Dekmantel Mix Series Archive 1-500

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Dekmantel Podcast 346 - Anastasia Kristensen Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

@anastasiakristensen has been offering a new definition of techno for the last five years. When she plays, she plays from the heart, with unbridled energy and a rare sense of colour. She can bang out brutal beats then pivot in an instant to hi-NRG synth riffs. She'll mash up old school breaks and bleeps then rave to the future on a wave of electro. Her productions are just as impactful on labels like Houndstooth and Arcola. Yet despite the seriousness of her skills and the intensity of her sounds, she always plays with a smile. The Danish DJ pulls no punches on this week's mix. It seems to encapsulate her every side - peak time festival rave as well as more nuanced back room selections. What unites it all are the drums, which can always be felt as much as they can be heard. Sometimes they bounce under a sparse synth line. Midway through they are raw, flat-footed, unrelenting. Towards the end, they unravel into a flurry of jungle breakbeats. It's not easy to play such high-energy music but keep things dynamic, yet Anastasia does it with style.

Dekmantel Podcast 345 - KG Aug 09, 2021

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Karen "KG" Nyame (@karennyamekg) has been dubbed the “Goddess of Rhythm,” and for good reason. Her body-popping sounds draw from restless African polyrhythms, the high-energy drum patterns of diasporic club music and the boom of UK bass. KG herself is as restless as her music - she works as a presenter on Capital Radio, produces for labels like Black Acre and Future Bounce, and teaches at her own music workshops in collaboration with Red Bull Music. KG continues to twist up the world's many musical cultures with this week's podcast. Although she can at times go dark and heavy, here she tends to draw for deeper moments. There are passages of super silky and vocal deep house, elastic drum tracks and infectious UK funky tunes that are all seamlessly fused together into something with a seductive sense of flow.

Dekmantel Podcast 344 - Kush Jones Aug 03, 2021

Show notes

There is no way to neatly sum up what @kush_jones does. Part of that is because the Bronx native is so relentless. Part of it is because he makes music purely for himself, self-releases most of it and therefore depends on no one. This year alone he's put out at least five releases. There have been footwork singles, house and breaks EPs, electro tunes and the 13th installment in his tool-y compilation series, Strictly 4 My CDJZ. He is just as flexible as a DJ, threading together Black music from across a global spectrum that can take in the sounds of Baltimore, Detroit and Jersey in the same set. This is exactly what happens in this week's mix. The tempo is high throughout, but that never restricts what Jones can do. He is still able to explore plenty of nuances and shift the mood and groove while racing along at speed. Super sweet and soulful juke melts away into a flurry of jungle drums. Blistering warehouse techno builds to breaking point then club music takes over. It makes for a breathless but beautiful 65 minutes.

Dekmantel Podcast 343 - ISAbella Jul 26, 2021

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"Since I was a little kid I have found a safe space in music," said ISAbella (@bellasalmonella) on her Instagram recently. Nowadays, the Colombian DJ uses music to create those same safe spaces for other people. She is a resident at Barcelona's influential Macarena club, where she runs the Mistress night which aims to empower women and give visibility to the underground. She is also co-founder of MARICAS, a queer night that has hosted parties in Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam and spawned a vinyl-only label that launched in 2020 with a thrilling EP of house, breaks and electro from ISAbella herself. All that features in this week's podcast, which is a smooth and serene trip to the deepest recesses of the dance floor. It finds ISAbella laying down bumping drums and punchy rhythms throughout, but always with a sense of warmth and positivity. There are heady cosmic melodies, nostalgic chords and sci-fi motifs among the way. At times things feel futuristic, at others, there is a sense of retro familiarity, but it adds up to a mix as stylish as it is effortless.

Dekmantel Podcast 342 - Loraine James Jul 19, 2021

Show notes

London's @lorainejames is as experimental as electronic artists get. She doesn't just make hard to categorise music, she makes music for which there are often no words. Depending on your mood, her sounds can suit either full-on dance floor workouts or reflective home listens. That has been the case across two standout albums on Hyperdub, both of which explore vulnerability and identity across tracks that fizz with ideas and energy. The most recent, Reflection back in June, came with snippets of interior monologue. They lay bare James's most intimate feelings while the beats around her continue to act as something of a safety blanket. This week's rule-breaking mix features a number of Loraine's tunes including the unnamed and exclusive opener, plus a flurry of beats from peers like FaltyDL, object blue, Squarepusher and Djrum. They make for a full body workout that twitches your every synapse one minute then sink you into a deeply seductive club sound the next. The transitions from hyper-polished and futuristic rhythms to live jazz drums, or icy dub to glitchy IDM, would seem impossible on paper, but in practice, they are executed perfectly.

Dekmantel Podcast 341 - MoMA READY Jul 15, 2021

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@moma_ready arrived on a wave of acclaim that hasn't at all subsided in the four or so years since his debut. The NYC-based skateboarder and musician runs the Haus of Altr label and also makes ambient, as well as films. He has had particular success producing with AceMo as AceMoMA, such as on April's standout album, A Future. As the title suggests, it took in the dustier end of 90s jungle, rough-edged house and Detroit techno, but turned out something forward-looking. Whatever MoMA Ready does, it comes through a proudly Afrofuturist lens, always with unbridled energy and the ability to make you question everything you thought you knew. This week's mix packs an awful lot in. It - of course - eschews the traditional model of a slow build towards a peak-time workout. Instead, the music just goes where MoMA wants, whenever he wants. Even the transitions play second fiddle to the selections, which is fine when the tunes are this good. Some are deep, some are smooth, there are lo-fi bangers and seductive rollers. It's the sound of a DJ going all in without a care in the world.

Dekmantel Podcast 340 - TSVI Jul 05, 2021

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TSVI's (@tsvisions) sound is rooted in techno but takes in a whole world of influences. Some of it is real - flecks of the Indian classical music he grew up around, bits of traditional Sufi Muslim music from his partner, or the UK funky drums that have permeated his ears while living in London. And some of it is surreal, such as dream states and altered states of consciousness. Most of this comes on the Italian-born artist's own Nervous Horizon label such as his recent Sogno EP. But next up is a new album, Unison, as Paraadiso with audio-visual artist Seven Orbits. It is a project inspired by Italian folk music, noise and ancient choral acoustic compositions, and it focuses on the collective experiences of music that we have all so dearly missed. Across this week's 90 minute podcast, TSVI drags us deep into a world of rhythm. His bold, punchy drums take on all forms from techno to drum & bass, club to dub, and plenty in between. It is thrillingly intense and perfectly physical music that taps into the primeval urge to dance that we all have buried deep inside of us.

Dekmantel Podcast 339 - Terrence Dixon Jun 28, 2021

Show notes

Detroit and techno are inseparable. And it doesn't get much more Detroit techno than @terrencedixon. A master of minimalist sound design and globally recognised stamp of authenticity, he is one of the Motor City's most prolific artists. His brand of "forward-thinking ghetto electronics" has come on cornerstone labels like Metroplex, Tresor and Rush Hour and is never less than thrilling. His recent Reporting From Detroit album was the latest testament to that, and this week's podcast continues on that theme. It is made up of all original material recorded on the West Side of the city but starts in an ambient world of distant stars. After those scene-setting sounds come the signature Dixon drums: deep, pulsing, rubbery. They come and go as you voyage through tortured synth tension, suspensory alien life forms and mysterious electronics. It all makes for a storytelling mix that takes you through a portal and into a whole other dimension.

Dekmantel Podcast 338 - Bok Bok Jun 21, 2021

Show notes

It's hard to overstate the role @bokbok has had in shaping the sound of the UK underground over the last decade. Along with his Night Slugs label and the effervescing eco-system of artists around it, he has been a master mutator of everything from grime to bass, techno to r&b. Pairing thrilling futurism with innovative functionality has always been his MO, whether DJing, working on his own tunes, or producing for the likes of Warp's Kelela. In March he continued to push on with new label AP Life, which launched with a collection of UK drill and grime instrumentals from Nammy Wams. Bok Bok has always been about the club. Everything he touches is designed to make them as dynamic and interesting as possible. Although those spaces remain off-limits to us for another few weeks, this week's mix will transform any setting into a dance floor with its punchy rhythms and Day-Glo colours. Muscular drums remain a foundation throughout, whether getting funky, broken up or slammed down hard. On top of those, the sleek samples and synths bring a subtly euphoric mood - a perfect tease for the big return that is just around the corner.

Dekmantel Podcast 337 - Spekki Webu Jun 14, 2021

Show notes

Dutchman @spekkiwebu likes to take you to moments of sonic spiritualism. His take on electronic music is as a soundtrack to mind-expanding space travel and internal reflection. His Mirror Zone label has become home to some of the sound's best new artists, often with a psychedelic edge. Webu's extraterrestrial selections also reach into Goa, jungle and breakbeat, all of which add widely varied tones, textures and tempos to his storytelling mixes. Initially, this week's podcast is a deeply immersive trip through the farthest reaches of our universe. After spending time with only alien life forms and solar winds for company, sleek techno rhythms slowly take hold. Says Spekki, "Taking you all on a journey to your inner self. Self-healing is what we need in these times. In order to see the light, we must first embrace the darkness. A balanced journey through meditative vibrations on the astral plane, eventually coming back down to the next experience of life. Are we ready or not? Have we learned enough or is the soul still to learn?" You'll have to tune in to find out.

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