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Archangel (Kettama album)

Archangel is the debut album by Irish producer and DJ Kettama. It was released on 3 October 2025 through Steel City Dance Discs.

Background

Kettama announced the release of the album alongside its cover art and title through an Instagram post on 27 August 2025. In an interview with Mixmag, the DJ stated that he felt burnt out following the release of his collaboration with Fred Again and Shady Nasty, "Air Maxes", which garnered negative reception online. In the same interview, he stated that he was originally against the idea of an album at first, due to people having harsher opinions on them than EPs.

In an article published by Rolling Stone UK on 3 October 2025, they listed Archangel as one of the "6 albums you need to hear this week".

Critical reception

Ben Broyd of Clash lauded Archangel as "a genre-smashing, emotionally rich body of work that cements his status as one of underground music's most vital new voices". Further stating that "the Galway-born artist [Kettama] has taken his time crafting Archangel, and it shows. A decade in the making, the 15-track collection is more than just a debut, it's a defining statement." Billboard author Katie Bain described the album "is as fresh and sophisticated is it danceable."

For MusicOMH, Ben Devlin stated the album is "at its best when the kickdrums are thumping and the synth chords are blaring," singling out "Take Me" as impressive, and "It Gets Better (Forever Mix)" as having "some Underworld-esque lyrics, laddish but a bit artsy and hard to pin down." In the same review, Devlin states that the title track is an underwhelming opener, and that production sounds unfinished in places, and cites "Air Maxes" as "one of the worst songs this reviewer has heard all year." Kade Kleinschmidt of EDM Tunes stated that "as a listening experience, the album reads less like a collection of singles and more like a designed set."

Year-end lists

Track listing

Notes

  • "Yosemite" samples vocals by Delline Bass from Reflekt's "Need to Feel Loved"
  • "Fade Away (It's a Feeling)" features vocals by KLP.
  • "It Gets Better (Forever Mix)" samples "Damaged" by Plummet, and features vocals by Maurice Santiago.

Personnel

Musicians

  • Kettama keyboards (tracks 1–2, 4–15), composing (1–2, 6–7, 10, 14), songwriting (3–6, 8–9, 11–13, 15), synthesizer (3), synthesizer programming (3), drum programming (11, 13)
  • Eloise "Sølv" Keating vocals (track 1), songwriting (1)
  • Sean Thomas "seantommy" Hodgson vocals (track 2), songwriting (2)
  • Interplanetary Criminal songwriting (track 3), synthesizer (3), synthesizer programming (3)
  • KLP vocals (tracks 5, 7), songwriting (5, 7)
  • DJ Heartstring keyboards (track 7), composing (7)
  • Shady Nasty vocals (track 10), songwriting (10)
  • Fred Again keyboards (tracks 10, 14), composing (10, 14)
  • Prospa keyboards (track 12), songwriting (12)
  • Maurice Santiago vocals (track 13), songwriting (13)
  • Clouds keyboards (track 15), songwriting (15)

Technical

Charts

Release history

DJ mix album

A DJ mix of the album was later released on 17 October 2025, featuring songs by other DJs, as well as tracks from the original album.

Track listing

References