Alok
DJ Anemia is an electronic producer from the new internet music scene who gained recognition through the tracks archangel, THIS FEELING, EMPTY FUNK, and their slowed versions. The name Vlad Tepes appears in the songwriting credits for his compositions. His music develops at the intersection of angelcore, dark electronic, phonk, breaks, and atmospheric club electronica, combining tense rhythms with melancholic synthesizers, processed vocals, and a dark digital aesthetic.
The DJ Anemia project took shape in the mid-2020s, at a time when the boundaries between musical genres, visual edits, and short-form video culture became especially fluid. The artist does not limit himself to the classic phonk formula and does not follow traditional ideas of club-oriented electronic music. His compositions exist simultaneously as standalone tracks, foundations for visual montages, and source material for alternative slowed, sped-up, and ultra slowed versions.
DJ Anemia’s defining strength is his ability to transform a short melodic motif into a complete emotional environment. His music may be dynamic in tempo while still preserving a sense of alienation, internal tension, and a slowed perception of time.
The Beginning of the Project
DJ Anemia’s public discography began to develop actively in late 2024. His earliest releases already demonstrated that the musician preferred a collaborative creative model and regularly worked with representatives of a closely related electronic scene.
One of his first notable compositions was ONEMORETIME, created together with sixnite, Crier, and Sillage. The track introduced the main features that would later define the project’s sound: cold synthesizer parts, a repeating vocal fragment, energetic electronic rhythms, and an emotional atmosphere that contrasted with the dance-oriented structure.
Crier and sixnite became particularly important collaborators for DJ Anemia. Their partnership cannot be regarded as a random series of guest appearances. Together, the musicians formed a recognizable creative unit that produced DJ Anemia’s most important early works.
Breakthrough with archangel
The true breakthrough came with the release of archangel in November 2024. The track was recorded by DJ Anemia, Crier, and sixnite and quickly reached beyond a narrow electronic music audience.
archangel is built around a minor-key synthesizer motif, a dense rhythm, and processed vocals that are perceived not as a traditional lead part but as an element of the overall sonic environment. The composition is not overloaded with complex transitions or a large number of instrumental layers. Its strength lies in the precise repetition of its central musical idea, which gradually intensifies the emotional tension.
The version that achieved the widest circulation was archangel (Slowed). Lowering the tempo and pitch made the composition heavier, deeper, and more melancholic. This treatment highlighted the central quality of DJ Anemia’s music particularly clearly: his ability to preserve the energy of the original while transforming the track into an almost cinematic soundscape.
The popularity of archangel established the musician as one of the notable representatives of the emerging angelcore scene. Additional versions of the composition later appeared, including ultra slowed and mega slowed editions. Rather than merely repeating the original at different speeds, they offered different ways of perceiving the same musical theme.
THIS FEELING
In February 2025, DJ Anemia, Crier, and sixnite continued their collaboration with the track THIS FEELING. The composition retained the emotional direction of archangel but introduced a more pronounced dance dynamic and a noticeable vocal hook.
Despite its fast tempo, THIS FEELING does not sound like a typical festival track. The center of the composition is not the drop but a recurring emotional state. The voice dissolves among the synthesizers and drums, while the rhythm creates not a sense of celebration but the feeling of moving in a closed circle.
This duality became one of DJ Anemia’s defining characteristics: his tracks can sound energetic and dark at the same time. This is why the artist’s music cannot be reduced exclusively to phonk, ambient, or dance electronica.
EMPTY FUNK
The track EMPTY FUNK presented a harder and more rhythmically intense side of the project. The influence of phonk and breaks is more noticeable, while the drums and bass occupy a more important role than in the atmospheric archangel.
The word funk in the title is not connected to classic American funk. It refers to the contemporary internet scene, where the term may be used for electronic tracks with aggressive rhythms, distorted vocal fragments, and influences from phonk or Brazilian funk.
EMPTY FUNK expanded the project’s genre boundaries without representing a complete stylistic shift. Even in this more rhythm-driven composition, DJ Anemia preserves a cold and emotionally detached sound.
ASTRO FUNK and Cross-Genre Experiments
In the spring of 2025, DJ Anemia participated in the creation of ASTRO FUNK together with Slowboy, IVOXYGEN, zaichkou888, and Crazy Mano.
The track combined phonk, contemporary funk, heavy electronic bass, and rhythmic elements associated with Brazilian club music. Slowed, super slowed, and sped-up versions were released alongside the original, with each version emphasizing different elements of the arrangement.
ASTRO FUNK demonstrated that DJ Anemia was capable of working not only with melancholic angelcore aesthetics but also with more aggressive material. However, it would be incorrect to describe Brazilian funk or Latin electronic music as the artist’s primary genres. The track represents an individual experiment within a much broader catalog.
Development of the Discography
Following the success of his first releases, DJ Anemia continued to actively publish solo and collaborative works. In 2025, he released with you, archangel 2, stacy, elysera, deadrose, poison tearz, and silkgrave.
The song titles, visual presentation, and overall mood form a unified artistic world. Themes of emotional dependence, memory, inner emptiness, painful attachment, and digital loneliness regularly appear within it. The musician does not construct a continuous narrative around these images but uses them as recurring symbols.
In 2026, the discography expanded with cold air, take u with DVRKLXGHT, seamripper with LONOWN, and the solo track hollow. These releases confirmed the stability of the chosen direction while also expanding the project’s circle of collaborators.
The collaboration with LONOWN was especially significant. LONOWN also works at the intersection of darkwave, witch house, angelcore, and contemporary internet electronica. Collaborations of this kind show that DJ Anemia is gradually developing not only a personal discography but also a complete creative environment around the project.
Angelcore and Musical Style
The most accurate term for the central part of DJ Anemia’s work is angelcore. It is a young form of internet electronica without strictly established rules but with a recognizable set of musical and visual characteristics.
Angelcore is characterized by emotional synthesizer melodies, processed or distant vocals, a combination of fragile atmosphere and energetic rhythm, gothic imagery, and a sense of romanticized digital melancholy.
In DJ Anemia’s music, this foundation is supplemented by elements of phonk, breaks, wave, trance, and experimental dance electronica. Deep house, however, is not a defining genre for the artist. His compositions lack the soft club groove, jazz-influenced harmony, and traditional house structure associated with that style.
DJ Anemia generally builds tracks around a single expressive motif. It may be a synthesizer sequence, a short vocal phrase, or a rhythmic pattern. Instead of constantly changing themes, he uses repetition, gradually altering the density, space, and emotional tension of the composition.
The Importance of Slowed Versions
Slowed versions occupy a special place in DJ Anemia’s work. They have been created for archangel, THIS FEELING, EMPTY FUNK, with you, stacy, deadrose, take u, and other compositions.
For the artist, this is not merely a formal way to increase the number of releases. Changing the speed and key allows new emotional shades within a track to emerge. The original version may be energetic and rhythmic, while the slowed treatment transforms the same material into a heavy, almost meditative composition.
This approach reflects contemporary music consumption culture, in which a single track can exist in several equally valid forms. The listener chooses not only the composition itself but also its tempo, emotional intensity, and mode of perception.
Visual Aesthetic
DJ Anemia’s visual identity is associated with dark digital edits, gothic typography, abstract silhouettes, angelic symbolism, and romanticized images of destruction. Cold shades, blurred figures, and images resembling fragments of digital memory dominate the artwork.
This aesthetic differs noticeably from the traditional drift phonk imagery of nighttime cars, neon streets, and racing footage. DJ Anemia’s visual language centers not on speed and automotive culture but on emotional alienation, fragility, and the feeling of existing between physical and virtual spaces.
The music and visual components of the project function as a unified system. The tracks easily become the foundation for short video edits, but their structure is not shaped exclusively by the needs of social media. The most successful compositions retain independent musical value even without visual accompaniment.
Main Collaborations
Crier and sixnite remain DJ Anemia’s primary creative partners. Together, they created archangel, THIS FEELING, EMPTY FUNK, with you, elysera, poison tearz, and other works.
The artist has also collaborated with Slowboy, IVOXYGEN, zaichkou888, Crazy Mano, DVRKLXGHT, LONOWN, and Sillage. These projects connect him to different areas of the contemporary electronic scene, from angelcore and wave to phonk and experimental club music.
The collaborative nature of his work is an important feature of DJ Anemia’s creative approach. He does not merely invite other performers to contribute individual parts but develops compositions through close interaction with producers who share a similar artistic vision.
Popularity
DJ Anemia’s popularity developed primarily through streaming platforms, official visualizers, and short-form videos. The main source of growth was archangel (Slowed), after which audience interest spread to the project’s other works.
Within a relatively short period, DJ Anemia progressed from his first digital singles to an international audience measured in millions of monthly listeners. This growth demonstrates how quickly a contemporary electronic artist can move beyond a local scene without a traditional album campaign, radio rotation, or a long festival history.
At present, however, the musician remains focused primarily on singles and collaborative releases. His catalog develops as a sequence of individual compositions united by a shared sonic and visual aesthetic.
Significance
DJ Anemia is one of the notable representatives of the new wave of internet electronica that emerged at the intersection of music, visual edits, and the culture of alternative versions.
His work reflects several important trends of the mid-2020s: the erosion of genre boundaries, the transformation of slowed treatments into an independent artistic form, a collaborative approach to music creation, and the close connection between sound and digital visual language.
The project’s main achievement was archangel, but DJ Anemia’s significance is not limited to a single viral release. THIS FEELING, EMPTY FUNK, deadrose, hollow, and numerous collaborations demonstrate the consistent development of his individual artistic style.
DJ Anemia creates music in which high speed is combined with emotional stillness, while club rhythms coexist with a sense of inner emptiness. This contrast made his sound recognizable and allowed the project to establish its own place on the contemporary electronic music scene.
