Dr. Banana

Dr. Banana in the Mixmag Lab London is the audio equivalent of a lucky dip bag from a record shop's 'weird' section—and we mean that as the highest compliment. It’s for when you want your house music served with a side of raised eyebrow and a knowing wink. The lab feels like a late-night experiment where BPMs are suggestions and genres are blurry.

Technically, it's a steady 130.7 BPM groove, heavily favoring the vibrant, open key of 12A across five tracks. The energy profile is fascinatingly low-dominant at 0.7324, with mids at 0.2496 handling the melodic work and highs almost nonexistent at 0.007—this is a deep, sub-bass focused affair that prioritizes feel over flash. The mixing is clever and playful, stitching together disparate sounds with a tech house sensibility. The crate digging is where the fun lies: Ridney's 'At Night' opens with a sleek, driving rhythm, while the inclusion of Gigi D'Agostino's 'Bla Bla Bla' is a glorious, campy left-turn.

The Todd Edwards dub of 'Accident' is a masterstroke of UK garage texture, and hearing Rank 1's trance anthem 'Airwave' recontextualized here is the kind of genre-bending we live for. Demarkus Lewis's 'Body Tonic' and Beni White & Nick Cambell's 'Pods' provide the solid, loopy house foundation. The 36-minute marathon of 'Ruthless' shows a commitment to the groove. The journey from the nocturnal thrust of the opening track to the skippy, soulful closure of the Todd Edwards dub is a brilliantly unpredictable ride through house, garage, and beyond in this Mixmag Lab London live set.