A warm welcome to the thirty-third edition of Club Bizarre. I wanted to change things up for this edition, in part as an accompaniment to @k👠th ’s excellent honouring of Female & Non-Binary Producers earlier this year but I was also struck by this idea for a theme when I was visiting an exhibition at the V&A in Dundee a few years ago that looked at the history of dance music and club culture.. In the 2020s we have seen Black and queer artists like FKA twigs, Sudan Archives and Amaarae among others reclaim and reshape the narrative and visibility of dance music genres like house and techno, which although widely celebrated and grown by these communities, were later heavily commercialised, with these important origins either erased or ignored.

So, to change this and round out 2025, we pump up the volume and pay tribute to the queer and Black artists who shaped club culture and electronic music as we know it. From the pioneers of Chicago house and Detroit techno through the UK’s 1990s melting pot of experimentalism that led to drum and bass and UK garage, to today’s boundary-pushing creatives, influencing the beats, the clubs, the culture, and the freedom that the dancefloor represents.

This is your opportunity to share some of your favourite bangers, hidden gems and iconic artists, that honour this legacy.

The scope is as wide as possible - no dance/electronica genres are excluded, from any time, as long as the track was created by a Black or queer artist then it can be shared. Let’s celebrate and discover together the artists, producers, DJs and vocalists whose work reshaped dance culture worldwide as we know it!

RULES: The lead artist of your entry must either be by a Black or queer producer/singer. The genre must fall under the dance/electronic umbrella. Try not to be a cheap hoe by sending something well-known or in the Doctor Blind chart. The objective of the contest is to discover new music. Uninspired or well known entries may be vetoed by moderators. This remains a strictly anonymous contest. Please do not reveal your entry.

Confirmations will close at 23:59 on Friday, 5 December 2025. Click the banner to confiirrrrrm. ❤️

thought I found a big hit but upon further investigation it is an untagged remix of an Ariana album track agh

the search continues..

I presume there's no restriction on whether it charted or not? (providing that it isn't too well known obviously)

Oop I completely missed this thread until just now! Nice theme choice.

10 minutes ago, Mangø said:

I presume there's no restriction on whether it charted or not? (providing that it isn't too well known obviously)

I think in general top 10 hits are prohibited but anything that charted lower should be fair game as long as it's not very well known indeed.

🫣

I don't know what I am doing!!!

Like everything I know and love, to me it seems like they're going to be well too known etc. etc.

Edited Saturday at 05:433 days by Addy!

I’ve just went with something on a whim but tell me why I already found so many choices, at this rate I might have found a few contenders for BJSC next year 😅

I've gone with a track I've been loving for a few years now

I had a hunt around and found something to enter.

I'm struggling with this one.

Is the "created by" in the scope important? For example if the track was written/produced by a straight white man but performed by a queer black woman, would that be acceptable?

Edited Sunday at 22:401 day by Mangø

finally feeling OK with my choice...I just hope it's not taken!!!

Ooh I just saw this, good thing I did with just a few days left as it would be nice to re-enter this after so long. (I had a hit of some cute nostalgia looking at my old entries in the archive 🥲)

I already have a few interesting artists in mind for this but I think I'm gonna have to take some time before the deadline to re-listen to some of their albums as I'm unsure which artist to choose, not to mention which song! Please someone nudge me if I still haven't confirmed by the end of Thursday or so. (That would give me one more day)

@Nine And ¾ also wished to be nudged for some of the song contests - here you go! 😊

Had to go all the way back to the second song chronologically on my potentials playlist to find a suitable entry for this. One I'd been umming and ahhing about sending to a contest a few times previously so here's the time!

17 hours ago, Mangø said:

I'm struggling with this one.

Is the "created by" in the scope important? For example if the track was written/produced by a straight white man but performed by a queer black woman, would that be acceptable?

Absolutely, I think that would be fine, so long as they are the lead artist and it still fits within the broad themes otherwise- I'll defer to the mods to make the final decision but I would be ok with it (I wanted to keep this contest as open and inclusive as possible). :)

4 hours ago, matto said:

Ooh I just saw this, good thing I did with just a few days left as it would be nice to re-enter this after so long. (I had a hit of some cute nostalgia looking at my old entries in the archive 🥲)

I already have a few interesting artists in mind for this but I think I'm gonna have to take some time before the deadline to re-listen to some of their albums as I'm unsure which artist to choose, not to mention which song! Please someone nudge me if I still haven't confirmed by the end of Thursday or so. (That would give me one more day)

@Nine And ¾ also wished to be nudged for some of the song contests - here you go! 😊

You'd ofc be very welcome Mattias, don't stress too much about the hard deadline as I'll be at work on both Friday and Saturday, and so with that and the BJSC semi results I expect there won't be any rush to get the voting thread underway, so feel free to take your time and send whenever you feel happy. Great to see you back on the site btw. Remember we had some good chats during the lockdowns x