LUSU sharpen their HILOMATIK sound with eerie new track Freaks

LUSU released Freaks on July 3 on HILOMATIK, and the new cut arrives as a 4:57 extended mix built for the peak-time lane at 136 BPM in F major. The Dutch pairing of Wiwek and Mike Cervello have been circling this space for a while, but Freaks feels like the moment where the project’s identity locks in: heavier, leaner, and more focused on the dancefloor pressure that defines stripped-back techno.

The track keeps the duo’s cinematic, industrial streak intact, starting from a rolling bassline idea that gives the record its forward motion. LUSU wanted something that would hit hard without sliding into generic club utility, and Freaks lands in that tension between impact and character. An eerie vocal phrase about things mostly coming at night pushes the record further into shadow territory, giving it a horror-film edge without breaking the drive of the arrangement.

That balance fits the way LUSU have been building on HILOMATIK. Freaks follows earlier releases such as Reckless, Imagine, Rise, and Drums of the Night, which Beatportal identified as their fourth HILOMATIK release in June 2025. Beatport also surfaced Freaks in platform curation including HI-LO Essentials: June and Weekend Picks 2026: Week 27, a sign that the track has been pulled into the label and platform ecosystem as more than a one-off upload.

HILOMATIK itself has become a useful home for that sound. Described as the dark side of Heldeep Records, the label has settled into a mainstay role in techno through releases from HI-LO, Hardwell, Space 92, Armin van Buuren, and Eli Brown. LUSU’s releases have also drawn support from a wide DJ network that includes Oliver Heldens, Adam Beyer, R3HAB, Eli Brown, ACRAZE, Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike, Space 92, Nicole Moudaber, Ferry Corsten, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Danny Avila, Showtek, Mark Sixma, Belocca, Blasterjaxx, and Bassjackers, which helps explain how these tracks travel from underground sets to broader festival rooms.

The project itself has moved quickly since starting in 2022. LUSU’s first release under the alias arrived in November 2022, after the duo made about eight demos in a house in nature while treating the project as an expectation-free side pursuit. Wiwek has said hearing Tiësto on the radio when he was 11 pushed him toward becoming a professional artist, while Mike Cervello has pointed to a musical family and an early start behind the decks before producing. By the time LUSU played the HILOMATIK stage at Amsterdam Dance Event and previewed new IDs in a Parookaville live set, the project already looked like it was heading somewhere deliberate.

Freaks does not read like a detour. It sounds like LUSU pushing the same lane a little farther into the dark, and that is what makes it feel like a marker rather than just another club weapon.