View from the DJ booth in the new wave/darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, 11/01/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
It’s Halloween weekend and the Dodgers won the World Series a handful of minutes before the club opened. Needless to say that the vibe was strong at Klub Nocturno on Saturday night. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave all night and, even when the room was at its most densely packed, people seemed to be in a really good mood. Ex Lover played live and I enjoyed their set.
There wasn’t anything extremely new in my DJ sets last night, but I was happy to see more people out on the dance floor for the new-ish songs from Ultra Sunn, French Police, N8NOFACE and Alice Glass. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous mentions on Beatique.
Artwork from Tomata at MutMuz Gallery (Pic: Liz O)
A cool thing that happened this summer is that, little by little, more people started to read this site. I don’t know how most of you got here, but, thanks for reading! If you like what you see, please check back often or sign up for the weekly newsletter. And, please, share what you enjoyed with anyone else who you think might be into it.
I do like to check the site’s stats, but don’t really live by them because if there’s any lesson to learn from the age of enshittification it’s that numbers do not equal quality. But, since I also don’t like to pick favorite stories, it makes more sense to do a round-up of the five most read stories between Memorial Day and the day I made this list (8/26 in case you’re wondering).
Pixel Grip’s third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality is out now.
Chicago-based trio Pixel Grip released their third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality on June 12. Three years in the making, Percepticide is also the band’s first fully independent release and the end result is a collection of a dozen songs that are rooted in the clubs, but defy expectations of what one might consider club music. It’s as punk as it is pop, as raw as it is slick and as menacing as it is euphoric.
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.
