Loco Dice returns to Universal Music with "Hold Up (You Feel That)" — relentless, physical, and built for the room
His first major release since the "Purple Jam" album, and a reminder of exactly why one of electronic music's most enduring figures has never lost his grip on the dancefloor.
There are DJs who adapt to the dancefloor and DJs who shape it. Loco Dice has spent over two decades doing the latter, and "Hold Up (You Feel That)," his return to Universal Music and first major release since his 2025 album "Purple Jam," wastes no time reminding you why. Built around dense, intricately programmed percussion and contagious spoken-word vocals from Alaina Arnez, the record runs at a brisk tempo and lives entirely through its rhythm section — no big melodic breakdowns, no concessions to easy release. Instead, it builds and releases pressure in the way that only a producer with a genuine feel for physical dancefloor dynamics can pull off: relentless, precise, and engineered for both the peak-time moment and the long, hypnotic stretch of a great DJ set. It's the kind of track that rewards a big system and a full room, and it arrives with the kind of confidence that comes from an artist who has been making exactly this kind of music — on his own terms, in his own way — for longer than most of his peers.
That career began not in electronic music but in hip-hop. Born and raised in a multicultural household with Tunisian roots, Loco Dice was a young DJ in the early 1990s and a rapper who toured the world both solo and supporting Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube — developing the deep rhythmic sensibility that would later become the defining quality of his productions. The turn of the millennium brought a gradual shift toward electronic music, and from his 2002 breakout "Phat Dope Shit" onward, he has rarely left the conversation. His debut album "7 Dunham Place" arrived on his own Desolat imprint in 2008; "Underground Sound Suicide" on Ultra Music followed, featuring Giggs, Just Blaze, and Neneh Cherry; the club-focused "Love Letters" came in 2018; and "Purple Jam" on Universal Music brought the album count to four last year. His collaborators run cross-genre and cross-cultural — from techno icon Carl Cox to Italian rap giant Gué and German rap heavyweight Haftbefehl — and his DJ sets carry the same personality from underground basements to festival mainstages: Time Warp, Sunwaves, Coachella, and era-defining Ibiza residencies at Circoloco at DC-10, the Amnesia Terrace, and Space Miami among the landmarks.
In 2007 he founded Desolat, releasing classics from Dubfire, Moritz von Oswald, Martin Buttrich, DJ Sneak, and Yaya, later expanding into the En Coleur and SB Recordings imprints. Beyond music, Dice's reach has always extended well past the booth: a PlayStation 2 game appearance in 2004, runway soundtracks for Marcelo Burlon at Milan Men's Fashion Week, fashion collaborations with Daily Paper and New Era, and his own clothing brand Seran Bendecidos all speak to a restless creative who has never been content to stay in one lane. "Hold Up (You Feel That)" is the latest chapter in that story — and with a new single and the touring to match, it proves once again that decade after decade, Loco Dice remains one of the most respected and relevant names on the global club circuit.
