“Beneath the driving electronic rhythms of HANDS UP is a very personal message about loss, about yearning and about the need to keep in touch with someone who’s gone.”
For SONIC PULSES, Hands Up is far more than just an electronic album. It’s a tribute to their sister Shirel Sara Golan who was lost in the Nova events. The album was released on 20th October 2026 which is of course her birthday. Choosing that date as the release date is a very significant act in itself and a very poignant dedication to someone who is still very much with them in the music. Hand’s Up is an album of grief, longing and the search for connection beyond this world. The emotional heft of the record is very evident on ‘Where Can I Find’ which is essentially a song in which the producer is calling out to his sister. The central question of the song is the embodiment of that feeling of searching for someone who’s just out of reach and it’s a very relatable thing to hear in the context of missing someone. That’s the whole point of the record really, is to find a way of expressing the things that are so hard to put into words.
‘I’m Trying’ and ‘I’ve Been Waiting’ keep the theme of yearning and emotional ambiguity going. The titles speak of the difficulty of progressing whilst still holding on to memories and the sense of expectation. ‘Run (For Your Life)’ brings in another angle, and ‘Just a Dream’ brings the five track collection to a close with a title that is very much in keeping with the album’s central preoccupation with memory, absence and the yearning to get back in touch. It’s a collection of songs which are very much the product of personal experience rather than a series of disparate electronic tracks. What’s so interesting about HANDS UP is the juxtaposition of the emotional content with the sheer musicality. SONIC PULSES is a fusion of house, techno and trance, with a sound that’s all about the bassline, the vocal harmonies, the arpeggios and the guitar. The sad lyrics are set against an energetic electronic backdrop and the producer doesn’t let the sadness just sit there. He uses the rhythm and the layers of production to give the emotion another outlet. The vocal performances from Juliata Cohen, Yam Gronic and Myia May really add to the songs. They bring the tracks to life and the harmonies give the arrangements a real emotional dimension. There’s a very personal song on there (the third one) which SONIC PULSES tells us is about Juliata, his ex partner, who also sings on it. That’s another layer of personal history to an album which is already very much a product of memory and relationships.
The majority of the recording was done in SONIC PULSES’ own professional studio with the producer doing the bulk of the mixing, effects and sound design prior to sending the stems over to Zohar Bartov for professional mixing and mastering. Bartov’s previous work has been with Drake and Infected Mushroom so he brings a very experienced production pedigree to the finished album. Based in Tel Aviv, SONIC PULSES is a label that draws on The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Jan Blomqvist and Marsh and the wider trance scene. The producer has been in Tel Aviv’s scene for 15 years and spent a full year in the studio as a result of a very difficult period in his life involving grief, recovery and personal transformation. HANDS UP is part of that creative period and is the third major release of the year. It’s already been played in full at a close friend’s wedding (which was absolutely fantastic, the reaction was tremendous) so we know it works in a live context and can obviously speak to people beyond its very personal origins. Its real importance though is in the sheer amount of dedication that’s gone into it. HANDS UP secures Shirel Sara Golan’s place in the SONIC PULSES canon. Five songs, expressive vocals and a real fusion of the electronic styles, the producer has taken grief and turned it into something that can be heard, something that can be shared and something that can be remembered. It’s a very honest record in its emotional content and it’s one that manages to put love and remembrance right at the heart of electronic music.
English