Select Frequency #2

Your weekly dose of carefully curated chaos

This is Select Frequency, a recurring series where we at gatekeep! pick 10 songs we recommend. These can come from any year, any scene, any language - it’s whatever we want to share. For my turn, I decided to pick some 2025 songs that I’ve really enjoyed. There are a couple songs on here that aren’t on Spotify, so the playlist has as much as possible, but you can listen to anything here on the non-Spotify embeds provided. Genre wise, we’re working more in my typical wheelhouse (dance, hip-hop, pop, r&b, misc. electronica and the edges around all those), so if you’re really into guitars, this might not be your favorite entry. This list is best suited for those of you who like to dance, cry, love, and doomscroll to noises that come from computers.

1. dexter in the newsagent - “Special”

2. Ninajirachi - “iPod Touch”

3. OSSX - “TALK IS CHEAP”

4. salute - “Saving Flowers” (Hudson Mohawke Remix)

5. Slikback - “Sea”

6. Smerz - “Dreams”

7. Squadda B - “Freedom Ain’t Free”

8. Vĩ - “Sóng thần”

9. Wishy - “Portal”

10. yeule - “Dudu”

dexter in the newsagent - “Special”

single // 2025 // r&b - pop

Anyone reading this is probably very familiar with the addicting rush of finding a new artist that scratches a musical itch you didn’t know you had. This was my experience with “Special,” a song so beautiful I immediately replayed it at least five times and went digging through her full discography, which I definitely recommend. But this is the best starting point, with lyrics that feel like falling for someone, unrequited love, and heartbreak, all at the same time, delivered by a wonderful, understated voice and some of the prettiest production I’ve ever heard. A sparkly delight and an easy front runner for song of the year.

Ninajirachi - “iPod Touch”

from I Love My Computer // 2025 (upcoming) // electro house - pop

On paper, the early 2010s nostalgia that absolutely drenches this song seems like it would end up somewhere between meaningless and irritating. But somehow, it works. It doesn’t feel like being dragged back to a flawed and very problematic era that is predictably being heralded as the good old days, but instead exists on its own as a fun little melody with a great drop that has an honest chance of becoming a summer anthem for fans of “girl EDM,” and it just happens that its killer hook is full of references to a bygone era. By the end, if you’re a certain age, you might just find yourself longing for Notes screenshots on main and Cut The Rope under the desk.

OSSX - “TALK IS CHEAP”

from WORLD KEEPS TURNING // 2025 // jersey club - baltimore club

As far as I can tell, OSSX pretty much do one thing - great Jersey club tracks that have a high reliance on samples and an even higher standard of quality. Every project is a must-listen for fans of the genre (or adjacent genres), and their first full-length album, May’s WORLD KEEPS TURNING, sticks to the gameplan. “TALK IS CHEAP” is the opener, and as the title implies, it uses elements from an absolutely classic disco track about practicing what you preach, bringing a fresh framework to the authenticity anthem. Play it once, hell, play the whole album. You can’t go wrong.

salute - “Saving Flowers” (Hudson Mohawke Remix)

from TRUE MAGIC, DELUXE // 2025 // house - garage

“Saving Flowers” was already one of the best songs of 2024, a blast of a garage track that breathes raw energy. Here, Hudson Mohawke reworks it in his signature (yet unpredictable) style, creating a remix that is equal parts bizarre, breathy, excited, and dynamic. If salute and Rina Sawayama’s original hyped-up semi-constant chorus is a highway, this twists that vital road into more of a mountain range, valleys of dizzy ambience building into booming drops that earn every bit of the preceding acceleration.

Slikback - “Sea”

from Data // 2025 // deconstructed club - industrial

First off, this is the best production this year, bar none. Breathtakingly crisp, intensely dark, and almost nauseatingly heavy, it’s simultaneously exactly what I want to hear and nothing I’ve ever quite heard before. Sound design isn’t everything, and it’s not all that’s appealing here, either, with a thrilling dynamic between the threatening introduction, the devastating drops, and the gorgeous bridge. This is a producer in his prime proving his mettle via the recently resurrected Tempa label, and somehow managing to outperform everything else they released in 2025 despite their 100% hit rate for pushing the future of dance music itself. It’s hard to even believe.

Smerz - “Dreams”

from Big city life // 2025 // pop - ambient

Surreal and emotive, “Dreams” is the best step so far in indie/pop/r&b/etc. duo Smerz’s continued attempts to normalize the strange edges of popular songwriting and production. Their music has always felt a bit off, with a difficult and obscured thoroughline of edge, irony, perhaps even nihilism. Fans of the guarded and sparse music of Dean Blunt and Tirzah will likely enjoy working their way through their discography, but this track in particular deserves a blanket recommendation. It’s a little heartbreaking, a little distant, and brings life to a still, like a reserved friend opening up for a moment.

Squadda B - “Freedom Ain’t Free”

from The Wonderful World of Squadda B // 2025 // cloud rap

Squadda B has been underrated for his whole career. After a brief boost in popularity in the early 2010s as one half of the brilliant cloud rap duo Main Attrakionz, he’s continued to drop great music consistently. As both a producer and rapper, he has stayed true to himself and his style while expanding what that means. His latest solo project, the first since signing with Bruiser Brigade Records, fuses Detroit with his native Oakland, working brilliantly with everyone from Danny Brown to Ryan Hemsworth to Zeloopers. But the fully Squadda track “Freedom Ain’t Free” is my favorite, because it’s just so him - humble lyrics rapped over a complicated yet understated beat that gets a moment to shine with an extended outro.

Vĩ - “Sóng thần”

from Vĩ // 2025 (upcoming) // art pop - ambient

Foreboding, developing, and furious, “Sóng thần” is certainly not Vĩ’s first time putting these feelings on record, as her last two projects (highly recommended!) each had their fair share of frustration and admonition. But this is the most direct, the most focused on that feeling. As much as it works on its own as dark, ambient, string-filled art pop, this doesn’t feel so much like just an angry song - instead, it’s a warning. I’m beyond excited to watch justice play out with the upcoming Vi.

Wishy - “Portal”

from Planet Popstar // 2025 // shoegaze - indie pop

Wishy’s dreamy music is something that’s easy to recommend for just about anyone. They stand in that spot between shoegaze and indie pop, fun, smooth, and worth paying attention to. Their latest is Planet Popstar (yes, another Kirby reference), a B-sides EP from the great 2024 album Triple Seven, and “Portal” is the clear highlight. It’s all gentle haze and clouds until a backspin introduces new melodies that layer and build until it all ends exactly when it should, leaving you begging for more.

yeule - “Dudu”

from Evangelical Girl is a Gun // 2025 // alt pop - electronica

Unrequited love is probably a theme of art as old as art itself, one of the most universal and frustratingly unsolvable human griefs. With “Dudu,” yeule takes a simple singsong repetition of their cats name and layers it over everything that means to them. Searching through their own experiences and then probing deeper into the harm, distance, destruction and confusion that act as both causes and results, this is a melody that will stick with you and to you like a crush, whether you like it or not.