[The following is my contribution to Burn Your Hits 2025 💌]

Mattmosphere is the artist I listened to most on SoundCloud this year. I know almost nothing about him. The name itself feels earnestly, maybe even defiantly, uncool (though it can't be that uncool if Mattmosphere lives in Berlin). I came across his work while listening to a syndicated mix from the only other SoundCloud sets I reliably return to, Montagssorbet, which I've written about in past years. This wasn't an algorithmic accident. I followed a thread from one account to another by hand, a small but oddly satisfying act of intention.

With that self-conscious preamble out of the way, here's the truth: Mattmosphere's mixes are the shea butter to my long-gone dreadlocks. I had no business wearing my hair like that, and I have no business listening to something this groovy anymore. Still, at 1 a.m., fried by a coding assignment and out of ideas, I'll put on a set and start dancing like I've dissolved into a crowd. Somehow, it works just as well on bright Sunday mornings, or during family dinners, or whenever you need the room to loosen up a bit. Pick any mix - there will be at least one - and let it run.