! There’s a song called “Piss Artist” that I love because it’s irreverent, like the early ‘00sclub hits that only the people who were there still remember. And “Tiramisu,” which I can only describe as sounding like someone playing a tribute to ‘90s house live a DIY art-punk show, has been getting stuck in my head. But, I didn’t play either of those songs last night at Underground because Gelli Haha has a new single out, “Klouds Will Carry Me to Sleep,” and it’s super cute in a way that reminds of a cross between The Avalanches and The Go! Team. I played it early last night, mostly to see how it sounds in the room, but I think I’ll keep it on hand.
The other new release that I want to mention is Wor$t Girl in America by Slayyyter. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but, every now and then there’s a pop album with a bunch of hype surrounding it that doesn’t bore the crap out of me and this is one of those moments. It has the sleazy club sound that I love, where it sounds like your dancing on a beer-sticky floor under a ceiling that’s dripping sweat. I didn’t really know what to play off the album. “Yes Goddd” has a killer Gesaffelstein-ish beat, but it didn’t work with the rest of the set this week. Maybe next time. I ended up going with “Unknown Loverz,” which has a much lighter sound, at the last minute.
Anyhow, the set list is below. Songs from the past year or so link back to previous mentions on the blog.
Ladytron released a new album, Paradise, yesterday. I gave it a first listen on Bandcamp yesterday and knew immediately that I had to get it and had to play “I See Red” at Underground for Girl Power Nite. The whole album is fantastic. It’s also long and I’ve only listened through it one-and-a-half times at this point, so I don’t have much to say about it yet.
The other new song in last night’s set is “Strings of Terror” by Sam Quealy, who you really need to hear if your taste in music is dance pop-meets-clubby performance art. Stacey Q-meets-Chicks on Speed is the comparison I used in my review. Anyhow, you can also hear “Strings of Terror” on this month’s Beatique mix.
Set list is below. Songs from the past year or so link back to other references on the blog.
