Everybody could use something to look forward to these days, right? How about Flying Lotus plus African samurais, mechs, and magic?

This year has kicked off with a renewed conversation about tuning in electronic music. Khyam Allami has helped ignite that interest with free online browser tools anyone can explore, plus performances showcasing them – and has been outspoken about the philosophy behind them and why they matter. Here’s a deep dive into that work.

Online festivals have often made us miss physical meetings even more, but Apotome at CTM Festival was a real bright spot of the past year. A long-running creation of composer/researcher Khyam Allami in collaboration with creative studio Counterpoint, it became a tool to explore and a platform for collaboration and expression.

For every person cut off from their vocation, their livelihood, their reason to go to work, in any industry – it’s been a tough year. But if you need some dancefloor sounds to remind you what those can sound like, today there’s a surprising bumper crop of releases.

You can’t keep a Two Voice down. The 1975 classic saw a modern reissue by its original creator a few years back. And now it’s back in production again, while also marking the return of the beloved Oberheim badge.

Beatport DJ is a browser-based tool that combines finding music with mixing it right away. It is definitely where the company’s LINK subscription is going. And we’ve got a first look at the interface – plus what it might mean for anyone making and releasing music (and what’s missing so far).

Independently, musicians are proving capable of banding together and exchanging networks, artist to artist. For the second time in a year, the Syrphe platform is hosting a rapid-response compilation call to action – this time for Myanmar.

Disclosure: I hate demos. Hate watching them. Hate doing them. Now, technically, this is a demo. But… uh, wow.

Meet the Dataton 3000. The creation of Sweden’s Björn Sandlund, it sports a unique, friendly modular designed for educational use – and at one point, was recommended to be used in every music school. That history was lost, but this teaching-friendly design might just have been ahead of its time.

Visualists and audiovisualists, rejoice. A major rabbit hole of 3D eye candy is now free for both Unreal and Unity.