Monkey Safari have released ‘Joy,’ the last single before their forthcoming album drops next month. The track arrives via Good Vibes From Paradise, the German duo’s own label, and closes out a rollout that’s been building toward the full-length record due out on October 30.
‘Joy’ leans into house music built for the club, but its emotional core comes from gospel. The vocal elements aren’t dropped in as texture or a passing reference — they’re doing the heavy lifting on this record. The groove itself stays tight and physical, the kind of loop built to hold up over a four-hour set rather than burn out after one peak moment.
What’s notable here is the writing credit. Sven Fröhlich, one half of Monkey Safari alongside longtime partner Christian Kollmannsberger, steps out on ‘Joy’ under his solo alias, DJ Island. It’s not just a rebrand for the sake of it — the alias pulls the sound in a more house-focused, dancefloor-forward direction, informed by years of reading rooms and figuring out what a crowd actually needs in the moment rather than what looks good on paper.
The pairing of gospel and house isn’t new territory for dance music, but it’s rarely handled as directly as it is here. Both genres share a working theory: get the body moving first, and everything else — the emotional payoff, the release, whatever you want to call it — follows from there. On ‘Joy,’ the gospel elements don’t slow the track down or turn it into a mood piece. If anything, they push the energy up.
Monkey Safari have spent over a decade releasing music that moves between deep house, melodic techno, and downtempo, building a catalog and a live show built around long-form storytelling rather than quick hits. Their forthcoming album continues that approach, and ‘Joy’ is positioned as the closing statement before the full tracklist lands.
The single is out now via Good Vibes From Paradise under catalog number GVFP022. The full album follows on October 30. Listen below.
