Reason Rack is free; Chicago House Music Festival this weekend

Written By Robert Pointer

Friday WildStyle Focus | August 22-28, 2026 - Today’s highlights are on point with drum & bass, breaks, jungle, and bass music in support of WildStyle on every Friday at 8a and 8p PST.

// CULTURE & CONTEXT

Reason Hands Out the Rack for Free

Reason Studios released Reason Free on August 27. The Reason Rack now runs as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin inside Live, Logic, FL Studio, and Pro Tools, with no trial clock and no watermark. Fifteen devices ship with it: Europa, Kong, Scream 4, The Echo, RV7000 Mk II, Monotone, Audiomatic, Combinator, Pulsar, and the Spider routing boxes. The Rack Extension marketplace works without buying the full DAW. Standalone mode gives you 16 tracks. Reason+ stays a paid product. For anyone who still builds drums and bass in a rack instead of a preset browser, this is a working tool landing on a Thursday this week, and not just a feature announcement!

UK Artists Can Apply for Touring Money Through September 11

Applications for Phase Two of the UK Artist Touring Fund opened August 26. LIVE Trust put another £300,000 into the pot, collected from the £1 ticket levy on arena and stadium shows. Grants run up to £8,000 for headline tours of small and mid-sized rooms. Support slots and unconfirmed dates can sit inside the same budget sheet. Phase One moved £125,000 and kept 211 gigs on the books. FAC, the Music Managers Forum, and the Musicians' Union are running it. David Martin at FAC said demand will still beat supply and told anyone with dates through April 2027 to file. This is not a press release about the health of the industry. It is a form that either gets filled or another van stay gets cancelled.

Chicago Hands the Keys Back to the Room That Invented House

The Chicago House Music Festival and Conference is running August 27-30 across Daley Plaza, the Chicago Cultural Center, Grant Park, Millennium Park, and the Riverwalk. Admission is free. DCASE built the weekend the way the city always should have: dance classes and a House Dance Summit, conference panels, SummerDance in Grant Park with Ron Troupe and Mark Flava Fuller, and a four-stage Saturday in Millennium Park. Jamie Principle, Steve Silk Hurley, S&S Chicago, and Maurice Joshua are on the civic bill. This is not a branded takeover. It is the birthplace treating house as living infrastructure instead of a heritage plaque. If you program any of the station-default labels - Cocoon, Diynamic, Innervisions, Mobilee, Rekids, Dirtybird, Strictly Rhythm - this is the source code still being danced, not archived.

// House Releases Worth Noting

VA - Four To The Floor 52 (Diynamic). Out today, August 28. Magdalena, Rem Siman and Juan Brizuela, Alexey Union and Luciano Scalioni, and Zare. Station-default label, fifty-second chapter of the series, no extra story required. Load it and decide which cut holds a Friday afternoon.

// WILDSTYLE ESSENTIALS

WILDSTYLE - Is bass music unleashed: drum & bass, breaks, jungle, and heavy electro with occasional 90s-inspired boom-bap influences. High-energy drops, speaker-rattling rhythms, and riddim built for the wild side of the dance floor. Every Friday at 8a and 8p PST.

Fabio & Grooverider to receive Innovator Award at AIM Independent Music Awards: The drum & bass pioneers will be recognised for their contribution to UK music and club culture at next month's ceremony.

Hobzee - Things Are Different Now EP landed August 21 on Metalheadz. Andy Hobbs stepping off the Silent Dust / none60 experimental side and writing rolling drum & bass the way Headz still wants it written. DJ Mag clocked Commix and early Logistics in the DNA, which is the right comparison. Edge Of The Sea with Uneven, a Response collab on the title cut, and Revox with Justice and saxophone from Callum Connell. Five tracks. Digital is up. This is the Metalheadz record of the window. Play Revox first if you need the jazz to earn the roller.

UKF spent the week on named singles. Anaïs and Olivia Rose put Round Town out August 27. Flava D, Casey Club, and DRIIA drop Revival today on the same imprint. IMANU and A Girl Named Sue's All U Need from August 20 is still the cleanest current UKF roller if you missed it last Friday. That is three concrete records, not a playlist recap.

Hospital kept the physical pipeline moving. Logistics remixed Everything But The Girl's Run A Red Light and Digital is circulating now. The 12-inch (NHS599T) is dated September 11: Logistics Remix on the A, exclusive Instrumental Dub Mix on the B, black and red dust vinyl. Netsky's Everybody Loves The Sunshine / Memory Lane 12-inch (NHS600T, orange sunburst) is listed for today. Forza Horizon 6, the three-disc Hospital compilation, follows September 4. Named catalogue work. Treat it that way.

Sub Focus attached a £1 grassroots levy to his March 2027 arena dates at The O2 in Greenwich and Co-op Live in Manchester. Money goes to LIVE Trust. He said the rooms and promoters where he learned the job are the point. Electronic music finally put a name on a scheme the rock circuit has been running. That is the industry note that belongs on this show.

Also out today on the specialist side: Document One - Reloaded (Elevate), DJ Rap and Tippa Irie - One Door (Propa Talent), Deep Notion, Natty Lou and Dread MC - Fire Pon Dem EP (Invicta Audio), Noise Souls - Sequence (Dirtbox). Kid Drama's Machines and Other Things remains the other current Metalheadz long-player. Kolectiv's Black Light Project is the lathe-cut companion. Watch Jungle Cakes, the UKF network, and the Headz shop before you go hunting blogs.

// Worth Your Time

Hobzee - Things Are Different Now EP. Full package on the Metalheadz Bandcamp. Revox and Edge Of The Sea first.

UKF On Air - UMAD? Modestep with Dr Ushuu, Phosphr, Hukae, Big Narstie, Casey Club, GUNS, and Jon Cass. Posted August 20. Nearly two hours. Useful if you want to hear where the 140/bass edge is sitting this month.

Logistics - Run A Red Light (Remix) / Instrumental Dub Mix. Pre-order the 12-inch if you still buy records. Play the dub when the vocal has done its work.

Flava D - Here & Now. Debut drum & bass album still live on her Bandcamp. Circles with Slay and DRIIA sits next to today's UKF Revival single. Same writing camp, different rooms.

Best Drum and Bass Podcast #607 - Bad Syntax and NOX, August 21. Neurofunk weekly that still does the crate work most playlists skip.

// LOOKING AHEAD

  • Jungle Cakes: The Return - XOYO London, Saturday August 29.

  • Metalheadz - Margate, Sunday August 30.

  • True Junglist FREE RAVE - Kenny Ken and Trafic MC, Clock Factory Bristol, September 3.

  • Hospital Forza Horizon 6 3x12 - September 4.

  • Logistics vs Everything But The Girl 12-inch - September 11. UKAT applications close the same day.

  • Sub Focus - The O2 Greenwich and Co-op Live Manchester, March 2027, £1 grassroots levy on the ticket.

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Thanks for reading. Keep it locked to Robtronik.FM.


Robert Pointer

Owner and founder of AccelerateRPM LLC.

http://acceleraterpm.com
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