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Tag: Ora the Molecule

  • Best of 2025: Top 10 Albums

    Sextile Yes, Please album cover
    Want to guess where Sextile’s album, Yes, Please, landed on this best of 2025 list?

    To be honest, the album I listened to the most in 2025 was actually my top pick from last year, Romance by Fontaines D.C. I also spent far too much time listening to two 2024 albums that I didn’t hear until this year, Fine Art by Kneecap and Humble As the Sun by Bob Vylan. We spend a lot of time putting together our year-end lists, but the truth is that time is irrelevant. The right album will hit you when you need to hear it and that could be on the day it’s released or five years later. 

    Still, I think we should shout out stellar new albums, lest we collectively fall deeper into an algorithmically-induced nostalgia hole. And there was a lot of fantastic music released this year, much more than what’s included on this list. I doubt I heard more than the smallest fraction of good shit released in 2025. So, consider this just the start of a list that will never really be complete. 

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  • Best of 2025: Top 10 Bangers

    New wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, Catch One Los Angeles Saturday March 8 (Photo: DJ Liz O.)
    You may have danced to some of these songs in the new wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno (Pic: Liz O.)

    After writing this list of the top 10 bangers for 2025, it’s clearer to me that the sound of the dance floor is changing. The songs that have been working well at the clubs are the ones that don’t follow the strict vibe code of Spotify playlists. Instead, we have “northern soul, but make it Britpop,” “post-punk by way of Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “Irish grime for the moshpit.” None of those songs would make sense together on an algorithmically-generated playlist, but they all made it into the DJ sets I played at Underground just this past Friday. 

    At least amongst those who regularly leave the house, there are still people who want to dance to music that they don’t already know, that doesn’t hold nostalgic value and doesn’t quite fit into the narrow parameters of genre. That gives me a bit of hope in the midst of the new AI era of music that has been thrust upon us. 

    All of the songs here are ranked by how I’ve seen crowds respond to them at my own gigs, primarily at Underground, where I’m DJing on New Year’s Eve, and/or in the darkwave room at Nocturno, where I’ll be playing on December 20. The only “metrics” I’ve used here are eyeballing the size of the crowd and the enthusiasm of their dancing. TBH, enthusiasm is more important than size, so if there are fewer people dancing, but they’re screaming out every word of the song, that matters. Anyhow, what I’m getting at is that I trust my ears and eyes more than any music or social media platform that is designed to be gamed.

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  • Kneecap, Pulp, Confidence Man and More of What You Heard at Underground on 12/05/25

    Kneecap "H.O.O.D." (2025 Remix) cover
    Frankly, I’m impressed by how many of you know all the words to “H.O.O.D.”

    Thank you to everyone who made it out to Underground last night and for all the birthday wishes. I’ve always been pretty low maintenance about birthdays just because mine competes with Christmas parties (and competed with finals back when I was in school). So, I learned the best thing to do is book a DJ gig the weekend of my birthday and say, “I’m playing here, if you want to come by and say hi.” I’m always pleasantly surprised by who I see. Anyhow, outside of this playlist and one really short and shaky video for the ‘gram, I don’t have much documentation, so you’ll just have to trust me when I saw it was a vibe. 

    As usual, the set list is below. Songs released in 2025 are in bold and link back to other references to the band on Beatique. And, before I sign off, tickets for New Year’s Eve at Club Underground are already available on Dice and Eventbrite. Two floors of indie, Britpop, darkwave, post-punk dancing all night. Get your tickets asap. 

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  • New Saint Etienne and Everything Else You Heard at Underground on 11/14/25

    Saint Etienne International album cover
    Cover of International, the final album from Saint Etienne

    Had been meaning to get “Save It for a Rainy Day,” from the latest Saint Etienne album, into my club sets for a good minute. It was sort of appropriate that the first time I played it out was at Underground last night, on account of the rain and all. The whole album, International, is fantastic. It’s also Saint Etienne’s final album, so do pick it up when you have a chance. 

    I forgot to take pics. It’s okay, we can use our imagination. Shout out to the handful of people who were on the dance floor for nearly the entire night and to the Kneecap fans who know all the words to “H.O.O.D.” I was impressed. Set list is below. The new-ish stuff is in bold and links to other mentions of the artists on this site. 

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  • Ora the Molecule and More of What You Heard at Club Underground on 10/24/25

    Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Los Angeles on May 15, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    I didn’t take pics at Underground last night, so here’s one of Ora the Molecule at El Cid back in May. (Pic: Liz O.)

    Someone asked about a song I played at Club Underground last night and I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but it was probably “Nobody Cares” by Ora the Molecule, since it was the only new song in that chunk of time. Also, people have asked about it elsewhere recently. It’s my favorite song on, Dance Therapy, the latest album from Ora the Molecule (who, for those reading in L.A. on Saturday, is playing at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s costume ball tonight) and it’s been doing really well on the dance floor. I’m guessing it’s because the song is true— “Oh, you’re feeling weird?/ Well, guess what/Nobody cares.” 

    Anyhow, I played the second half of the night and the set list is below. The 2025 releases are in bold and link back to other mentions on this lil’ blog. Don’t forget to snag yourself a ticket or two or more for Club Underground’s Halloween Party.  

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  • Depeche Mode on the Big Screen, Ora the Molecule Live and More Happening in L.A. 10/23-10/29/25

    Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Silver Lake on May 15, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Ora the Molecule, seen here at El Cid earlier this year, plays Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s 3rd Annual Costume Ball on Saturday Night (Pic: Liz O.)

    We’re heading into one of those weekends/weeks where there is too much to do in Los Angeles. It can be overwhelming. Trust me, I know, because I’m also overwhelmed with options, since I’m not DJing at a club this week. (I am, however, playing Halloween tunes with Hoseh on Dublab’s Version Sounds next Tuesday at 4 p.m.) Just narrowing down this list was tough, so keep reading for the highlights. 

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  • Confidence Man and Jade “Gossip” + Everything Else You Heard at Club Underground on Friday, August 29

    Cover of "Gossip," single by Confidence Man with Jade

    IDK how much I should explain here, but I’m just going to assume that we don’t have the same timeline and don’t hear all the same music in our scrolls. Confidence Man is an Australian dance-pop group with a weirdo KLF sensibility. If you go to my DJ gigs, you’ve probably heard “Angry Girl” many, many times, often with The Rapture “House of Jealous Lovers.” Jade Thirlwall is a British singer who I don’t really know much about outside of the Wikipedia entry I read. Last month, they released a song called “Gossip” that’s fire. It’s very Basement Jaxx-meets-Princess Superstar. I finally got around to playing it last week at Underground and it did pretty well. This week, it did even better.

    Most of the new tunes turned up early in the set: Alison Goldfrapp “Find Xanadu,” Pulp “Got to Have Love,” Ora the Molecule “Nobody Cares,” etc. I don’t even know what really constitutes “new” anymore, but we’ll save that rant for another day. Thanks to Larry G. for having me play Underground last night and thanks to everyone who hit the dance floor, especially those of you who stuck it out until the end of “My Girls.” Set list is below.

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  • ‘Intergalactic Dance’ Diva Ora the Molecule Has a Message for the Dance Floor

    Ora the Molecule Nora Schjelderup press photo by Jonathan Kvien
    Ora the Molecule Photo: Jonathan Kvien

    It’s early, at least by club standards, on a Thursday night in mid-May, but the dance floor at El Cid is poppin’. On stage, Ora the Molecule flits between the synthesizer that sits on a table cloaked in glittery fabric and a theremin off to the side of her. When she looks down at the synthesizer, beams of light shoot from her disco ball helmet towards the crowd. Dressed in a red jumpsuit with matching gloves and boots, Ora the Molecule looks like a space disco diva who has just arrived on Earth. Few, if any, people in the crowd can resist her intergalactic groove. 

    When Nora Schjelderup, the singer and producer behind Ora the Molecule, and I connect for a video call a couple weeks later, I tell her that the show reminded me of sci-fi disco performances from 1970s European variety shows that I’ve seen floating around online.

    “Yes!” she responds through laughter. “That’s exactly what I’m aiming for.”

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  • Beatique Mix May 2025 Feat. Ora the Molecule, Sally Shapiro, Sextile, Confidence Man and More

    Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Silver Lake on May 15, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Silver Lake on May 15, 2025 was an inspiration for the first half of this set. (Pic: Liz O.)

    Earlier this month, I caught Ora the Molecule play at El Cid in Silver Lake. It was such a fun show. The crowd grooved throughout the duration of her set and, by the end, had formed a conga line that snaked around the small dance floor. Ora the Molecule is Norwegian DJ Nora Schielderup’s Italo disco alter, a theremin-playing intergalactic Raffaella Carrà whose songs are simultaneously cheeky and sincere. My favorite off her latest album, Dance Therapy, is “Nobody Cares,” a sentiment I find more liberating than depressing. 

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