Every year throws up a handful of tracks that transcend the DJ sets they were born in and become something bigger — anthems, touchstones, the songs that make strangers lock eyes across a dark room. 2025 was no different.
Here are five records that defined the underground techno landscape this year.
VTSS continued her relentless ascent with Circuits, a seven-minute masterclass in tension and release. The track builds around a skeletal kick pattern and a warped vocal sample that sounds like it's being transmitted from another dimension. When the sub-bass finally drops at the four-minute mark, it hits like a freight train. Essential peak-time material.
The French producer's gift for melancholy-meets-mayhem was on full display here. A mournful synth line — almost cinematic in its sadness — sits atop a punishing kick drum, creating something that's simultaneously beautiful and brutal. It became the unofficial closer at half the festivals we attended this summer.
Our own Kara Voss delivered one of the year's most hypnotic cuts. Submerge is patient, dubby, and impossibly deep — a track that rewards the DJs brave enough to let it breathe across a full eight minutes. The way those delay-drenched chords dissolve into the kick pattern is pure craftsmanship.
Hard, fast, and unapologetic. SPFDJ stripped techno back to its barest essentials here — a distorted kick, a frantic hi-hat pattern, and just enough acid to make your teeth clench. Not for the faint-hearted, but absolutely perfect at 4am.
The German selector proved once again that you don't need complexity to make people move. Pressure Point is built around a single, devastating bass tone and a relentless groove that refuses to let up. Functional, purposeful, devastating.
Plenty more where these came from — keep your ears open in 2026. And if you want to hear all five in context, check out NØRA's year-end mix on our Mixcloud, where she weaves them into a two-hour set that captures the spirit of the year perfectly.
