James Bangura - The Angst (2026)

The next instalment in Tartelet's DANCEMPORIUM series welcomes Washington DC powerhouse James Bangura with a sprightly dose of positively charged, groove-oriented techno.

Through his own productions and as one third of Black Rave Culture, James Bangura has been on an unstoppable rise since first coming into view for the wider raving public around 2020. Steeped in the Black lineage of the musical language he speaks, his output deals in cultural messaging as much as compelling club music. His approach to techno is tangibly rooted in the tradition of his forebears in Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere, and equally imbued with the particular lilt of his surroundings in Washington DC with its own particular streak of groove and melodic sensibility.

Crucially, Bangura takes these traditions and presses forwards with them, creating invigorating variations in the process.

That's precisely what we get as Bangura graces DANCEMPORIUM with a fresh clutch of workouts written between trips to Brooklyn and slow days at home in DC, leading with the open skies salutation of 'The Angst (Tension Mix)'. The insistent bump of the unrelenting drum machine pattern and restrained nature of the lead melodic elements maintains an undertone of anticipation throughout the track. 'Woven Delay' leads with a pressure-cooker drum arrangement that serves as a perfect vessel for intricately layered, dub-soaked melodic exploration pitched towards the deep end of the dance.

There are similarly immersive, energising currents coursing through every corner of this six-track EP, stopping by 'D4X' with its rippling shards of synthesis, the heads-down thump of 'Macro Economics' and the exquisitely sculpted, hyper-kinetic lead lines snaking through 'Tempered'. The 'Release Mix' of 'The Angst' rounds the EP off with a dreamy flourish of swinging sonar blips and subliminal chord sweeps shaping out a deep-diving soundscape that shows Bangura's world-building at its best.

Out October 23, The Angst EP will be available on all digital platforms and as an exclusive lathe-cut vinyl edition, limited to just 30 hand-numbered copies.