Radar Vol. 1: Eight Names Moving the Groove Right Now

Radar is the column where we name names. Not a most-streamed list, not a poll. These are producers whose records keep surfacing in our sets and in the sets of the people we trust, and who are at the point in their arc where you should know them before the festival posters do. Eight, for the first one, grouped by the lane they're cutting.

The UK deep-tech wave

Wheats. If you want one name for where the hypnotic, groove-first end of UK house is going, it's this one. Discovered by Kerri Chandler at eighteen, Wheats has built a catalogue on Hottrax, Kaluki, Circus, Solid Grooves and Hot Creations, and runs his own label, BOX RED, which has already put several tracks at the top of the minimal/deep-tech charts. He's played DC10, Amnesia, Creamfields, BPM. The sound is rolling, stripped, patient: records built to sit in the middle of a long set rather than detonate at the front of a short one. Exactly our register.

Murphy's Law. Brothers Sonny and Finn Murphy out of Leicester, raised in their dad's studio on grime and dubstep before raves pulled them into tech house. Groove and soul up front, UK garage threaded through it. Releases on Ministry of Sound, Kaluki, Deeperfect and Bamboleo, three Beatport number-ones, regular Radio 1 play, and backing from Carola, Capriati, Jamie Jones and Patrick Topping. In early 2025 they launched their own label, Lawless, with a four-city UK tour and a ten-track compilation, the move of a duo building infrastructure, not just chasing singles. Their hometown Full House parties are the kind of grassroots operation we recognise instantly.

RSquared. The most on-the-nose name on this list, for us: Ryan and Rory, who met at university in Bournemouth and built their sound, by their own account, on Music On and Paradise plus a love of disco and funk. That lineage is audible. Sharp percussion, rolling drums, the occasional disco sample done right. Their track "Fantasy" on Defected has racked up millions of streams, and they've already played Paco Osuna's Now Here showcase. Tipped widely for a breakout 2026, and we'd agree.

The groove, from Italy

Cyava. Home advantage, and earned. An Italian DJ and producer working the line between tech house and minimal, always groove-led. Carola, Capriati, the Martinez Brothers and Paco Osuna all play his stuff; his edits of "Around" and "Cola" travelled fast across the scene, and Deeperfect put out a Cyava Artist Series sample pack, a quiet signal that the genre's producers want his drums in their own tracks. He co-founded and co-directs the label Famillia Recordings. He's played Hï, Eden and Tantra in Ibiza and Nook in Bucharest. The kind of Italian artist who proves the groove doesn't only come from London or Buenos Aires.

Spain, peak time

Angel Heredia. A different lane, and worth being honest about it. Heredia, out of Málaga, is a high-volume, peak-time machine: hundreds of releases, a permanent fixture in the Beatport tech house charts, his own label KoBBoK, and a festival CV that runs through Elrow and Dreambeach. This is the funkier, harder-hitting, Latin-tinged end of the spectrum, built for big-room energy more than the slow burn. We're watching him because he's one of the most consistent engines of that sound in Spain, and because knowing the peak-time end keeps your read on the whole genre honest.

Where UK meets Barcelona

Goosey. Manchester-raised, Barcelona-based, and on a steep climb. Releases on Hot Creations, Paradise and Kaluki, a number-one on Hot Creations with "Funky Shit," and support from Jamie Jones, the Martinez Brothers, Michael Bibi and Carola. 2025 was his breakout year on paper: a Creamfields debut on the Paradise stage, a main-room set at UNVRS, and a first US tour including ARC in Chicago. He sits right on the line between underground credibility and festival-ready, the interesting place to watch a young artist navigate.

Latin tech, from Peru

Chinonegro. From Chiclayo, Peru, and one of the clearest examples of how far the Latin American underground now reaches. He's released on Damian Lazarus's Crosstown Rebels, on Kaluki, on Deeperfect, on Steve Lawler's VIVA, on Chus & Ceballos's Stereo Productions, and plays Elrow Chile, Lost Beach, Bahrein in Buenos Aires. The sound carries the percussive, hip-driven groove that the "Latin tech" tag was invented to describe. Proof that the most exciting movement in this music isn't always coming from the obvious capitals.

The crossover

Chico Rose. The outlier, named because the crossover is part of the story. A Dutch producer who came up in the big-festival EDM world (work with Tiësto, Hardwell and Afrojack, sets at Ultra and Tomorrowland) and who has turned toward tech house, building his own imprint, Story Starters. He's the most commercial name here, sitting where festival production meets the groove, and that's exactly why he's on the radar: he's a clean read on where the mainstream is pulling the sound from above, the same current we track in SIGNAL. Watch him to understand the pressure on the genre's pop end.

What links them

Two things. First, look at who keeps appearing as a supporter across these very different artists: Marco Carola, again and again. The Music On ecosystem is still the gravitational centre of this sound, which is the whole reason it gets its own RESIDENT piece this month. Second, the groove is being pushed from everywhere at once (a Leicester studio, a Barcelona flat, a label in Peru, a festival stage in the Netherlands) and that's healthy. Our job isn't to crown one lane. It's to book the rooms where you can actually hear the difference between them.

Next volume, eight more. Send us records.