This issue of Ignition Sequence is brought to you in partnership with Blast Box: The World's Smallest Broadcast Studio

In Ignition Sequence a guest artist picks five records and explains every one of them in their own words. This edition runs to ten, because there are two guests. Nana Koloda and Sayhelooo run the Sunrise 8 label out of Kyiv together, and rather than split one list between them they took five each. Carl Cox tops hers. Apparat tops his.

Anyway, commencing countdown…

Nana Koloda is a Ukrainian artist, DJ and composer based in Kyiv. She came to electronic music from professional dance, and her own SoundCloud profile still leads with it: "I am a professional dancer, but I have been involved with music from childhood." Her first records landed in 2022, on GOTTA RCRDS and Yeiskomp Abyss. 'Independent' followed on Italy's Beenoise Records.

Sayhelooo is the alias of Dmytro Snizhko. He has spent over twenty years writing music for film, advertising and interactive media across Ukraine and Europe, which is a longer run at composition than most producers get before they go near a club record.

The pair set up Sunrise 8 in 2024 and it is where their own work now goes. Kyiv is not new ground for us either: Andrey Sirotkin made 'Nothing Behind the Words' in the same city.

'Lift Him Up' is SUNRISE8005, which tells you how busy the two of them have kept their own label. It came out in 2026. Here is what they say about it: "We believe that music has the power to awaken the light within every listener. Through our music, we want to share what lives in our hearts and express the emotions and message that words alone cannot convey. The title track of our EP, 'Lift Him Up', perfectly captures the spirit, energy, and vision that define the entire release."

Grab it from Beatport.

Five each, counting down.

Stavroz started in 2011 as a pair, IJsbrand De Wilde and Gert Beazar, both of them DJs and sound engineers. Maxim Helincks and Pieter De Meester came in for the live shows and stayed for the studio. Their first vinyl, on Délicieuse Records, went to the top of Hype Machine. 'In Mindibu' comes off the 'Mindibu' album, out on Ghent label Moodfamily in 2022.

Nana Koloda: "Maybe this is an unexpected choice, but the depth and dramaturgy built into this track kept me hooked from the very first second all the way to the last.

"The way the sounds are chosen and placed together is beautiful, I absolutely love it. You can really hear when a musician has spent a lot of time searching for exactly the right sound they wanted.

"A very deep and beautiful track."

Stavroz keep it on Bandcamp.

Hever Jara is from Medellín and has been releasing records since 2009. He has signed to Nervous Records, Glasgow Underground, Cartel Recordings and Tiger Records, among others, and he has been named Colombia's best house DJ and producer at the Culture Dance Awards. 'Cameo' is an afro house record made with Steve Aguirre for the SwitchLab strand of Switch Records in 2021. The two of them have 'Borneo' together as well.

Nana Koloda: "Deep groove, ethnic elements, simply wow. I've already used this track in my own mixes. It's incredibly captivating."

Straight from SwitchLab on Beatport.

ARTBAT are from Kyiv, same as Nana. Artur Kryvenko and Vitaliy Limarenko have worked as a pair since 2014. They started the UPPERGROUND label in 2021 and 'Horizon' went out on it that same year. They took the DJ Award for Breakthrough Artist in 2019. Their first BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix came in 2023.

Nana Koloda: "This track is magnetic. It holds you without overwhelming you. I would call it a very intimate track. Minimalistic and incredibly well crafted."

UPPERGROUND sell it through Beatport.

'Redlight' sits on 'Paradise Again', the Swedish House Mafia album that SSA Recording and Republic Records put out in 2022. The voice Nana is talking about is Sting, singing an interpolation of 'Roxanne', the song he wrote for The Police. Worth clocking before you scroll: Sting turns up on her number one as well, on the same album 'No Boundaries' came from.

Nana Koloda: "From the very first second, this track draws you into the space where the groove lives. I love its tight, punchy groove, it's so beautifully produced that you simply can't sit still.

"And I have to mention the breakdown. It's such an unexpected moment when a legend suddenly appears with his beautiful, instantly recognizable voice. I absolutely love this track."

The single is up on Beatport.

Nana mentions the orchestral parts. Worakls has an actual orchestra. He is Kevin Rodrigues, a Paris producer who started piano at three and went through a conservatory before he touched electronics, and he tours with a twenty-piece band called the Worakls Orchestra. 'No Boundaries' was the first single off his 2025 album 'From One Blink to Another'. Carl Cox has form on the live side too: he set up Awesome Soundwave with Christopher Coe in 2018, a label built for artists who play rather than mix.

Nana Koloda: "The title says it all: 'No Boundaries'. And these guys really showed what that means with this track. I love the groove and the sound of the drum machine, it's incredibly stylish. But the heart of the track is the orchestral parts. They really touch the soul."

Get your drop at Beatport.

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Nico Morano is a Belgian producer and he has run Ontourage Music since 2020. 'Juno Love' went out on it in 2023, one of the tracks he built with the singer MeWhy for the 'Opposite Minds' album. A Santiago Garcia remix followed.

Sayhelooo: "Atmospheric and effortlessly immersive, this track draws you into its own world. I love the beautiful mixing and the way all the elements come together so naturally."

Pick it up from Ontourage Music on Beatport.

'Innerbloom' closes RÜFÜS DU SOL's 'Bloom', out on Sweat It Out! in 2016. Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George and James Hunt wrote and produced it between them, and it runs past nine minutes. It went platinum in Australia. Sasha remixed it, and that version took Record of the Year at the Electronic Music Awards in 2017.

Sayhelooo: "The sound of the analog synthesizers is incredible. And, of course, there is the harmony and melody that really touch the heart, combined with the remarkably precise and unusual bass sound. Everything feels carefully balanced, yet deeply emotional. It's one of those tracks where every sound seems to have a reason to be there."

The whole album is on Bandcamp.

&ME is André Boadu, one quarter of Berlin's Keinemusik alongside Adam Port, Rampa and Reznik. He had already put 'The Rapture Pt.II' out on the label on his own. 'The Rapture Pt.III' arrived on Keinemusik in 2023 with Black Coffee on it. Black Coffee is Nkosinathi Maphumulo, and his 'Subconsciously' was the first album by an African artist to take the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

Sayhelooo: "It grabs you instantly with its hypnotic groove, harmony and that fantastic hook built around the rising lead. You gradually sink into a kind of melancholic trance. I love how the track creates such a strong emotional pull without needing to be overly complex."

Beatport for the download.

'Emerald Rush' was the record that announced 'Singularity', the Jon Hopkins album Domino put out in 2018. It went to number nine on the UK album chart and topped both the dance and independent lists. It also picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

Sayhelooo: "An incredible track, masterfully crafted around those strange, syncopated rhythms. It takes me somewhere very deep emotionally, almost painfully so, and makes me think about the nature and structure of the world around us. There is something almost philosophical in the way the rhythm and sound constantly pull you forward."

Domino have 'Singularity' on Bandcamp.

Apparat is Sascha Ring, born in Quedlinburg in what was then East Germany. He co-founded Shitkatapult with Marco Haas around the turn of the century, and he is half of Moderat with Modeselektor. 'Escape' sits on 'The Devil's Walk', which Mute released in 2011. The album takes its name from a political poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Sayhelooo: "When I first heard this track, I fell in love with the sound of its synthesizers. It literally brought me to tears. The harmony, the dramaturgy, the emotional depth, it was a revelation for me. It showed me how much emotion could be conveyed through electronic sound. At the time, I was working exclusively with 'live' music, so this track opened up a completely new world for me."

Clamp onto yours at Bandcamp.

Number seven in the bag. Massive thanks to Nana Koloda and Sayhelooo for handing over two lists instead of one, and for explaining every last pick rather than just naming them. Every record has a store link attached, so go and spend something.

The next Ignition Sequence comes from DJ Honesty. Lisbon based, and there is a Bandcamp page there deep enough to lose an afternoon in.

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