Some months are defined by discovering completely new sounds. Others remind us just how much room still exists inside sounds we already know.
September gave us plenty of both.
Veterans like SLANDER and PhaseOne found new ways to attack bass music from opposite ends of the spectrum. VKTM and Calcium continued pushing the details of modern dubstep forward, while Odd Mob gave the dancefloor some much-needed melody. Elsewhere, INFEKT and SampliFire turned their increasingly powerful live chemistry into one of the month’s strongest trench projects, while Black Tiger Sex Machine continued expanding a creative universe that reaches far beyond music alone.
As always, Tempo Setter 7 is unranked. These aren’t necessarily the seven biggest songs of September. They’re simply seven releases that kept finding their way back into our rotation.
SLANDER & Nejvex – “Booster Ignition”
Released September 25 via Gud Vibrations
What can we even say about SLANDER at this point?
For the better part of the last decade, the duo has operated comfortably at the mainstage level while balancing two seemingly opposite sides of its identity. There is the emotional songwriting, soaring vocals and melodic bass that SLANDER has become famous for, and then there is the side that is perfectly willing to get downright nasty.
“Booster Ignition” lives firmly on that second side.
The collaboration also comes with a great full-circle story. Nejvex was originally selected by SLANDER as a winner of their ICON Collective scholarship program. The Czech producer later relocated to Los Angeles, continued working alongside the duo and eventually arrived here: officially sharing the artist line with SLANDER on a Gud Vibrations release.
Musically, the track feels completely in tune with where the grittier side of bass music stands in 2026. Sci-fi atmosphere gives way to guttural subs, sharp rhythmic clap-fills, laser-like textures and the kind of violent stop-start movement that has taken a serious hold over modern riddim and dubstep.
And yet it still feels enormous in that distinctly SLANDER way.
They may be known for making crowds cry, but “Booster Ignition” is another reminder that SLANDER still knows exactly how to make those same crowds start throwing elbows.
VKTM – “UNMATCHED”
Released September 2026
The trench and riddim movement has produced plenty of artists capable of making an aggressive drop.
What separates VKTM is how much attention he gives to everything surrounding it.
“UNMATCHED” had already become a live favorite after VKTM debuted it as his Lost Lands 2025 intro. Since then, his rise has continued through projects like The Masquerade, the AMALGAMATION run alongside MAD DUBZ and a growing reputation as one of the names helping define this current generation of riddim.
But what makes “UNMATCHED” work for us isn’t simply how hard it hits.
VKTM has become especially good at constructing riddim tracks like actual songs. There are call-and-response sections, recurring ideas that almost function like hooks and drops that begin with force before naturally blending back toward the central musical idea.
Then comes the brass.
A trumpet-like motif cuts through crisp drums, bubbling rhythms and punchy low end, giving the record an unexpectedly sophisticated character without sacrificing anything that makes it useful in front of thousands of fans ready to lose themselves in a crowd.
Even as the sound design becomes increasingly aggressive, the composition underneath it remains deliberate.
VKTM isn’t simply making riddim louder.
He’s finding increasingly musical ways to structure it.
Odd Mob & FAST BOY – “Super High”
Released September 17 via October Records
It wouldn’t quite feel like Tempo Setter 7 without a house record capable of convincing us to disappear onto a dancefloor for a few hours.
September’s answer is “Super High.”
Australian producer Odd Mob has spent years becoming one of the recognizable names in modern house music, while his recent creative direction has increasingly allowed melody to take a larger role inside the club-focused production style he’s developed.
Working alongside German duo FAST BOY, “Super High” gives that melodic side plenty of room to breathe while still maintaining enough low-end bounce to work exactly where a house record needs to work. The single officially arrived September 17 through October Records.
What stands out most is the atmosphere.
“Super High” oozes nighttime charisma.
It carries the kind of euphoric feeling associated with wandering through a city covered in lights, surrounded by friends and operating under the unreasonable confidence that absolutely nothing could go wrong tonight.
The groove keeps it grounded, but the melody gives it somewhere to go.
Sometimes house music doesn’t need to reinvent itself.
Sometimes it just needs to make the night feel better.
This was one of the most fun tracks in our rotation this month.
INFEKT, SampliFire & SHIVERZ – “F WHAT U HEARD”
Released September 11 via Port Zero
The rise of INFEKT is a story built on persistence.
After beginning production at an extremely young age, the German producer has steadily developed into one of the most recognizable names in riddim and trench. More recently, SampliFire has increasingly become part of that story, with the pair building a collaborative identity that now extends from individual releases into major B2B appearances.
That chemistry finally received a full project with September’s six-track CLOCKWORK EP.
And “F WHAT U HEARD” might capture the personality of the entire EP better than anything else on it.
INFEKT brings the meticulous construction. Every rhythmic movement feels carefully placed, with the sort of strange, calculated sound choices that have long made his music immediately identifiable.
SampliFire provides the violence.
His production has become synonymous with crushing bass design and enormous impact, and when that weight meets INFEKT’s more meticulous approach, the result feels simultaneously controlled and completely destructive.
Then SHIVERZ walks into the room.
His vocal presence feels almost second nature to trench and riddim culture at this point. Hearing his voice cut through a record like this immediately establishes the environment before the bass has even finished doing the talking.
That combination makes “F WHAT U HEARD” feel like a concentrated version of CLOCKWORK: nasty chops, carefully constructed rhythms, abrupt switches and low-end pressure designed to leave very little standing.
The timing couldn’t have been better either. INFEKT and SampliFire brought their collaborative sound to a featured B2B at Lost Lands shortly after the EP’s arrival, further reinforcing just how central the pairing has become to modern trench.
Black Tiger Sex Machine & EDDIE – “Matrix”
Released September 25 via Kannibalen Records
“Matrix” was one of our favorite releases of September.
Part of that comes from how clean and creative the production is.
The other part comes from how vividly you can see the song.
Black Tiger Sex Machine has spent years turning its identity into something far larger than three producers standing behind decks. The OMEN live experience has expanded into its own fictional world and even a physical manga project, complete with characters and lore extending beyond the music itself.
That kind of visual imagination bleeds directly into “Matrix.”
The song opens in an ominous environment, with organ-like synths creating a dark sense of scale before everything begins accelerating toward the drop. When it finally arrives, the production moves into razor-edged bass territory before eventually pivoting toward a more trap-influenced second section.
EDDIE is almost the perfect partner for that world.
“Matrix” marks the fourth collaboration between BTSM and EDDIE, following “Bounce,” “Switchblade” and “The Pit.” EDDIE’s darker, highly detailed low-end production fits naturally beside BTSM’s cinematic instincts.
The finished product feels ominous, gory and strangely immersive.
With Black Tiger Sex Machine, you rarely hear only a song.
You can almost visualize the scene taking place while it plays.
This was one of our favorites of the month.
PhaseOne – “Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites (PhaseOne Remake)”
Released September 10 via Sounds of Mayhem
There are some electronic records that almost feel dangerous to touch.
Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” is one of them.
The original helped define an entire era of bass music, which means taking it apart more than fifteen years later comes with a pretty obvious question:
What could you possibly add?
PhaseOne has a legitimate answer.
The Australian producer built his identity around combining metal and electronic music. He came from metal before discovering EDM around 2010 and eventually began smashing the two together, building a sound where heavy riffs, aggressive percussion and metal-influenced arrangements coexist with dubstep drops.
So this isn’t simply another producer giving a classic track bigger bass.
PhaseOne injects the song with the musical language that has defined his entire career.
The familiar ideas remain recognizable, but traditional-sounding percussion, distorted textures, guitar influence and the aggression of a metal arrangement change the context surrounding them.
Appropriately, the official release is labeled the PhaseOne Remake, and it arrived September 10 through Sounds of Mayhem.
There is something fitting about an artist whose career grew from the bass explosion of the early 2010s eventually getting the opportunity to reinterpret one of that era’s defining records.
Sixteen years later, “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” sounds angry all over again.
Calcium, LIU KANG & Dekerakt – “In My Head”
Released September 25 via Bassweight Records
The word that immediately comes to mind with Calcium is intricacy.
There is heavy bass music that feels complicated simply because everything is happening at once.
Then there are producers who make complicated ideas feel intentional.
Calcium increasingly belongs in that second category.
“In My Head,” created alongside LIU KANG and featuring Dekerakt, feels almost divided into two separate environments.
The first drop arrives loaded with electricity and immediate energy. Sounds fire back and forth through the arrangement, but nothing feels arbitrarily placed. Every movement seems to occupy a deliberate role inside the larger construction.
Then the second drop changes the entire world.
The aggression begins melting into something more melodic and futuristic. Bass textures ooze through the headphones while the arrangement opens around them, giving the track an unexpectedly emotional and spacious dimension without making it feel disconnected from everything that came before.
That is where Calcium becomes particularly interesting.
When discussing producers like Subtronics or Skrillex, one quality that frequently rises above genre is their ability to make an enormous number of tiny sonic decisions feel coherent.
Calcium appears increasingly interested in that same pursuit of detail.
Not simply finding heavier sounds, but understanding where every sound belongs, what it contributes and when it needs to disappear.
“In My Head” might be one of the clearest examples yet.
The collaboration officially arrived September 25 through Bassweight Records.
Seven Tracks, One Scene That Refuses to Sit Still
September’s selections show just how many different interpretations of bass music can exist at the same time.
SLANDER leaned into violence. VKTM showed how musical riddim composition can become. Odd Mob gave the dancefloor space for melody. INFEKT and SampliFire condensed the personality of an entire trench project into one record, with SHIVERZ providing a voice immediately familiar to the culture surrounding it.
Black Tiger Sex Machine turned sound design into something practically visual. PhaseOne reached backward into dubstep history and rebuilt a classic through the language of metal. And Calcium closed our list by showing just how detailed and unpredictable modern bass production can become.
Different generations.
Different subgenres.
Different definitions of what makes a song hit.
The common thread remains simple:
We wanted to hear them again.
What September release stayed in your rotation?
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