Artists exciting us in 2025 / December

Asia's underground scene continues to flourish, a testament to its boundless creativity and ever-expanding influence.

With a treasure trove of talent scattered across the region and its diaspora, we’re thrilled to keep discovering fresh faces that might not be on your radar...yet.

In the spirit of sharing, Mixmag Asia will be featuring a number of arguably under-the-radar artists who are currently making exciting noise in—and freshly out of—their respective scenes.

Get ready to mark those calendars and upgrade those playlists; you’ll thank us later.

Adrianna blends her visual design background with sharp musical intuition, crafting sets that are smooth, hypnotic, and quietly powerful, until they suddenly hit with raw intensity. Her sound runs deep and trancey, layered with airy textures and surprise turns, moving effortlessly between deep and industrial techno, breaks, minimal bass, and electro. There’s a natural balance in her selections—equal parts soothing and chaotic—that pulls dancers into a restless headspace. Fast becoming a standout name across Asia and beyond, Adrianna has echoed her sonic identity everywhere from Tokyo to Venice, Seoul to Brussels. More recently, she closed for Dave Clarke at an official Clockenflap afters. She also co-founded the Hong Kong underground collective Goldway, which is entering its fourth year. What’s got her excited for 2026? A first-ever all-night set at 宀 Club in February.

A standout presence in Bangkok’s underground, Jirus has built a rep for sets that fuse dark, deep, bouncy and luminous sounds into warped, brain-tickling sonic journeys. As a member of the More Rice collective that spans record label, record store and event platform, alongside the Detour crew, plus being a regular force at Bar Temp, he plays an active role in shaping and supporting the city’s (and region’s) electronic music ecosystem. His experience runs deep, with performances across key venues across the country, as well as shared bills with artists including Roza Terenzi, Binh, Priori and diskonnected. Following notable appearances at Wonderfruit 2023’s Catch428 stage and opening The Quarry this year in a setting perfectly matched to his sound, Jirus is clearly past “one to watch” territory and firmly on a trajectory that points well beyond Thailand.

Many are surely familiar with Daytimers; the South Asian diaspora–rooted collective that has made waves across radio takeovers, festival stages, album releases and multidisciplinary projects. One of its key figures is Rohan Rakhit, whose work consistently uplifts South Asian and other marginalised creative voices across dancefloors, radio and talk-based platforms. Based in London, Rakhit is a resident on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM, with shows on NTS and Rinse FM, and appearances at Glastonbury, Brainchild, Wonderfruit and beyond. He’s fresh off a month-long Asia tour across India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, where we got a taste of his fluid, globally informed set—blending percussive club music, broken beat, house and jazz. Next, he turns his focus to curating a stage at the prestigious Brick Lane Jazz Festival.

XXOK operates at the intersection of techno, EBM and electro. Shaped in part by time spent living in Europe, his sound balances driving, dancefloor-focused energy with colder, more contemplative textures. Moving fluidly between DJ sets and hardware-based live performances, XXOK has become a unique voice across Seoul’s underground and beyond. His upcoming single, ‘Now and Here’, arriving later this month ahead of a 2026 EP, explores the tension between the “cinematic sprawl of the city and the enclosed intensity of the underground club”. Built around a heavy, driving kick and a powerful EBM bassline, the track unfolds through trance-inflected synth patterns, with Korean vocal elements pushing the narrative forward, making for a gripping listen to say the least. Alongside his solo work, XXOK is also one half of the new XYXX, a live-set duo with Oxymosoon focused on raw, physical, EBM-driven club performances, with yet another EP on the horizon.

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