‘Roads’ is the second single from HULLAH's upcoming debut EP WAVESTATE, released on 30th August 2024. 

The single follows the lead single from the EP, ‘What if i feel like this my whole life?’ which was released earlier this year in May. His EP, WAVESTATE, will be released later this year and features a collection of self-produced songs and spoken-word soundscapes.

HULLAH shares, “I wrote and produced Roads after a moment of clarity I had coming home from a club in the early hours. It's about how I try to escape from reality and how, afterwards, in coming back to "real" life, reality hits even harder. As the track grows, the more awake, more aware and more lucid the song becomes. The song ends with a call out for connection and a sense of direction; a feeling most clubbers can relate to after a long night spent escaping.” 

The electronic dance track describes the lucid feeling many people experience whilst observing the world after the escapism of a night out. How the world keeps turning and lives are being lived even though they have escaped theirs for a brief period.

The artist, who lives with ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease, adds, “There’s a lucid, relaxed yet exhausted state I find myself in when I leave clubs. It’s the good kind of exhausted, I’ve escaped, had some great fun, maybe transcended - been free from my daily worries. Living with a disease and daily pain, the hours spent dancing is like a marathon to me. Yet the club is a place of worship and helps me get out of myself. I enjoy the freedom and courage I find in myself to dance alone, to let go. As a queer person, it’s also about finding pockets of safety and freedom even within “straight” spaces. I can feel less perceived. I can be unknown.”

Roads’ upfront, crisp and stereo production also sees the artist’s boldest vocal delivery yet - mirroring the clarity expressed in its lyrics. HULLAH concludes, “This song has opened up a path for me to explore my love of dance music within my own songwriting and production. I’m excited for the EP and what’s coming next.”

Wavestate

Roads

It was our 60th edition of UNFOLD and the clock had just struck past three.

We were joined in the heart of our dance floor by @pablo-bozzi, and we can now bring you this set in its entirety.

Pablo Bozzi at UNFOLD is now available to listen to on our FOLD SoundCloud.

UNFOLD LX - Pablo Bozzi (LIVE RECORDING)

Writer, historian and DJ Bill Brewster showcasing two hours of love, laughter, and music. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/bill-brewster/episodes/bill-brewster-17th-september-2024

Low Life Loves You w/ Bill Brewster 170924

Tracklist + Q&A: https://bit.ly/4dTnNL5

An era-spanning mix from @kellyleeowens.

"I went for a mixture of the new and the old and where those places meet. Newer tracks I’m loving and some classics from the likes of Underground Resistance - paying homage to where we’ve been, and where we are now as a dance community."

Tracklist + Q&A

The Mix 034: Kelly Lee Owens

@djtennisdjtennis recorded live during our 24h takeover at fabric, London.

DJ Tennis @ fabric (London) | Life and Death Continuum 2024

@demiriquisimo recorded live in the legendary Room 2 during our 24h takeover at fabric, London.


Demi Riquísimo @ fabric (London) | Life and Death Continuum 2024

Burial's soundtrack for Andrea Arnold's 2024 movie 'Bird'. 

Burial - Bird (Unreleased)

Chicago DJ and producer Elbert Phillips pays tribute to the late, legendary Frankie Knuckles with this extended and thoroughly dope classic tribute mix.

This is also an intensely personal mix — @elbert-struthers-phillips was both a fan and a confidant of Frankie Knuckles, one of a small handful of DJs handpicked by FK to open for him at his own events and selected shows. He also released a sensational cover of the Frankie Knuckles and Robert Owens classic “Tears” that 5 Mag covered last year.

This mix is “a retrospective of his career from his residency at the Warehouse to selections that I think he would appreciate today,” Elbert says.

“Two selections from the playlist (Din Jay’s ‘Cosmic Lust’ & Pat Bedeau’s ‘My Life’ aren’t classics, but they remind me of Frankie. Chris Forkis’s ‘Beats & Jembe’ is just a dope track that made sense with the others! Souldynamic’s ‘Too Hot For Love’ is def a classic tune but it’s got a heavier foot and edits.”

🔴 tracklisting /
1. — Mikki – Itchin’ For Love
2. — Gaz Nevada – I C Love Affair
3. — State of Grace – That’s When We’ll Be Free
4. — Bobby Womack – Inherit the Wind
5. — Montana Orchestra – Heavy Vibes (Club Mix)
6. — Henderson & Whitfield – Dancin to the Beat
7. — Candido – Dancin’ & Prancin’
8. — The Limit – She’s So Devine
9. — Forrest – She’s So Divine (Instrumental)
10. — Phyllis Hyman – Goddess of Love
11. — Rick James – Glow (Instrumental)
12. — Janice McClain – In the Middle
13. — T C Connection – At Midnight (intro only)
14. — Brass Construction – Walking the Line
15. — Jago – I’m Going to Go (Frankie Knuckles Plant Mix)
16. — The Talking Heads – Zimbra
17. — Patrick Simmons – So Wrong
18. — Pushe – Don’t Take Your Love Away
19. — D-Train – You’re The One For Me
20. — Smokin’ Beats – Music
21. — Yvonne Young – Garden of Eve (Maurice Joshua Remix)
22. — Tongue N Cheek – Tomorrow (Frankie Knuckles Favorite Garage Mix)
23. — Chris Forkis – Beats & Jembe
24. — Lonnie Liston Smith – A Song For the Children
25. — Din Jay – Cosmic Lust
26. — Pat Bedeau – My Life
27. — Black Science Orchestra – Where Were You
28. — Souldynamic – Too Hot For Love
29. — D’elegance – Chansons D’elegance
30. — Elbert Phillips & Andre Espeut – Tears (Loving Tribute Mix)
31. — Alison Limerick – Where Love Lives
32. — Incognito – Like the Morning Sun (Reprise)

🔴 follow elbert phillips /
https://www.instagram.com/dj_elbert_phillips
https://soundcloud.com/elbert-struthers-phillips
https://www.traxsource.com/artist/188975/elbert-phillips
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1396729-Elbert-Phillips
https://www.facebook.com/djelbertphillips/

🔴 more 5 mag /
Everything: https://5mag.net
https://instagram.com/5.magazine
https://facebook.com/5chicago
https://hearthis.at/5magazine
https://soundcloud.com/5magazine
https://threads.net/@5.magazine

Elbert Phillips: A Frankie Knuckles Classics Tribute

History was made on day three of Defected Malta 2024, as we took over The Ditch - a UNESCO World Heritage site in Valletta for the very first time. All soundtracked by the one and only Green Velvet 💚

Fancy joining this year? Sign up for Phase 2 tickets to Defected Malta 2025: https://malta.defected.com/

Watch this set on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/hlbMcaCYq-Q 

All things Defected: https://defected.komi.io/

Green Velvet DJ Set from The Ditch at Defected Malta 2024

Excited to present our debut mixtape, Clubdance2025, featuring sixty minutes of new and unreleased material from ourselves. It includes a bunch of remixes, edits, collaborations and originals, most of which should be being released in the next few months.

1.  The Trip - Dance Machine
2.  The Trip & Kepler - Take It
3.  The Trip - The Beat
4.  The Trip - Open Arms
5.  Known Artist - Wuhuhuu (The Trip Remix)
6.  The Trip - Make Me Wanna
7.  The Trip - Dream Cloud
8.  The Trip - La Musica
9.  The Trip - Mind Games
10. Trevor Rockcliffe - The Jam (The Trip Edit)
11.  The Trip - Remix
12.  The Trip & Kepler - House Nation
13.  The Trip - Don't Stop
14.  The Trip - Feel 4 Me
15.  Pianoman - Pasion (The Trip Remix)

The Trip - Clubdance2025 (Mix)

For RA.1000, we take it back to the source with two never-before-heard tapes from Frankie Knuckles's private collection

There is no house music without Frankie Knuckles, literally or figuratively. The queer icon's luxurious DJ sets at Chicago's Warehouse gave a rising movement its name. From there, countless offshoots splintered and travelled the globe. But what did the genesis and growth of the sound really feel like?

The Godfather of House left behind not only timeless records, but personalised cassettes with hand-drawn liner notes handed out to friends and family. Two of those, dated to 1989 and 1996, have been digitised especially for RA.1000. (Thank you to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.)

To put that in context: the first tape predates not only many of today's active clubbers, but the entire existence of jungle, drum & bass, UK garage, French touch, Jersey club, Afrobeats, IDM, baile funk, hardcore, footwork, dubstep, dub techno, tech house, breaks, minimal, maximal, gqom, gabber, grime and hyperpop.

In short… that's a very, very long time ago. The world of dance music was much smaller. DJ culture was functionally unrecognisable from the one we see in 2025. 

And yet, to some degree, what you'll hear on RA.1000 hasn't changed at all. It's a capture of not only what made Frankie Knuckles one of the beloved pioneers of first-generation dance music, but what draws people to club culture in the first place.

The mood on these Frankie Knuckles sets outlasts even its creator: a spirit of optimism that floods the world's best dance floors and keeps dance music pulsing on into the future, nearly 40 years later, in spite of it all. We end our 1000th mix celebrations here because it all starts there.

Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1018. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles

HULLAH is a London-based and midlands-born writer-producer and designer creatively driven by a passion for nightlife culture, city-living and stories from the queer community. His personal projects are inspired by artists such as Everything but the Girl, Real Lies, Rahim Redcar (formerly Christine and the Queens) and Pet Shop Boys.

Wrapped in the sonic flavours of electro, 90s dance and synth-pop, HULLAH’s work emulates a nocturnal spirit, and is complemented by themes of alienation, ambition and a sense of dejection. His work, though introspective, reaches outward in its delivery, inviting the listener to join the songwriter on a journey as he navigates his way through the noise and distortion of everyday life in a soundstage that comforts and surprises.

Along with Sicily-born Nicole Bullet, HULLAH is also half of the electro pop duo, Futuretape – a songwriting partnership that explores how millennials navigate the digital world, friendships and internet culture. Their music combines a passion for nostalgia and the future and is characterised by 80’s synth-pop and PC music.