Wax Motif dropped House of Wax II and it goes hard.
Wax Motif dropped House of Wax II with Ty Dolla Sign, ZHU, DJ Jazzy Jeff and more. Fourteen tracks. Zero skips. No business being this damn good. Stream it now.
Okay so let's talk about what Wax Motif just did. Because House of Wax II dropped on May 8 and it's not the album that arrives quietly and waits for people find it. This thing walked in the room and conquered the rest of the competition. Fourteen tracks. A guest list that reads like someone won a fantasy draft across three different genres. And a 20 date North American tour launching alongside it because apparently doing one enormous thing at a time was not enough.
The Australian born, Los Angeles based producer has built his reputation as one of the most versatile names bridging electronic music and hip hop on a global scale, and House of Wax II is the clearest proof yet that the label fits. This isn't some DJ who made a house album. This is a producer who doesn't recognize genre boundaries and has made something that sounds like that freedom.
The backstory matters
Daniel Chien, better known as Wax Motif, is regarded as a major orchestrator in developing house sound across the US. With musical influences from R&B, disco, and UK bass, the Australian born LA based producer brings a unique style to the studio, making him a highly sought after producer. His debut album racked up over 33 million streams and his music has made it to the decks of Dom Dolla, John Summit, Solomun, FISHER, MEDUZA, and Chris Lake. That's a very specific kind of validation. When producers who are at the top of the game are playing your music in their sets, you are clearly doing something right.
He stepped away from touring for a moment, taking time to reset and focus on life outside of music. Now with the album and tour arriving together it feels like the right time to step back in. That reset clearly did something because House of Wax II sounds like an artist who came back with a much sharper idea of exactly what he wanted to make.
The tracklist is not messing around
The album opens with You Forget featuring R&B maven Maeta, offering a masterclass in restraint before diving headfirst into the high octane energy of Touch It and Gimme That Money. The sequencing alone tells you who Wax Motif is as an artist. He is not going to give you the peak time drop first. He is going to ease you in, make you feel something, and then absolutely wreck you when you aren't ready for it.
Then the collaborations start arriving and they don't stop. Ty Dolla Sign appears on Bad and U Know It, three time Grammy winning powerhouse Jozzy delivers a standout on What U Want, Brazilian funk trailblazer MC Lan injects global energy into BOTA, and hip hop mainstay 24hrs links with Latin crossover at act Juos on the high octane Run It Up.
And then there is Sync Button. DJ Jazzy Jeff appears on Sync Button, fusing classic hip hop scratch elements and sampling with modern house production for a nostalgic yet forward moving electronic cut. A Grammy winning legend who has been doing this since before most of Wax Motif's audience was born, showing up on a house album in 2026 and making it sound completely natural. That's the kind of collab that makes you lock in and pay attention.
The album closes out with Sun Goes Down featuring ZHU and Camden Cox, a moody atmospheric house journey with deep synths and emotive vocals that evolve into a hypnotic club closer. If the opening track is the invitation and the middle is the party then Sun Goes Down is the moment at 4am when everyone left on the dancefloor knows they are part of something.
What House of Wax II proves
House of Wax II maintains a consistency across its genres while delivering functional club records that also work outside that context. It builds on the foundation of his debut and years of international touring. That last part is important. This isn't an album made by someone guessing what people want to hear. This is an album made by someone who has spent years in rooms full of people and understands on a physical level what music does to a crowd. The club instincts are built in. The wider ambition sits on top of them.
There is always a bit of nervousness when you finally put something out into the world. At the same time I feel really confident in the body of work, Wax Motif said. You can hear it in the record. More time spent in vocal sessions, more space for ideas to develop, and a sound that feels tighter, guided by instinct, mood, and the voices that define it.
That confidence is earned. House of Wax II is not trying to be everything to everyone. It's trying to be exactly what Wax Motif is, which is a producer who grew up on R&B and disco and UK bass and house music and never saw any reason to choose between them. The album sounds like that person. All of them at once.
The 20 date North American tour hits Las Vegas, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Charlotte, and more, bringing House of Wax II to life across key markets with multiple Las Vegas plays strategically scheduled around EDC weekend. If you have been sleeping on Wax Motif live, this tour is the moment to fix that.
House of Wax II is out now on Divided Souls. Stream it, save it, send it to someone who needs it, and then go find out if the tour is coming to your city because the timing of this whole thing is too good to miss.
