Enjoy a new episode in the Dekmantel Mix Series, published bi-weekly.
http://www.dekmantel.com
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Enjoy a new episode in the Dekmantel Mix Series, published bi-weekly.
http://www.dekmantel.com
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Paramida is a breath of fresh air on the Berlin scene. Her sound and style goes against the dark, mono-chromatic, machine made music of most of the city and instead heads in a more colourful and Balearic direction. She pushes a bright and emotional sound, and runs the Love on the Rocks label with a similar aim. She calls herself ‘Berlin’s most hated’ but surely isn’t, instead she’s picking up ever more fans because of her “discofied tropical leanings” and passion for unusual house music. And you can expect plenty of that in her podcast. It soundtracks a slow awakening with retro synths drawing you into, and jumbled grooves ranging from dreamy to sunset in style. The overall vibe is one a late eighties house party in Ibiza with plenty of curveballs and moments of subtle euphoria all included. It’s refreshing alternative to the Berlin sound the world knows and loves, and is a timely and welcome edition to our own series.
Since the end of Sandwell District, Silent Servant has continued to be an influential presence in the techno world. The American’s Jealous God label defies convention and expectation with each release and his own avant guard productions remain utterly unique. Each one speaks to his roots—Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure—by fusing post punk and industrial with techno in chilling ways. His conceptual and sincere aesthetic carries over into his live sets, but also his DJ mixes. This latest one is special indeed: it is a mix of influences, in chronological order and “with only a few hiccups in dates” from 1972 to 2000 and all recorded on vinyl in one take. The resulting hour takes in plenty of those goth and alternative rock sounds, new wave, noise and experimental touchstones he grew up on in Los Angeles, but also seamlessly connects them to the techno that later influenced him so the likes of Kraftwerk, Neon, The Final Cut, Toddy Terry and Jeff Mills all make the cut. From stark and jerky rhythms early on to supple, strobe lit grooves in the second half, this is a personal mix that really tells the story of Silent Servant’s musical evolution.
SØS Gunver Ryberg makes big, powerful music. Hailing from Denmark the former stunt woman turned BAFTA nominated producer and composer lays down driving rhythms and textures for exhiliarating live shows at Berghain, Atonal, and on Boiler Room, or labels like Contort. Often stitching in field recordings to add texture and timbre to her work it adds up to a brilliantly dark and insular experience somewhere between noise and techno. Says the woman herself of her podcast for us, “this is a mix between unreleased tracks, jams and some already released tunes. All music is by SØS Gunver Ryberg except the remix for Else Marie Pade.” The resulting 45 minutes start off as an all out assault: a flurry of synths and frazzled lines, overdriven drums and apocalyptic overtones. But the heaviness subsides and the energy dissipates into muggy and dystopian ambient. Drums do then return and bring with them a real eeriness that makes this an utterly compelling session.
One of many debuts at Dekmantel Festival later in the year will come from Detroit in Effect aka D.I.E, the now solo project of Tameko J. Williams, also known as DJ Maaco. The Motor City artist has roots that run deep into techno and electro and have helped make him one of Detroit’s most under the radar but influential acts. Records like ‘RU Married’ are classic to this day, while other releases on M.A.P. Records helped established D.I.E’s sound as the artists themselves tended to stay out of the spotlight. But this mix will surely put Williams very much back in the headlines: it’s an hour of pure techno and electro heat from the heart of the 313 area code. Quick, slick mixes keep things moving at a real pace as slippery drums and squelchy bass race out of the speakers. Touching on everything from classic Drexciya to timeless vocal cuts, deeper grooves to all out physical assaults, it’s as much a mixing masterclass as it is a real history lesson.
Mafalda has quietly become a truly influential part of the London music scene. Born in Portugal but based in the English capital since 2014, she moved there after a powerful club experience involving Sadar Bahar and has since gone on to create many of her own. Not only does she play at Europe’s most cultured clubs and festivals, but she also co-runs the peerless reissue label Melodies International with Floating Points, DJ Love On The Run and Elliot Bernard, is resident at the much loved You’re A Melody night and worked at Cosmos Records. A serious digger and eye opening selector, she plays moving music with a positive message. In just over an hour here, Mafalda pours out her heart through a series of moving jazz tracks that are imbued with various elements of soul and Afroism. Sweeping vocal tracks range from raw and funk fuelled to blue eyed and sombre. As well as showcasing her ability to dig out high quality music that will have ID requests immediately flooding in, this perfectly sequenced mix is also the sort to get the right club in raptures despite the decidedly non-dance floor nature of the selections. As a DJ, curator and digger, then, Mafalda is one of the best out there right now.
The Maghreban is the most recent alias of an artist who has projects dating as far back as 1995. They deal in everything from drum & bass to jazz, hip hop to techno, and this most recent moniker doesn’t find the producer narrowing down his scope in any way. Proof comes with his debut album 01DEAS on R&S next month. It is a wildly diverse record that takes in 13 different genres studies from afro rock to freak house, jazz beats to dub rollers. Each one is perfectly produced and sounds utterly authentic. It should be no surprise, then, that the hour selection he has put together for us is just as wilfully schizophrenic. It’s a masterful mega mix of sounds and scenes and styles that really shouldn’t go together, but they do. Curious synth jams segue into serene electro, swinging dub house brushes up with horror soundtracks and high summer afro grooves dance next to cosmic disco in effortlessly coherent ways from start to finish.
Hot on the heels of his latest EP on Ninja Tune comes a new podcast from Nathan Fake. An outsider artist since day one, Fake uses cheap and easy-to-acquire technology to make his always idiosyncratic sounds. They have always been leftfield and thoughtful dreamscapes that fuse techno, experimental and ambient together, but have recently tended towards a darker, more intense place. That is played out across the 65 minute selection he has put together for us here. It features unreleased music from Fake and friends, as well as tracks from Karen Gwyer, long time Border Community label mate James Holden, plus Peverelist, Autechre and more. After a synth heavy and beatless start, lo-fi and fuzzy styles of electro, acid and techno all add up to the sort of primal yet intriguing trip you would expect from such a revered underground figure.
Twin Peaks is an improvised partnership made up of DJ Yazi from avant guard hip hop collective Black Smoker Records, and Future Terror resident Haruka. Both hail from Japan and their collaboration first started with a back to back DJ set. It soon—necessarily—evolved into a larger set up consisting of four decks and two mixers that allows the pair to fully realise their vision, which is to serve up a scintillating and diverse mix of sounds and scenes in seamless ways. Hardware is also occasionally added into the mix, but whatever tools they use, the results are always adventurous and expressive. This two hour session is a perfect example of the sort of magic that happens when this pair come together. Opening with otherworldly ambient bliss, psychedelia takes over before soot black broken beats begin to make a more physical impact. Things get ever-weirder from there, whether that’s with passages of spooky dub or paranoid techno. Throughout the session, though, you feel wholly consumed by, and lost in, a convincing parallel world that is as cinematic as it is cerebral.
Max Graef is at the centre of his own little musical world that includes being co-foudner of Money $ex Records and part of the Oye Records and Box Aus Holz crews. It’s a world of loose house grooves, jazzy influences and disco flourishes with lo-fi aesthetics that has spawned two essentials albums—on Tartelet and Nine Tune respectively—as well as countless singles. More recently he has delved into techno, though, proving that he is an inquisitive artist who has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. He is a wizard on a range of outboard gear as well as having some very real playing chops when it comes to keys, guitars and percussion. As a DJ his organic style always comes through, which means his mix for us is an impromptu thing that calls on lots of different grooves. Sometimes hurried and minimal, at others spacious and deep, it’s a showcases of all the many influences that Graef distills into his own productions and is a nuanced listen that stands up to home listening. Included along the way are a couple of forthcoming solo tunes, as well as one with long time musical sparring partner Glenn Astro, so have fun picking them out.
It’s people like Mano Le Tough who make DJing into an art form, as you can tell from the mix he has done for us ahead of our festival in São Paolo this weekend. The connection he makes with dance floors are always as deep as can be; with a real sense of melody, emotion and song like structure, he crafts sets that make a lasting impact on those who hear them. This has resulted in him being one of the busiest DJs on the circuit, on a par with deep house heroes Ame and Dixon, who he plays with regularly. As a producer, his smooth and mellifluous sounds land on labels like Permanent Vacation and more recently Pampa, which is a perfect fit for his curious sense of melody. This week’s mix is an hour of deep house that rumbles through a humid jungle, zones you out with hypnotic vocal tracks and encourages you to day dream amongst distant pads. Even when things turn more towards a techno groove later on, you still remain deeply entrenched in the groove, marching on through to a trippy climax that gently stirs you out of your hypnosis with a real celestial charm.