Kassian
Overtone III
Unknown to the Unknown
Overtone III doesn’t have a grand narrative, and the group who made it, Kassian, consists of a couple of relatively unassuming guys from London. And that’s why this record is likely to be overlooked. Dance music—and, frankly, pretty much all music these days—is living through a moment when the lore around a new release is far more likely to generate conversation (and draw attention) than the actual tracks on offer. It’s a ridiculous situation, particularly in the context of music that’s been specifically designed for the dancefloor, and while it’s prompted many of Kassian’s contemporaries to spend less time in the studio and more time developing an online persona, the duo themselves have stayed the course.
What does that course entail? On the most basic level, it involves making banging club tracks. (The duo’s stylistically varied 2025 debut LP, Channels, was something of an exception, but given that they followed it up just a few months later with Channels: Remixed, an album-length collection of their own dancefloor-focused reworks, it’s not hard to suss out where their priorities really lie.) Across releases on labels like !K7, Phonica, Shall Not Fade, Heist and their own Faux Poly imprint, Kassian have demonstrated a consistent ability to take distinctly UK sounds (e.g. garage, dubstep, etc.) and infuse them with unabashedly big-room-ready sonics.
Bass—both in the sense of actual basslines and the nebulous genre of “bass music”—has always been a major part of Kassian’s DNA, but it’s fair to say that Overtone III just might be their most low-end-heavy release to date. “Break Cycle,” for instance, employs a menacing wobble that periodically divebombs its way through the proceedings, but it’s been paired with bubbly garage shuffle. The UKG template also colors both “Ritz” and “Acid Blue,” both of which are littered with rubbery and rambunctious basslines. EP closer “X-Mod,” however, switches up the script, delivering a feverishly percolating, high-intensity tune that borrows equally from wormhole techno and the days when Rinse FM was still a pirate radio station. Much like the rest of Overtone III, it’s teeming with life and energy, the work of artists who’ve mastered the art of hitting hard without dumbing things down.