I fucking hate February. It’s the worst possible month, the god-awful dregs of eastern American winter, when everything’s all grey and slush-slicked and all you can do is bear down in your freezing hell of a bedroom and hope spring comes quick and painless. I do a lot of staring at walls in February. A lot of wishing I lived on, like, Easter Island.

So I’m ditching the barren standards this month. Minimal, EBM, chilly German techno—you’re too depressing for February’s blizzard central. We need heat. Lots of it. Sunburns and bikini tops and filthy breakdowns and bass so heavy, it feels like middle earth. We need anything dub-inspired, sounds all echoing and atmospheric, and here’s the silver lining, I guess: February is the no-fail excuse for zoning out to a bunch of warm, summery jams. I mean, what else is there to do aside from check and recheck the 15-day forecast, waiting for the mercury to skyrocket up to 60? ‘Cause I’m not sure that’s the healthiest hobby. Not that I know from experience or anything.

Tek-One – Broken String [H.E.N.C.H.]

Hot-as-fuck UK dirty dub-tech from the second sampler of the first H.E.N.C.H. mixtape. I actually gravitated toward Komonazmuk’s rad A-side “You Fo”” but immediately abandoned it once “Broken String” slammed into the drop at second 55. Wait for it.

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Spektrum – Freakbox (Richie Hawtin’s Uncontrollable Edit) [BPitch Control]

Hawtin’s simmering thunderstorm makes everything else on Seth Troxler’s mixtape sound like a piddly little rain shower–and we’re not talking ho-hum stuff here. Boogie Bytes Vol. 5 also includes a pseudo-disco Fever Ray remix and a new Kiki jam, but they barely stand up to so much heat-soaked, organic noise. Perfect.

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Deadbeat – Vampire Dub [Echocord]

The totally chill  B-side to Deadbeat’s Vampire EP that not only instantly squashed my February blues but also regenerated some sort of subconscious vampire obsession, because this next track…

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Distance – V (Pinch Remix) [Chestplate]

…is from an EP called Twilight. Awesome. Moving on.

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Audion – I Am The Car [Spectral]

The Push/I Am The Car limited-run white label is the supposed caboose to Matthew Dear’s 2009 bullet-train of Audion singles—and sad as I am to see it pass, at least it’s going out with this lusty, sultry, 90-degree summer night of a track.

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The Knife – Colouring of Pigeons (DAI Remix)

If the lead single from the Knife’s Darwin-inspired opera was a chilly, early spring, then this first remix (at least the first I’ve heard) is its impending heat wave. DAI takes “Colouring of Pigeons” from aloof to totally in-your-face without ever sacrificing the Dreijers’ signature creepshow, and it seriously makes me pine for a full Tomorrow, In A Year remix album. Someone? Please?

- Rue Sauvage