REVIEWS – Richard Coombes – Prog House & Breaks – Issue 050 –
Music Reviews – Richard Coombes –
Prog House & Breaks – Issue 050 –
Welcome to my Progressive House & Breaks review column for Zone Magazine. I began DJ’ing across the South West of England in the early 2000s, inspired by legends such as Sasha, John Digweed, Nick Warren, and Paul Oakenfold, as well as the immersive sounds of producers like Slacker, James Holden, Quivver, and BT.
Through my DJ’ing style of progressive electronic music, I like to take audiences on an aural adventure, blending genres and uplifting melodic beats. Here, I share reviews of music at the forefront of the scene, carefully reviewing hundreds of promos each week to highlight standout tracks from around the globe, that you need to know about.
Send Promos to – r.coombesmusic@gmail.com
10/10 – Top Release –
Just Her – Secrets – Floating Clouds [Selador]
‘Secrets’ and ‘Floating Clouds’ see’s Constant Circles label boss Just Her, land two quality dance floor destroyers on the ever reliable, purveyors of the good stuff – Selador Recordings.The Selador label bosses Dave Seaman and Steve Parry were left suitably impressed when Just Her dropped ‘Secrets’ while playing for the Selador Boat Party during the Balance Croatia festival back in August, that they snapped it up on the spot.
‘Secrets’ has a really cool old school vibe about it. Just Her lays down some driving 4/4 beats that almost have a breaks feel, that leads to a hypnotic bassline and some tasty synths stabs, layered with some dubby vocals to deliver the euphoric feels. Very cool stuff! ‘Floating Clouds’ is no slouch either, this one has more of a set building feel about it with some nice percussion and arpeggiated synths layered with floaty vocal elements.
Selador have had a fantastic year which saw them add some excellent tunes to their already impressive catalogue and also celebrate the labels 200th release. So it’s fitting that the boys have chosen another stellar release to see the year out.
9/10 – Recommended –
Maty Owl – Green & Blue EP [Anjunadeep Explorations]
After releasing two quality EP’s (Sunset Rider EP and Orquidea EP) on Anjunadeep’s offshoot Explorations label in 2025 and remixing ‘The Sky Below’ from Jody Wisternoff’s ‘Welcome To My World’ Album, the talented Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, DJ, producer, and visual artist Maty Owl delivers the ‘Green & Blue EP’, his most ambitious project to date on Anjunadeep Explorations.
Anjunadeep Explorations was one of my favourite labels of 2025, consistently delivering a diverse range of progressive, deep and melodic house grooves combined with uplifting breaks and electronica from amazing artists such as Quivver, Mike Rish, Tom Middleton and M.O.S. to name a few. Maty picks up the baton to bring us 3 great tracks to that tick all of the usual boxes to kick off 2026 with style.
The title track ‘Green & Blue’ is a groovy 4/4 affair that draws you in with its sumptuous deep bassline, haunting vocals and quirky acid tweeks that leads to a floaty uplifting break down. Next up we have ‘Suddenly Present’ which is probably my favourite track from the EP. Here Maty employs another awesome bassline, this time sitting alongside some tasty broken beats and a healthy dose of acid tweeks. To bring the EP to a close we have ‘Falling Leaves’, which is a deep haunting atmospheric tune, perfect for those earlier sets to set the mood.
Three fantastic production’s here from Maty Owl!
9/10 – Kenton Slash Demon – Max (Tripolism Remix) [Future Classic]
Danish Duo Kenton Slash Demon return to Australian label Future Classic with their first new music of the year with the awesome ‘Max’. Kenton Slash Demon’s original which came out in November is a very cool, emotive, balearic-tinged groover with an incredible vocal that steadily builds in energy.
With a distinct nod to Copenhagen’s vibrant electronic scene, we are lucky to have fellow Copenhagen trio Tripolism deliver an outstanding remix of ‘Max’. Tripolism’s remix pushes this dreamy dance floor cut further into club territory, the trio lay down a deep hypnotic groove alongside some crisp percussion, building the tension with some lovely synth work, while preserving its floaty ethereal feel, courtesy of the fanatic vocal.
Tripolism’s remix is definitely one for fans of deep pulsating rhythms to check out. This diverse tune will sound great on a large system and fits both a dark club or open terrace vibe equally. Quality Stuff!
9/10 – Larrosa, Nico Sparvieri, SACK, Flor Pavone – Euphoria EP [Last Night On Earth]
For a long time now Argentina has been seen by many to be at the forefront of the emerging progressive sound, with an array of talented DJ’s and producers shaping the scene and pushing the sound forward. Matias Larrosa, Nico Sparvieri, and Nahuel Sack AKA Larrosa (AR), Nico Sparvieri and SACK (AR), have certainly been fuelling this notion of late.
The talented Argentine trio have been in fine form of late, combining to deliver some fantastic music on some quality labels such as Selador, Sudbeat and Nightcolours, here they join forces with Flor Pavone to create the two track ‘Euphoria’ EP on Sasha’s Last Night On Earth imprint.
The title track ‘Euphoria’ is an almost delicate but majestic tune that has been expertly crafted to deliver a hypnotic groove with shimmering synths and layered vocals that float atop the mix, to provide a refined euphoric feeling. ‘Interstellar’ follows a similar blueprint to the title track, but with a more bass heavy feel, here the team produce a suspense filled tune suited to a deeper feeling dance floor.
8/10 – Noel Sanger – Again [Dissident]
Dissident label founder Noel Sanger is back to kick off 2026 with a giant slab of dark yet melodic and uplifting progressive breaks. Fresh from his recent quality remix of Abstrakt.Digital’s ‘Shadow’ (also on Dissident – reviewed in issue 49) and one of my favourite tunes of 2025 the awesome bootleg remix of the Sasha and John Digweed Renaissance classic – Hysterix’ ‘Talk To Me’, Noel serves up one of his own original productions.
With ‘Again’ Noel delivers a classy slice of progressive breaks action that employs a deep heavy bassline, twisted vocals, layered with deep melodic textures that are underpinned by funky broken beats. We are also given a instrumental version of the mix which strips back the vocals giving the track a more eerie atmospheric feel.
This is another quality release from Dissident and hopefully a flavour of things to come from the label in 2026 and a must for Progressive Breaks fans.