Martinou
Always There
Nous’klaer
2025 will be remembered by some as the year that tech house became cool again (or at least ceased to be embarrassing), but it was also a year in which progressive house became completely normalized among even the snobbiest dance music heads. Truth be told, a lot of what’s marketed as tech house could rightly be described as prog, and vice-versa, but the genre tags ultimately matter a lot less than the fact that chuggy rhythms and celestial, widescreen melodies can now routinely be heard on dancefloors around the globe. Always There, the latest EP from Swedish producer Martinou, fits right into that aesthetic, and though it’s not specifically being sold as tech house or prog—the Nous’klaer label has opted for “dream-inducing dance tracks”—its patient drums and shimmering synths evoke memories of early James Holden and the cosmic ’90s journeys piloted by Sasha & Digweed. Exuding peace and pleasure in equal measure, it’s bumping enough for a moonlight nature rave and kaleidoscopic enough for a night of lying flat and melting into a puddle of dopamine-rich goo.