For Tel Aviv-based producer Sonic Pulses, Hands Up is much more than a collection of house, techno, and trance tracks. Released on October 20, 2026, the album is a personal tribute to his sister, Shirel Sara Golan, who lost her life during the Nova events. Issued on what would have been her birthday, it turns an occasion marked by absence into a lasting musical memorial. The record carries the weight of grief and longing, but also the determination to keep creating when life has been turned upside down.
Having spent 15 years immersed in Tel Aviv’s nightlife, Sonic Pulses stepped away from that world and spent a year working in isolation to confront personal struggles and channel his emotions into music. That intensity gives the album its emotional foundation. Influences from The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Jan Blomqvist, Marsh, and the wider trance scene feed into a sound built around groovy basslines, rich harmonies, arpeggios, and carefully shaped electronic textures. What makes the combination stand out is the contrast between the music’s forward-moving energy and the melancholy running through its themes.
“Where Can I Find” captures that tension particularly well. A catchy, steady groove and thumping beats provide the foundation as a vocalist with a warm, thick, tender voice repeatedly asks where she can find her love. Apart from it having its rhythmic hooks, the song acts as a cry toward the heavens, searching for someone who can no longer be reached.
“Run (For Your Life)” takes a more kinetic route, with shimmery synths and thumping beats driving a swirling, swooshing musical current throughout. It brings another burst of movement to an album shaped by loss, without losing its atmospheric character.
With vocal contributions from Juliata Cohen, Yam Gronic, and Myia May, and mixing and mastering by Zohar Bartov, Hands Up balances polished electronic production with an unmistakably personal story. Sonic Pulses has turned a year of isolation and heartbreak into an act of remembrance and found in music a way to keep love present even when the person at its center is gone.
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Review by: Naomi Joan