Ones To Watch: Small Crab
In our Ones To Watch series, we spotlight exciting new producers who are shaking up the game and progressing dance music culture while they do it.
Small Crab is a Frankfurt-born, Dublin-based producer making left-field bass music and experimental techno. Since her debut release in 2021, she’s been making huge waves thanks to her playful and compelling DJ sets and relentless pursuit of hard-hitting bass bangers designed to tear the dance floor up.
She’s made a big impact in a short while with releases on Scuffed Recordings, Left, Right & Centre, and Early Reflex. Her mix for Daisychain was named RA’s Mix of the Day in 2024, and not long after that she was featured as one of Mixmag’s Artists to Watch in 2025. She’s a regular on the Dublin club circuit, supported Mall Grab, Sputnik One, Hassan Abou Alam and Jay Carder, and has a slot lined up at Dancing Family Festival this July. Today, we’ll take a closer look at Small Crab’s journey so far, key releases and what she has lined up for the future.
From Frankfurt to the Floor
Real name Anastasia, Small Crab’s early exposure to music came from analog rather than electronic music. She learned violin as a kid and started playing drums as a teen, specifically. That became a long-term passion, and she played in several rock and funk bands and went on to study percussion at college in Dublin. “That was my first influence,” she says. “I wanted to be a rock artist.”
Then a friend introduced her to Ableton, and she dove in head-first, watching YouTube tutorials late into the night. Unsurprisingly, she was drawn to percussive sounds and earth-shattering bass, which led her deep into Dublin’s underground. “That’s when I started to get a real interest in the club scene and electronic music and wanting to DJ,” she says.
Anastasia attended a lot of club nights at venues that are now closed in Dublin, like Wigwam, Button Factory, and D8. “Now a lot of the clubs have closed down and collectives don't put parties on because they’ve moved on to something else,” she says.
Finding Her Groove
For Small Crab, producing music came before DJing, and still does. “My first love is making my own music with Ableton,” she says. “I very quickly became interested in rhythmic patterns, and that’s where I found the music I like, and I’ve stuck to it for the last five years.”
Anastasia says one of the main reasons she was able to start learning production was because her music college provided Ableton and LogicPro for free. Then the pandemic hit, and she was trapped at home with nothing to do except learn the ropes.
From Mall Grab to Small Crab
Small Crab’s name is a spin-off from one of her favorite artists. “I was listening to Mall Grab a lot and I loved him, and my sister said “You aren’t Mall Grab, you’re Small Crab because my star sign is cancer,” Anastasia laughs. “And when I started uploading music to SoundCloud, it just stuck.”
And not long ago, she opened for Mall Grab in Dublin. “The producers knew I was a massive fan and put me on the line-up,” she says. “I was so nervous when I met him, he said I must be the infamous Small Crab.”
Other influences include but are not limited to: Sputnik One, Glimmerman, Sim, Laksa, re:ni and many others. “I always used to listen to Rhyw’s tracks as a reference,” she says. “He’s an amazing producer, literally one of my favorites.”
Breakout Releases
Small Crab’s debut solo EP came out on Flowing With Honey on Paryìa in 2022, a four-track percussive extravaganza steeped in hypnotic rhythms that tread the line between techno, drum ’n’ bass, and experimental. She followed it up on Left, Right & Centre in 2023 with Glucosides / AYY + Tokyo, two tracks packed full of left-field techno and breaks with bass designed to destroy sound systems. But the EP that garnered global attention came in the form of her debut on Scuffed Recordings in 2024. Batomu is the sound of an artist in her stride and won the attention of Mixmag in their "Spotlight" series and "Top 25 Artists to Watch" lists.
Looking to the Future
Anastasia is a founding member of Skin&Blister, a community providing a platform to educate, inspire, and showcase aspiring women and non-binary DJs, producers, and behind-the-scenes roles, and has a lot more releases up her sleeve, including an EP on First Second Label.
And after working hard to hone her sound, Small Crab’s now playing gigs with some of her all-time favorite artists. “I’m playing a gig with Hassan About Alam in France on Friday,” she says. “I feel like these moments just mean a lot, because I’ve worked towards getting better and getting better, and now the people that inspired me know I exist, and that’s just so cool.”
