Artists exciting us in 2025 / March

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 and —you’ll thank us later.

Tokyo-born, London-based riria is the kind of DJ who keeps you on your toes—in the best way possible. Blending amapiano, Jersey Club, and dub with UK musical influences, she crafts fast-paced mixes that take listeners on an unpredictable ride between commercial anthems and underground gems. Her Boiler Room Tokyo 2024 set—uploaded just a month ago and already with 1 million+ views—was a game-changer, sending several tracks into viral orbit and earning her global recognition. Recently chosen to create a mix for Diplo’s Revolution on SiriusXM, she’s proving her ability to command both dancefloors and airwaves, with more exciting performances ahead—here’s hoping for a return to Asia on tour!

Bali-based Raissa Febriani is carving out a singular path. Her sonic identity bridges experimental club sounds with deep-rooted Indonesian rhythms, effortlessly merging percussive bass, oddball techno, and Gqom with the organic and local textures of the traditional gendang and gamelan. Raissa’s recent release, ‘Hutan Timur’, dropped via Human Pitch, and marks a defining moment in her evolution. ‘Hutan Timur’ thrives in contrasts—earthy yet futuristic, mystical yet physical, and hypnotically perfectly pulsates front-to-back, with this energy being transferred into her genre-defying sets in Bali and beyond. Beyond her own productions, Raissa has been pushing boundaries since 2019 through ORBITWARE, her experimental event series, and through NON ARCHIVE, her label. As a DJ, producer, and curator, she continues to challenge expectations while staying firmly connected to her roots—one hypnotic rhythm at a time.

Considered a somewhat new(er) face in the scene, D Waviee has been keeping the momentum going with a steady stream of techno-tinged tracks, each stamped with her distinct touch. Her genre-hopping productions, spanning everything from hard house and tech-trance to hyperpop and hard groove are elevated with feminine finesse and a deep-rooted love for storytelling—evident in the manic euphoria of her debut EP ‘HYPOMANIA’, the queer club anthem ‘The Future is Trans’ with Pette Shabu and the rave-fuelled ‘Progesterone’, a cut that captures the ecstatic highs and inevitable comedowns of the dancefloor. A force in Manila’s underground, she’s lit up the decks at Danza Organika and Normiecorp events, further cementing her place as a defining artist in the local scene. We’re certain she’s on her way to expanding beyond it.

Xylon is well known in the Hong Kong underground under his former moniker: Busyboi. With his new artist name, though, comes a new musical direction, which made its first statement of purpose in January with ‘Xylonmancy’, a 4-track EP via Tokyo-based label Hekdb. Though he’s got some potential gigs in the pipeline in his native Hong Kong, Xylon tells us that he’s more or less taking a step back from DJing to focus on production. A new EP is in the works as well as a remix for HAWLIE on Hekdb that is slated for July which will be “a fast tempo, bassy track but keeping [his] tribal and organic character on it.” Then, there’s ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’, the radio-meets-collective that Xylon is the host of. He’s currently putting a compilation together with tracks from Hong Kong and Japanese artists with the mission of “creating connections”, after which he hopes to do a “mini launch tour in Hong Kong and Japan”.

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