Tech house keeps winning when it feels built for 1 a.m., not a laptop demo. That is the lane JANO (ES) and Kjell Steffner are in with “La Mala,” a high-energy cut out on Toolroom Trax as part of Leaders Of The New School 2026 Vol. 2. If you have been following Toolroom’s newer-school series, you already know the brief: club records that DJs can actually drop when the floor is hot.
“La Mala” leans into that job description. The pitch is simple and honest: a driving groove, Latin-flavoured vocals that stick, and a drop made for peak-time playlists. No overthinking required. You get the bounce first, the vocal hook second, and then the kind of low-end that tells a selector this one can sit next to the heavier Toolroom Trax weapons without disappearing.
That Latin colour is doing real work here. Tech house in 2026 is full of functional drums and dry percussion. The records that travel are the ones with a bit of character on top — a phrase, a chant, a swing that feels like it came from a dancefloor instead of a template. “La Mala” is aiming at that sweet spot: still tight and club-ready, still energetic, but with enough flavour that it does not blend into the next twelve-inch in the crate.
JANO (ES) is Alejandro Soriano, a DJ and producer from Teruel, Spain, with more than twenty years behind the decks. That kind of runway matters. His own description of the project is club-first tech house: powerful grooves, driving basslines, rhythms built for impact rather than headphone theory. He is not a brand-new name testing the water. He has already been circulating records on labels in the tech house lane, and one of the clearer international markers on his CV is winning the official remix contest for Kryder’s “Fade Till Sunrise,” which landed on Spinnin’ Records. That is the sort of credit that tells you he knows how a big-room moment is supposed to land.
Kjell Steffner is on the record with him, and the Toolroom home makes sense for both. Leaders Of The New School is the label’s way of putting newer and rising names in the same shop window as the catalogue people already trust. Getting on that compilation is not a participation trophy. Toolroom Trax still has to work in actual rooms.
Early support already lines up with that. Mark Knight, Danny Rhys and Sassy B have shown love, including Sassy B playing it on Select Radio. When the person who runs Toolroom and two other selectors with real club hours start nodding at a track before (or right as) it lands, that is usually a sign the arrangement is doing its job: intro that DJs can mix, groove that holds, drop that pays off.
The wider context helps the record too. Tech house has been the reliable backbone of Friday-night sets for years now — Ibiza rooms, warehouse peaks, radio mixes that still need something with a kick and a hook. Labels like Toolroom keep feeding that circuit with records that are slightly more polished than the underground white-label, slightly more physical than radio-edit house. “La Mala” sits in that middle: playlist-friendly enough to travel, sturdy enough that a working DJ will not feel silly playing it at full volume.
I am not going to invent a lyric sheet I do not have. What the artists flagged is the vocal colour and the drop, and that is the honest way to hear it: follow the groove, wait for the Latin line to lock in, then see what the drop does to the room. If you are programming a tech house or peak-time house playlist this week, this is an easy add.
Independent artists chasing that same path still need the boring-but-essential piece: getting the file onto Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport and the rest without losing a week to admin. DistroKid keeps that part simple, and you get 7% off your membership with this link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328. Reach more listeners and keep more of what you earn.
What do you think of “La Mala”? Does the Latin-flavoured tech house direction hit for you, or are you still after something rawer? Drop it in the comments.
