Rhythmic Steps marks first anniversary with Minube's Black Belt EP

Rhythmic Steps hit its first-anniversary mark with a release that says a lot about the label in three tracks. Minube’s Black Belt EP, catalogued as RS023 and released on May 8, 2026, arrived one year after Rhythmic Steps’ first drop, and the title track sits alongside Dubla and Dubla (Basme Remix) in a lean set built for movement, not excess.

That economy matters. Rhythmic Steps describes the record as a special three-track EP packed with rolling rhythms, and the tag cluster puts its footing in deeptech, deep house, micro house, minimal techno, and rominimal at once. Rather than presenting itself as a broad techno statement, the EP lands as part of a very specific corridor of restrained groove music, where percussion, low-end control, and small edits do the heavy lifting. Analog mastering by Andrey Djackonda adds another layer of intent, the kind of finishing touch minimal records rely on when every hiss, tail, and kick-space decision has to survive loud club playback.

The release also shows how Rhythmic Steps has sharpened its identity over a year of steady output. The imprint’s Bandcamp profile calls it an “Event Series & Record Label from Budapest, Hungary,” and its catalog now runs sequentially from RS001 through RS023. That first release, VA - United Frequencies [RS001], came out on May 13, 2025 as an 8-track compilation, a broader introduction to the label’s world. Black Belt feels narrower and more defined by comparison, a sign that Rhythmic Steps has moved from establishing a platform to curating a lane.

The 2026 run makes that progression easier to hear. Outterspace1 - Before Saying That EP [RS013] landed on January 6, 2026, followed by Bassetian - Traveller EP [RS020] on April 8, 2026, before Black Belt took RS023 on May 8. That sequence suggests a label with enough momentum to keep its numbering, its scene, and its sound moving in lockstep, rather than pausing for a major reset.

The people behind the release reinforce the regional picture. Minube is identified on Bandcamp as a music producer and DJ from Moldova, while Basme is listed as a Chișinău, Moldova-based DJ, producer, and owner of Wavetech Limited. RA listings also place Minube and Basme together at Rhythmic Steps-related events in Budapest, which makes the remix credit feel like part of an existing circuit rather than a standalone collaboration. With Andrey Djackonda, another Moldova-based producer, DJ, and audio engineer, handling mastering, Black Belt reads as a snapshot of how Rhythmic Steps has linked Budapest’s label infrastructure to a Moldovan network of artists, club dates, and finely judged minimal-techno craft.