SOR:
ISSUE TWO

PUBLICATION #3

JANUARY 2025 -
JUNE 2025

FEATURING:
JOHN BARCLAY, DEMOROBILIA (RIVER HYDE), MARIA GROSS, JESÚS HILARIO-REYES, COOPER SPERLING, KARLA “LITA” VINUEZA, OMAR AHMAD, VANYA SUCHAN, BUZZI, DAIYAH, KATIE REX, FORTIFIED STRUCTURES, HXCTC, JUANA, ERIC CHUNG

“My body seems to have shed its burdens of human existence, its limitations reduced: free at last, free at last. Time is now and always, fragments of seconds, breaking to a blur of party weekends, then smoothing out into a transcendental sense of forever. Bodies of fellow dancers brushing, strangers have gone, we are all friends, in it together; we are as one.”


Dear Reader,

How can we make that moment last forever? The moment on the dancefloor when we bathe in strokes of light and sound. When reality sheds, time suspends, and movement is all you know. Sweat beads on my forehead like a crown. Don’t stop. This is a marathon, not a race. Listen. Listen closely. Dance. Dance harder. And when the strangers have gone and we are as one, what is left?

Vital, breathing and rhythmic —New York City’s nightlife is alive and well.

This project is how we make those fleeting moments last a little longer.

Systems of Release (SOR) is an archival magazine, aiming to document electronic music, night/rave life, and dance culture here in NYC. SOR has humble beginnings, starting off in 2023 as a quiet Discord server and a small zine. So it is with great excitement that we share our second issue.

Inside you’ll find our ever-expanding archive. Through written word, photographs, drawings, and beyond, these are the people, places and parts of this ecosystem that keep it alive. We’ve had the pleasure of closely documenting and conversing with artists who build beyond themselves. We are dedicated to documenting their work thoughtfully, and providing our readers with something they can hold in their hands. Something as tangible as the dance floor.

The SOR team has only gotten bigger and brighter since the last issue. Behind each page is a group of dancers, dreamers, creators, and workers dedicated to this community. It can't go without a hearty thank you to all those who make this magazine possible, from start to finish. We have endless gratitude to the artists who have been so willing to engage with us. Thank you to …

Lest we forget, whatever utopia created in these nights cannot function without all its parts: the bouncer, the bartender, and the barback all help to create a communal machine. The music, the DJ, and the spaces that cradle them arose from a lineage of resistance, a communal soul, and those who create with legacies on their mind.

Many thanks to the front of the club and to the back… It takes a village.

More to come,

SOR