I Like to Smoke in Silence After Raves
I spent about four months choosing and rearranging these 30 tracks until the mix felt right.
I rave, I produce, I DJ.
My DJ mixes.
Club music, experimental electronic, breaks, grime and techno connected into long-form sets without genre borders.
I lost so many weekends raving and I wanna lose some more
I rebuilt this mix about ten times, swapping tracks and second-guessing transitions. In the end, it became around 40 tracks I love, moving through breaks, garage, dubstep, grime, techno and more. For your walk home, cleaning your room or the afters, of course.
Original tracks and other experiments.
Breakbeat, bass, garage, jungle and experimental electronic tracks, built from scratch in a DAW. I do not use generative AI in music.
Original electronic music by thecatrave
Breakbeat, garage, jungle, techno and melancholic electronic music.
Breakbeat and electronic music archive
Sketches and original productions from my SoundCloud.
Records and playlists I keep close.
Breaks, UK garage, jungle, ambient and leftfield club music I return to and build from.
Notes from the underground.
Long-form articles about the sounds, scenes, technology and communities behind underground club culture.
Rave spots~11 min readBest Nightclubs in the World: 20 Clubs From DJ Mag's 2026 Top 100
The best nightclubs in the world by region, from Ibiza and Berlin to Brazil, Miami and Tokyo, with DJ Mag ranks, sizes and sets to hear.
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Music history~8 min read90s Rave Music: The Records, Scenes and Laws That Shaped It
British hardcore, Belgian techno, Dutch gabber and the law that went after repetitive beats, with a record to hear for each.
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Festivals~14 min readBest Electronic Music Festivals in Europe 2027, Compared
Fourteen major festivals and seven smaller ones, from Tomorrowland to Garbicz, compared by sound, scale, setting and 2027 dates.
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Digging~7 min readHouse Music Classics: 10 Classic House Songs to Hear
Ten classic house songs in order, from Inner City and Lil Louis to Stardust and Kings of Tomorrow, nine with a player and one fact each.
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Digging~8 min readBest Trance Tracks of All Time: 12 Records to Hear
Twelve trance records from 1993 to 2012 with release years, UK chart peaks and a player for each, from Café del Mar to Concrete Angel.
Read article →Digging~11 min readWhy the DJ Mag Top 100 Barely Changes
Five DJs in the top ten of every poll since 2015: the table, how the vote works, what campaigning is allowed and who the poll misses.
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Digging~5 min readBest Electronic Albums of All Time
Sixteen electronic albums picked from three published rankings, with the year, the label and where each one places.
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Digging~6 min readBest Techno Tracks: Nine Records That Built the Sound
Nine techno records grouped by scene with a player each, from No UFO's in 1985 to Doppler in 2021.
Read article →About thecatrave.
My taste comes from Eastern European melancholy, German electronic music and the restless energy of UK bass, from jungle and drum and bass to garage and hardcore. I started with Eurodance as a kid, then got obsessed with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, The Future Sound of London and Meat Beat Manifesto, alongside West Coast rap. Jungle and drum and bass led me to Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Photek, Source Direct and 4hero, while Sade, Seal and Sting taught me that melody and atmosphere matter as much as drums.
My tracks and DJ sets move through breakbeat, bass, club music, experimental electronic, breaks and rave, with elements of grime and techno. I do not stay inside one genre, and I am always looking for connections between rhythms, scenes and eras.
I make music for pre-parties, clubs, raves and afters, but also for walking alone or sitting on a balcony with a cigarette and thinking about life.