Why Heavy Kicks Work at Peak Time, and How LoNgKiCk Built VERTIGO for Loud Systems
An Industrial-Tinged Techno Single From a Producer with Eight Releases Since June
LoNgKiCk‘s Instagram handle ends in 909. That is the model number of the Roland TR-909, the drum machine that Chicago house and Detroit techno producers popularised in the late 1980s. The project’s name makes the same point. LoNgKiCk describes the sound as heavy kicks, dark atmospheres and raw energy, and VERTIGO, released on 5 September 2026, aims all three at the peak of a night as a piece of industrial-tinged techno.
LoNgKiCk’s VERTIGO sits in the playlist below with the desk’s other acid, hard and industrial techno picks, and every feature so far lives on the LoNgKiCk artist profile. The single reached us through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Queue it up and keep reading.
Where VERTIGO by LoNgKiCk Lands as Hard Techno and Pop Trade Their Harder Edges
The single lands in a wave where club music and pop keep borrowing each other’s harder edges. On the club side, Charlotte de Witte‘s dark, stripped-back acid and minimal techno has drawn both techno purists and new listeners. On the pop side, Lady Gaga‘s ARTPOP and Charli XCX‘s Brat carried techno, industrial and rave sounds into mainstream records. LoNgKiCk names that pop world as an influence, so VERTIGO sits where the two lines cross.
Why a Heavy Kick Carries a Peak-Time Floor
Peak time is the stretch of the night when the room is fullest and the DJ plays the hardest records. On a club system, the kick drum does most of the work at that point. Its weight sits in the sub frequencies, which a crowd feels as much as hears. Its repetition also gives the floor a fixed point to move to. In a mix, a steady kick is what the DJ locks two tracks together on.
That is why a producer who builds around the kick is building for the floor rather than for headphones. VERTIGO is pitched exactly there. It was made from the ground up for the dancefloor and intense DJ sets, with dark atmospheres around the kick and raw, unfiltered energy on top.
Eight Singles Since June, Where VERTIGO Sits in the LoNgKiCk Catalogue of Heavy Hitters
LoNgKiCk is working at volume. The first single, Noir Circuit, arrived on 2 June 2026. Shadow Pulse and Retrograde System followed on 5 June, then Silent Wind on 19 June, and Lethal Nature and GreenHouse Effect on 26 June. After a summer gap came VERTIGO on 5 September and SOLAR FLARE six days later. None of them runs past four minutes.
That pace fits the stated mission. In the producer’s own words, the project is about building a catalogue of heavy hitters for loud systems. So far, every release has been a stand-alone single rather than an EP or an album, which suits DJs who buy and play tracks one at a time.
The genre tags shift from platform to platform, and that says something about where the sound sits. On SoundCloud, LoNgKiCk lists dark industrial techno, hardstyle and drum and bass. On Instagram, the bio reads techno, trance and house. Meanwhile, the SOLAR FLARE page on Bandcamp files that track under industrial techno and drum and bass.
He has also tested the sound on other people’s records. His first mash-up, posted to SoundCloud, set Charlotte de Witte’s Overdrive against Kevin de Vries’s Dance With Me as a hard techno edit, offered as a tribute to the hardcore crowd. Press has started to follow, too. In September, Brazil’s Beat for Beat covered SOLAR FLARE and described a production that builds in layers, alternating suspended passages with strong rhythmic drive.
Pop Art, German Rap and a Message Under the Noise
The influences run wider than the tags. LoNgKiCk points to the boundary-pushing aesthetics of Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP and Charli XCX, plus the raw energy of underground German rap. His favourite artist is Lady Gaga, and his favourite DJ is the Brazilian producer Vintage Culture; he credits both with shaping his work ethic. There is also a message under the noise. LoNgKiCk says the music stands for social justice and hopes it can persuade listeners that love is the only way out of the cycle.
Charlotte de Witte, ARTPOP and Brat Sit Closest to LoNgKiCk’s VERTIGO on a Club System
Charlotte de Witte is the nearest club reference. The Belgian DJ and producer is known for a dark, stripped-back brand of acid and minimal techno, and she founded the KNTXT label. Her music leans on raw, gritty elements, which is the same vocabulary LoNgKiCk uses for VERTIGO. As a result, fans of her harder sets are the obvious first audience.
Lady Gaga‘s ARTPOP is the pop reference. Released in November 2013, it is a dance-pop and synth-pop record with techno and industrial influences, made with producers including DJ White Shadow, Zedd and Madeon. It showed how far those textures could travel inside a pop album. LoNgKiCk starts from the other end, the club floor, and cites its aesthetics as an influence.
Charli XCX completes the picture. Her 2024 album Brat drew on the 2000s English rave scene, with a more aggressive club sound than her previous album, Crash. That aggression is the bridge, because VERTIGO asks for the same physical response from a room.
So who is it for? First, DJs building a peak-time set who want a short, heavy track. Second, listeners who came to harder club music through pop crossover records. Finally, anyone who follows the darker side of techno and wants to hear a new name working in that territory.
From the ElectronicMusic.News Curator Team: “Eight singles in a little over three months, none longer than four minutes, tells you how LoNgKiCk thinks: in tracks for a set rather than albums for a shelf. VERTIGO is the one we would test first on a full system, straight after a record the room already knows.”
How to Play VERTIGO in a Set and Where to Follow LoNgKiCk
Play VERTIGO loud, on a system with real sub, because that is where a heavy kick does its job. Then work back through the June singles, starting with Noir Circuit, and move forward to SOLAR FLARE. Stream the single on Spotify or Apple Music.
Follow LoNgKiCk across platforms:
- Stream: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, SoundCloud and Bandcamp
- Watch: the YouTube channel
- Follow: Instagram and Threads
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