Liberation: Queer Acid-Disco, Ten Years in the Making
A decade after releasing "I'm Your Machine," Electrosexual and Hard Ton are back in the same room, and "Liberation" sounds like a reunion worth the wait.
Electrosexual is Romain Frequency, the French-born, Berlin-based producer and DJ behind "sex-tronica," a sound built on arpeggiated analog basslines, sleazy grooves and pitch-shifted personas. The Italian house act Hard Ton brings acid, garage and disco roots, plus a studio full of TB-303s, TR-606s and 707s, Oberheim DMX drum machines and Korg Mono/Polys. The idea was an homage to gay and queer liberation, and to self-liberation too.
Electrosexual sent over a ravy Italo instrumental with strong stabs and a driving rhythm that symbolised the movement through the years: "resilient and progressive, but also acknowledging the work of our ancestors."
The Radio Edit opens on gated synth strings and a big disco intro, with the refrain live from the outset. Hard Ton's falsetto slides in on "hey eh eh ah," channelling Jake Shears and, through him, Sylvester, before the chorus asks "how can I be free without loving?" An acid break cuts the first verse, the resonant line squelching as it should, and then Electrosexual arrives as a dancefloor demon, near-rapping in the low-mids. The bassline recalls Adamski's "Killer" at a higher tempo. My one small reservation is that the vocal effects smear the chorus until the lyric is hard to catch, but that wash becomes a euphoric haze, the hook is undeniable and the Vocal Club Mix pays it off in full.
The 6:19 Vocal Club Mix is the one to play even louder. It builds slower and holds the gated strings back for a full minute, so the main motif lands with more weight, and the vocal follows with room around every phrase. The hat modulates like a dirty piston, driving the groove forward. S'Express is in the DNA, but darker. This is the pair queering up the music, melting jacking house, Italo and early UK rave into one track, with classic and proto house as the foundation and a vocal performance Electrosexual calls "a rallying chant for like-minded people." Dance music is grounding and healing, they say, and the idea of unity on the dancefloor grew out of house culture. You can feel it in full force.
The release, mastered by Endrik Schroeder, also includes a more atmospheric Dub Version of "Liberation" and Antoni Maiovvi's Dungeon of Dub Mix of "I'm Your Machine," now remastered for its 10th anniversary. It's acid house, stabbier and trippy, with Hard Ton's vocals pushed back and panned wide while a thin string pad in the spirit of Lil Louis's "French Kiss" slinks around the track and lingers at the end.
The cover artwork carries the same spirit. Rory Midhani's artwork is a purple, camp Blade Runner cityscape: a giant hovering stage with horns, Electrosexual on keys, Hard Ton out front, green alien backup dancers and a cute one-eyed alien zipping past in a one-seater spaceship shaped like a hot pink high heel. Behind it all rises a joyful statue of Saint Marsha P. Johnson, the Black trans activist and Stonewall-era figure. She's there to honor the ancestors, and she's watching from the back.
Out now on Rock Machine Records, Liberation doesn't ask permission. It asks the floor.
Electrosexual ft hard Ton - Liberation - Released 16 October 2026 · Rock Machine Records. Original cover art by Rory Midhani.
Discover more here: