In Strict Tempo, vol. 100: Some Predictions for 2026
Hello. Happy New Year! It’s not too late to say that is it? Anyway, I hope you all had lovely festive breaks, and wild/calm New Years Eves depending on your desires. Me? Mine was nice thanks, saw lots of family and friends, caught a chest infection, eat and drunk way too much. New Years resolutions? Not really - try and get out a bit more I guess, thirteen months of working exclusively from home has taken a bit of a toll on me, so that’s something I’m gonna try and change.
Anyway, lots has gone on since the last In Strict Tempo, so let’s have a brief catch-up before I make some guesses at what might happen in the upcoming year.
It kind of passed me by, but the end of 2025 marked the end of the first quarter-century since the new Millennium. That’s kind of mad when you look at it, in December 1999 I’d not long left school, and was working in a DIY shop, I couldn’t drive, couldn’t drink (legally) and really had no idea how things were gonna pan out from there. To mark it a few of the dance music publications did “tracks of the century” type lists, I’ve already briefly mentioned the Quietus’ list, but RA and Mixmag added to the festivities with their own selections. I was kinda proud to see that I’d had a hand in (one way or another, label or distro-wise) in three of their top 25, not that I would take any credit for it. I thought about doing my own list, but you can probably guess a lot of it (Top 3: Transition, Marionette, Two Months Off).
Some sad news over Xmas in that Phonica’s Nick Williams lost his battle with cancer. I doubt there’s many people reading this that haven’t bought records off Nick at some point. We weren’t close, but I’ve bought plenty of records from him and always found him a helpful and knowledgable person to deal with. Love to his family and friends.
The big news you probably saw was that an activist group have scraped Spotify and managed to extract terabytes of data including audio, artwork & metadata. I guess in theory anyone could use that to build their own free (and obviously unlicensed) streaming service, albeit one that doesn’t feature anything released after July 2025. I suppose the point was to show they could, rather than to actually do anything meaningful with the assets. Who’s going to store that much stuff on a HD? More interesting was their admission that they only managed to archive around 37% of audio files from the service, but that those 37% accounted for something like 97% of streams on the platform. So much stuff on DSPs just doesn’t get listened to, and with the growth of AI that’s only going to increase.
This newsletter marks the 100th edition of In Strict Tempo, which is pretty amazing when I think about it. I did a gratuitous back-slapping post just before the break so I won’t bang on about it, but I’m looking forward to seeing what 2026 holds for the newsletter. I’ve already got some nice mixes lined up for the Ceremony series.
Anyway, enough of that - onto the main subject. 2026. What’s gonna happen, what’s not? I might well be wrong about all of this, and a lot of it is probably wishful thinking, but hey ho…
The Streaming Discourse Will Continue
Of course it will. If I’m honest, I’m trying to use Apple Music a bit more this year, but Spotify is still the main player in the streaming landscape for good or ill. I can see a ‘big’ artist (or two) removing their catalogue from streaming DSPs (not just Spotify) this year, but I don’t think that’ll be enough to move the dial completely. That said, I think there’s a future away from streaming, but I don’t think it’ll happen this year. Last year saw some interesting start-ups come out of the woodwork, but I’m not sure any of them are just right, right now. The biggest problem we face is the public’s general apathy towards music, something you could say is a symptom of the streaming era and algorithims only playing us what we like. What’s the point in discovering new music when all of our favourites are just a click (or voice request) away?
Scenes Will Start To Compartmentalise
Whatever does eventually challenge the main DSPs probably won’t be a full catalogue ‘all-you-can-eat’ type service, but something aimed more at individual scenes and genres. Like it or not, the subscription economy is hear to stay, so whatever does come about needs to have a really good value proposition to 1) pay artists and labels fairly and 2) be cheap enough to be an add-on to the full catalogue services. There’s a way to figure this out, I’m sure of it, and whoever does will be on to a winner, but we need to remember, we don’t need to build a new Spotify, we need to build a new digital record shop, with curation at the forefront.
Independence Will Disappear…
It’s no secret that lots of independent labels and distribution companies have been bought up by the majors, or at least major-affiliated firms. More Indies will go this way in 2026, as the Industry doubles down on catalogue acquisition.
But Independents Will Grow
But down at the grassroots level, truly, genuinely exciting music will continue to be made. Communities will foster, scenes will grow. New artists will release music, new labels will start, new club nights will crop up, even though it’s really fucking tough out there. It’s not all doom and gloom.
We’ll See Something Really Original
What was the last truly new music movement? Dubstep? PC Music/Hyper-pop? It’s been some time since something new broke through, something like we’ve never heard before. I don’t know where it’s gonna come from, I don’t know what it’s gonna sound like, but I live in hope.
AI Will Continue to Dominate Our Feeds
And it will continue to be really, really shit.
New Music
A few bits that have caught my ear recently
Daniel Lopatin - Marty Supreme OST [A24]
Here’s a hot take: film scores only work in the context of the film you’re watching. I can’t think of a single one - possibly with the exception of Blade Runner - that I’d listen to separately. Anyway, I’ve no interest in this film, no interest in it’s soundtrack, and no interest in matey pretending to be a Scouse rapper or whatever he is.
Shackleton - Crushing Realities [AD93]
Label of the moment AD93 call on Shackleton to deliver a typically weighty slice of murk in advance of a new album coming later this year.
Monolake - Hong Kong (Reissued)
Basically Ground Zero for Dub Techno. Reissued in a limited yellow vinyl edition by Boomkat
The Other People Place - Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe [Warp]
Regularly voted as one of the best electronic albums of the 2000’s, it was out of print for years before Warp reissued it a decade or so ago. If you missed it then, get it now.
Old Saw - The Wringing Cloth [Lobby Art Editions]
When I eventually retreat to a cabin in the woods to see out my days in a hermit-like existence this will be the only kind of stuff I’ll listen to. Could easily be from the 1920’s as much as the 2020’s. I don’t know much about this but it’s not left the speakers since I first heard it.
Field Commander Ali - She Was Picking Flowers [World of Echo]
World of Echo dip back into the rich vein of the Aussie underground with this lo-fi treat. Straight Outta New South Wales, this’ll be one of those records that captures your soul.
James Pants - Night Guard [Not on Label]
Cassette only release of unreleased beats and pieces from US producer/beatmaker/multi-instrumentalist James Pants. We’ve not heard much from him in a while, so to get a new mixtape (lovingly mixed by the Cologne via Amsterdam duo of TBZ & Pissflaps) is a real treat. Available via Rush Hour and other good record shops!
