24 Tips for 2024: 23/24 – Cousin

Australian producer Cousin is the cat’s whiskers

Sydney-based producer Cousin – real name Jackson Fester – certainly upped his game in 2023, dropping a succession of excellent EPs, but those in the know reckon there’s even more spectacular stuff on the way in 2024.

He may be a little publicity shy – as photos like this prove – but take it from us, he makes music every bit as brooding and filled with suspense as that look in his cat’s eye.

It’s a style that’s loosely referred to as the ‘Dozzy scene’, after the Italian producer Donato Dozzy, as you may have guessed. But its practitioners specialise in a style of techno that’s less reliant on the thump of a four-to-the-floor kick and more on churning, throbbing basslines and echoing dub techniques. It’s dancefloor, definitely, but not in the way you know, and although it’s more vertical than horizontal it owes a touch of its unique combination of flavours to the high-as-a-kite world of ambience.

The latest Cousin offering was a joint project with Priori for the wonderfully named Canadian label Naff – they are nothing of the sort of course – but all his work is original,worth checking and packed with uniquely crafted momentum. Keep ’em peeled for more in the next few months.