The dance floor doesn't rest, and neither does the music shaping it. As 2026 gets underway, the underground is delivering something more interesting than another wave of festival-ready bangers. The artists generating real momentum right now are the ones building genuine bodies of work, deepening collaborations across borders, and refusing to stay in one sonic lane. From Chicago bass to Munich cinemas to the ambient highlands of Australia, these five artists are operating with intention. =
Joyce Muniz
Few careers carry as much accumulated depth as Joyce Muniz's. Born in Brazil, raised in Vienna, now splitting her time between both cities and Berlin, she has spent two decades building credibility across every corner of electronic music culture. She held a five-year residency on Rinse FM UK. She became the first woman to join Germany's Synth Live orchestral project. She survived cancer in her early 30s and returned to music with renewed clarity, a rebirth rooted in her grandfather's shamanic traditions that continues to inform everything she makes.
In 2023, her album Zeitkapsel on her own Joyce Muniz Music imprint showed she could command a full narrative across a record. Her Kompakt debut with Sara Bluma, "Beats & Lines," locked up the number one spot on Beatport's Indie Dance chart for several weeks, proving her instincts translate commercially without compromise. Now, 2026 opens with the Freeze / Quiero Tu Amor EP on Kompakt, a cross-cultural partnership with Mexico City producer ANDRE VII and Chilean vocalist Alejandro Paz that bridges Latin American underground culture through three cities and three distinct musical histories.
"26 feels like a year where different paths connect," she says. "I feel less guarded, more willing to let new influences in." With sessions already recorded alongside Brazilian percussionist Chris Monteiro and a collaboration with Italy's Musumeci in the works, she means it.
Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud
BRUX
BRUX has spent years earning a reputation as one of the more formidable names in deconstructed club music. The Australian-born, New York-based producer and vocalist has released on Future Classic, Fool's Gold, and Warp's Lucky Me imprint, collaborated with Kimbra, Danny Brown, and Baauer. Her 2025 CA$HED UP EP on Lucky Me was another sharp chapter in that story, and she opened for Fred again.. across all all three weekends of his 6 show USB002 New York residency, the only artist appearing on each weekend.
But Halcyon Phase, her debut ambient album out via Sources, reveals a dimension of her work that most people haven't seen yet. The seven-track record began as personal sketches made in isolation during 2020 in Australia's Blue Mountains, then developed quietly over the years as everything else changed around it. Mixed and mastered by Damian Taylor, who has worked with Bjork, The Prodigy, and Arcade Fire, it pulls from field recordings, classical elements, whirring synth textures, and her own vocals. The resulting album moves from stillness to full emotional swell without forcing anything.
"These tracks started as little sketches during a really still, reflective period of my life," she says, "and I kept coming back to them over the years as everything else changed around me." A limited vinyl pressing and a series of intimate New York shows accompany the release. This is not a pivot. It's an expansion.
Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud | Stream Halcyon Phase
Mia Mendi
What makes Mia Mendi genuinely interesting is that they've built two parallel institutions alongside their artist project, and both are thriving. James Oliver and Meti Mehmeti launched their label Hydera in 2020 with the debut release "Cultum," which immediately saw charting success. Four years later, they launched Species with fellow artist widerberg, a platform that functions as both label and event series, curating boundary-pushing talent and staging immersive shows worldwide.
The duo operates with a clear internal logic. James commands the stage with what can only be described as physical commitment to the set, while Meti works deeper in the production space, crafting the kind of forward-thinking sound design that's earned support from Solomun, ARTBAT, Tale of Us, Anyma, and Dom Dolla, among others. Recent stages include Soho Garden Dubai, ZERO-SITE Tokyo, and NSCI Dome Mumbai.
Their latest release, "Angel Wings" with Skuro, is out via Solomun's Diynamic imprint as part of the Four To The Floor 47 compilation. Built around a bright melodic hook and a stripped-back arrangement, it's designed for that specific late-night moment when a room full of people settle into the same rhythm without being told to. "It's the kind of record that works when people are meeting in the middle of the night," they explain, and it does exactly that.
Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud | Beatport
Ian Snow
Chicago built Ian Snow for something bigger. The producer and multi-instrumentalist spent years developing his sound under the alias Snowmass before removing the helmet and stepping into his own name with a harder, more deliberate sonic vision. What he makes now sits at the intersection of freeform bass, unconventional dubstep, and melodic heaviness that holds emotional weight without softening its edges. He writes his own lyrics and serves as creative director across every facet of his project, and it shows.
His 2025 was genuinely strong. "Ice Waves" on SLANDER's Heaven Sent earned him spots in Billboard and DJ Mag Brasil. "Sub Zero" on Jauz's Bite This! landed him the cover of SoundCloud's LEVEL UP playlist. Direct support slots alongside Buku and a spot on JAENGA's Dream Machine Tour brought his music to A-market rooms. His mix series The Avalanche continues to build a dedicated listener base outside of the festival context.
2026 opens with a remix of "Vision" by Ravenscoon and Luminyst, now live on Spotify and SoundCloud, and a headline at TK Lounge in Tampa on January 30 before a run of confirmed dates supporting Buku. Major festival appearances are pending announcement. He's performing at boutique favorites like Deep Tropics and Same Same But Different, where discerning crowds reward artists who show up with something to say. Ian Snow has plenty.
Instagram | Spotify | SoundCloud
Touring
Touring is not a DJ act. The German trio comprising musicians Matthias Hauck and Nepomuk Heller alongside director Marko Roth builds live electronic music around spatial thinking that most producers never consider. Their debut show "Thermal" at Munich's Deutsches Museum established the concept: electronic music as total environment, where sound and physical space are inseparable. Their follow-up performance at the Munich Philharmonic took it further, placing the audience on stage inside a custom light installation that moved in real time with the music. The room itself became part of the performance.
Touring is not a DJ act. The German trio comprising musicians Matthias Hauck and Nepomuk Heller alongside director Marko Roth builds live electronic music around spatial thinking that most producers never consider. Their debut show "Thermal" at Munich's Deutsches Museum established the concept: electronic music as total environment, where sound and physical space are inseparable. Their follow-up performance at the Munich Philharmonic took it further, placing the audience on stage inside a custom light installation that moved in real time with the music. The room itself became part of the performance.
Their visual identity operates with the same precision. Using Xbox Kinect technology with human models, Touring creates visuals that feel both technically advanced and humanly warm, a combination that mirrors the music itself. Breakbeats and cinematic synths share space with genuine emotional weight, groove without coldness, and momentum without losing depth.
Their upcoming EP Tangled is the next chapter in that vision. The 2026 singles "Home" featuring BJOERN, and most recently "Trenches" already point toward where they're headed, anchoring hypnotic hooks to production that holds you without holding you still. Touring's path doesn't follow the typical electronic music trajectory, no obvious festival circuit grooming, no genre consolidation. What they're doing is stranger and more interesting than that.
