It’s interesting, but no surprise really, that the longer I spend spotlighting artists, the more babies enter the fold.
Australian-born Londoner Will Hofbauer is one such artist who recently welcomed a human into the world.
For those not privy to Will’s creations, he makes unserious electronic music with serious club functionality. Take “Glepp”, the lead single from his most recent EP of the same name. What starts out sounding like an ultra-technical IDM record soon turns into a playful synth party. A West Coast G funk lead suddenly pipes up, sounding like someone who’s snuck into the party uninvited, yet has all the right things to say once they’ve crossed the threshold.
When I connected with him, the first words he shared were:
“My life has been absorbed by the wonderful, challenging and rewarding introduction to parenthood – it’s safe to say my 5 am’s look a little different now.”
The keyword of 2026 has been readjustment, as Will and his partner settle into a different rhythm – one that involves caring for a new life. In just the last few weeks, they’ve been treated to the first genuine smiles and, even better, a little sleep of their own. God forbid.
Outside of dad duty, Will has been lending his expertise to other people’s music lately – helping mix down tracks and offering detailed feedback on productions. All from his newly put-together home studio, which you’ll learn a little more about later on.
Hofbauer ain’t a name in lights, and I get the feeling Will likes it that way. When pressed for more insight into the project, he kept things characteristically simple:
“There really isn’t much to tell; it’s just me making my silly little tunes.”
That, however, doesn’t detract from the obvious gift he has for writing supreme dance music. Over the years, he’s put out EPs through a host of highly-touted imprints, including Facta & K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth, Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section and Will Saul’s AUS Music. Worth mentioning too that Will has a few labels of his own, Third Place, which has provided a home for catalogue from close pal Sangre Voss, Stones Taro, Maya Q and others. Plus whirm with Sangre Voss, which is currently just a spot for their collaborations together. Peep their joint album of the same name to get the flavour.
My best guess as to why these labels zeroed in on Will’s work is its power, edginess, and unpredictability. Each track lives in its own universe, is slightly peculiar and full of gusto! But who and what is influencing the kooky sounds this expat is writing…?
Given Will has been glued to his young child lately, or perhaps the other way around, depending on how you look at it – what follows is a special edition of TROVE. Here lie tracks Will has managed to listen to, buy and rip, all with one hand, while holding his kid in the other.
Last year I was living in Tooting, and in Tooting Broadway Market there are two record shops and a guy selling bootleg CDs from a tiny unit, although I’m not sure if he’s there anymore. I went in one day and picked up a whole bunch of bootleg dub CDs – miraculously they were all at actual CD quality.
At home now we have a lovely set-up downstairs with a cheap-o set of Wharfedale speakers, a turntable, CD player, and a crappy little tape player, so we’re able to finally listen to all the stuff I’ve acquired over the years in the kitchen, to various levels of enjoyment from the family lol. I’ve been enjoying running through all those CDs I got, so here’s a pick from one of them. It was hard to choose between this and ‘Atmospheric Dub’ from the same album.
Moving upstairs, I managed to get my new home studio set up and sounding pretty great before the baby arrived- my friend Jim (aka Sangre Voss) and I built our own acoustic panels as well. Priorities, lol. I’ve had the chance to occasionally sit upstairs with the little one while I rip some old tapes, records, etc. It’s a bit slower than usual but definitely doable one-handed! There weren’t any YouTube links for some of the ones I wanted to share, but here’s a track from a great record I bought recently, from the always reliably bonkers Wah Wah Wino crew.
There’s a limited amount of things you can do when your baby is asleep on you, so for better or worse I postponed some Dadmin and went through my (pretty bloated) Discogs wantlist and pulled the trigger on a few records that have been sitting there for a while. Here’s one by Tony Senghore, whose weirdo house cuts I’ve been loving in the last few years, especially his work in La Cienda, Honduras. Really lovely, weird productions. This one’s on the more beautiful side, however.
Not much more to say about this one other than it’s been a lovely record to stick on in the kitchen when we’re all hanging out (for me, at least!). Been listening to lots of dub, clearly. This track is an all-timer for me!
I haven’t been particularly good at keeping up with new music recently for obvious reasons, but I’m gonna throw in this new one from my friend Taro. He very kindly invited me to play at his and Magochi’s NC4K party at the amazing West Harlem spot in Kyoto back in May. It was one of the best gigs of my life. Anyway, might be cheating as I think I may have been using both my hands to download this. Big tune!