Six emerging artists you need to hear: February 2026

“It’s a huge privilege to be trusted with a crowd’s musical journey for the hour-plus I’m playing, and not one I take lightly,” says Jay Carder. Since making her start in music through radio over a decade ago, she’s built that trust through her dedication to the art of DJing, her far-ranging selections, and her obvious passion — “The only thing I love more than music is talking about it,” she says. The way she speaks about DJing reveals the level of care she puts into each set. “I think there can be a really happy medium between playing for yourself and for the crowd,” she says. “There’s a super sweet spot where people are locked in, and you can play the weirdest, most unexpected curveball and it’ll go off, and I’m always aiming to reach this. On the way there, I’d say it’s more about the crowd; once you’ve arrived, it’s about you too, and you’re all in the ride together.”

Across her work as a DJ, producer and co-owner of the Erbium label, Carder has avoided being boxed in by genre. “I know the basics of what I like: groove, sub and clean percussion,” she explains. “If I had to crowbar preferences into musical phraseology, I’d say my sound comprises bright melodies contrasted with dark/heavy bass, with a healthy dose of glitches and ‘ear-worms’.” This means you could hear wobbly bass bangers woven into dusty d&b, warehouse-ready techno, cutting-edge dubstep and a thousand other threads, all tailored to the time and location. “A friend recently described my sound as ‘from the forest’, which I really like — it depicts it as moody and deep, kind of organic, always moving and developing. Ultimately I play music that makes me feel something, and I think that translates across in the dance. We’re all human at the end of the day.”

This approach continues through Erbium Records, the label she co-runs with Dadenii and Oliver Green. “From Erbium’s very inception, we never defined a genre — more a feeling/a mood,” explains Carder. “Erbium is a metal in the periodic table, which is kind of silvery-white and dissolves in acid. We liked this as an image to inspire our artists, and it’s led to a really interesting and diverse sonic palette from ambient to jungle, unified by a cohesive musical and stylistic identity.” Though the whole catalogue is worth exploring, 2025’s ‘Reactions Vol. 3’ is an ideal taster, ultra-fidgety cuts like Manami’s ‘Kaleido’ and Steel Traxx ‘Primed’ sitting naturally alongside the spaced-out dub of SPD’s ‘Control’ and plenty of more traditionally club-oriented 4/4 and breaksy fare.

Carder’s own productions have arrived via labels like Obligated, Neighbourhood and Faux Poly, the latter the home of her 2022 breakthrough track, rubbery techno groover ‘Eva’s Stoned’. Having spent much of the past year in the studio, she’s got a wealth of new music lined up for 2026, including an EP with good friend SMIFF (check out an exclusive clip via the DJ Mag socials), tracks with OneOneOne, Beatrice M., and Danvers, for Ghosttown Records Munich, and that long-awaited Faux Poly follow-up EP. BEN HINDLE

For fans of: Darwin, Beatrice M., Peverelist