After the bacchanalian feast that was Fluo V, a label-wide celebration of the maximalist energy set deep in Kindergarten's DNA, the imprint returns to its well-trodden split EP format, the clearest distillation of the label's collaborative spirit. On "Final Drive," new ground is broken as Sobolik and georg-i release music together for the first time. Born of longstanding mutual admiration and a budding friendship between the two artists, this project's story began when the internet pen pals met for the first time at a London studio to form the initial ideas for these tracks. Both artists already had a sizable body of collaborative works, and had been fans of each other for several years, trading dubs for touchstone sets at Honcho Campout and Feudal Festival. Their styles slotted together seamlessly, while their contrasting creative temperaments, Sobolik's haphazard flair and georg-i's frenetic precision, fused alchemically as they pushed the music forward in the ensuing months. The resulting tunes are propulsive, intense club tracks with a refreshing embrace of hefty bass-drops. "Forced Induction" pairs insistent, rhythmic synths with big, stompy bass and drums while buried vocal chops and secondary melodies worm their way around the soundscape. "Overtorqued" starts in glassier space, building in intensity around distorted horn sounds before slamming home a huge morphing bassline, stalagmite stabs and a pummelling beat. Higher frequencies make way for the nostril-rattling drum charge as the track progresses before a yearning lead melody folds back into the mix. A proper "let's have it" dancefloor moment at full throttle. Their individual tracks offer a kind of map key for discerning which ideas and elements may have come from who. With "Surface Tension" georg-i leans into a trancy sound palette and a nervous, staccato energy. Filters roll over the mix in a satisfying dance with squelchy, almost tactile, sound design ooze into every corner of the track. Sobolik's "Short Shift", on the other hand, is a big bompty stepper with a blown-out and somehow jaunty bassline, chimes and bells ringing around an illegible robotic vocal sample like a corrupted answer machine message and a recurring swelling of bright light that threatens to swallow up the track. When this falls away at the bass drop's satisfying thwack, the various flourishes shimmer and dance around each other in a mechanical ballet. A meeting of minds and ears to satisfy the cerebral and the somatic in equal measure.

5 years after the New York label launched into the uncertain world of the COVID pandemic, Kindergartens place in the New York landscape is secured. Today, the label releases its most laser-focused collection of tracks to mark the anniversary, punctuating a deep catalogue of heaters that have pushed a unique take on bass music marked by a fervent futurism and scattergun rhythmic flourish. Kindergarten has acted as a nursery of creativity for a core crew of artists discovered through physical proximity and online connection alike, and always through shared appreciation for tough and ready dancefloor sounds and genuine friendship. Fitting then, that every one of the Kindergarten alumni returns with quintessential rhythmic intricacy and head-spinning quirk, reaching for what now feel like classic Kindergarten touchpoints. Whether its knotty, muscular techno (Zipper, Tidal Bore, Lips Loose), weapons-grade sound-design (FBchord, Blah), somersaulting 160 (Mushin, splattertek, Dash You) or gnarled nods to trance (rAin, Aether Wounds, what the body does) the essence of Kindergarten is here in all its amorphic glory. Helmed by a queer woman amid the traditionally cishet and hypermasculine bass music milieu, Kindergarten helped pioneer these sounds in a city that had yet to fully adopt them as its own. Inclusivity and a family feel is at the heart of the label: witness any of Kindergartens monthly mega b2bs on The Lot Radio and you can feel how much fun the crew have playing together and how freely ideas bounce around. As ever, these tracks are bound by the same wild abandon at their core. Five years is a long time in club music, and its no easy feat to build a catalogue of music and a tight-knit community of people, all with disparate influences, and remain committed to experimentation and play while the results retain a crystallized identity. But listen to any of the eleven tracks in here and you will know what makes a Kindergarten record.

5 years after the New York label launched into the uncertain world of the COVID pandemic, Kindergartens place in the New York landscape is secured. Today, the label releases its most laser-focused collection of tracks to mark the anniversary, punctuating a deep catalogue of heaters that have pushed a unique take on bass music marked by a fervent futurism and scattergun rhythmic flourish. Kindergarten has acted as a nursery of creativity for a core crew of artists discovered through physical proximity and online connection alike, and always through shared appreciation for tough and ready dancefloor sounds and genuine friendship. Fitting then, that every one of the Kindergarten alumni returns with quintessential rhythmic intricacy and head-spinning quirk, reaching for what now feel like classic Kindergarten touchpoints. Whether its knotty, muscular techno (Zipper, Tidal Bore, Lips Loose), weapons-grade sound-design (FBchord, Blah), somersaulting 160 (Mushin, splattertek, Dash You) or gnarled nods to trance (rAin, Aether Wounds, what the body does) the essence of Kindergarten is here in all its amorphic glory. Helmed by a queer woman amid the traditionally cishet and hypermasculine bass music milieu, Kindergarten helped pioneer these sounds in a city that had yet to fully adopt them as its own. Inclusivity and a family feel is at the heart of the label: witness any of Kindergartens monthly mega b2bs on The Lot Radio and you can feel how much fun the crew have playing together and how freely ideas bounce around. As ever, these tracks are bound by the same wild abandon at their core. Five years is a long time in club music, and its no easy feat to build a catalogue of music and a tight-knit community of people, all with disparate influences, and remain committed to experimentation and play while the results retain a crystallized identity. But listen to any of the eleven tracks in here and you will know what makes a Kindergarten record.