Dekmantel Mix Series Archive 1-500

A vast technical understanding underpins the work of Rotterdam's @albertabalsam. It allows her to deconstruct norms and rebuild music with her own rules as she draws on electro, IDM, heavy techno, broken beats and avant-acid sounds. This has made her a firm favourite at artful events all across Europe where she joins the dots between outlier sounds while never forgetting to get people dancing, while also releasing on our label, Carista’s United Identities and Tzusing. Alberta's quest to do the impossible, her passion for sci-fi motifs and a love of 90s vibes all shine through in this week's mix: it's a hard-to-define trip through elastic bass and out-there rhythms. Icy and sparse electro makes way for unhinged drum flurries and sleazy broken beats, freaky sound designs sit next to weirdo vocals and leave you wondering WTF? while loving every second of the maverick musical madness.

UK dance music has always been defined by its eclecticism. And few artists capture that better than @yazzus-1. Both her sets and her productions are turbocharged tornados that collide rave, breakbeat, techno, jungle and footwork. They are playful and knowingly over-the-top, take in plenty of bootlegged edits and have landed her on labels like Diplo's Mad Decent, Mall Grab's Steel City Dance Discs and the legendary Hospital. She co-runs her own Rave Litany party and has DJed as part of the 6 Figure Gang so basically never takes her foot off the gas, whatever she is doing. It is no surprise then that this week's mix is one of the most hard-hitting we have had in a while. Everything is turned up to 11, from the fast mixing style to the faster beats. It explores all kinds of techno from bass heavy to twitchy, raved-up to old-school nose-bleed. Later on, there are warp-speed explorations of juke, footwork and club that leave you gasping for breath but desperate for more. Strap in!

For as long as there has been footwork, there has been Jana Rush (@jaru-1). The Chicago-born pioneer started on the decks aged just 10 and was producing not long after. Since the mid-nineties, she has put out music that endlessly innovates within the juke and footwork framework. Her coiled rhythms and stripped-back drums are the vehicles for emotions that range from anguish to empowerment. Last year she dropped her second album Painful Enlightenment on Planet Mu and it was a frank listen that spoke of her struggles with depression. This week's mix is a controlled but chaotic fusion of all elements of footwork from the silkier and more melodic side to heavy jungle rhythms and on through electro-tinged bangers. It is brilliantly hyperactive as it ducks and dives through so many emotions, and it finds Jana packing so much in over the course of an hour that it feels like you have been locked in all night long.

American @tonebnimble has been a vital part of the dance music underground since growing up in Chicago in the mid-eighties. He's one of those artists who has always stayed under the radar but is a firm favourite with those who know, from Sadar Bahar to Gilles Peterson. Part of that is because of the faultless labels he runs which shine a light on both lesser known and more modern soul, disco and gospel gems. First, there was Al-Tone Edits with Al Bum, and then came Rain&Shine which put out eight volumes of Tone's magnificent Soul is My Salvation series. All of these life-enriching sounds old and new are served up on this week's mix in a positively uplifting fashion. It's a glorious selection of soul-stirring songs, funky disco bombs and golden gospel grooves that work in just about any setting, at any time of day. Mixes as irresistible as this are as much education as they are entertainment, and they should really make us thankful for diggers like Tone B. Nimble who work so exhaustively to bring us such high-grade musical pleasures.

@orpheuthewizard is one of the many jewels in the Amsterdam scene, as well as being a regular with us here at Dekmantel. He's one of those DJs who was born for the backroom, a place where his curveballs and oddities make for subversive soundtracks that span sounds and scenes from across the decades. For that reason, he is an ever-popular guest on stations like NTS and can either cast you adrift in the cosmos or lock you in with a cold wave beat. He's in a club-ready mood on this week's mix and it's one that proves exactly why they call him Orpheu The Wizard: it's a journeying selection of intergalactic tracks that bang and bounce in many different ways. There are nostalgic retro-future workouts mixed into brain-boggling trance-techno cuts, rave bombs and bright progressive classics all upping the energy levels and leading to your eventual take-off. Strap in!

Coco Bryce (@cocobrycebeats) is a veteran of the drum & bass scene, but also one of its most cutting-edge artists. The Breda-born DJ and producer is a master of intricate drum patterns and superbly warm and emotive pads. His silky, soulful sounds some with deft vocals and proper piano riffs that are always on the more minimal end of the spectrum, but still make a lasting impact. Next to his own Myor label, he has landed on the likes of Critical Recordings, Lobster Theremin and Fresh 86, and in 2022 alone he has put out at least six different EPs. True to his prolific form, this week's mix is packed with his own exclusive and unreleased tunes as well as gems from Paradox, Denham Audio and DJ H. It adds up to an absorbing hour of stylish and stripped-back rhythms that both float in the cosmos and root you to the dance floor. Lush chords and subtle waves of euphoria permeate the whole mix and make it as emotionally touching as it is physically moving.

@monotronique hails from Kharkiv, which is one of the cities affected most by the war in Ukraine. Before the invasion, he had become one of its most definitive DJs thanks to his residency at Zhivot. That was the platform that helped him break out on the European scene with his brand mix of house, techno and bass. Drawing on those genres, his productions pair minimalism with experimentalism and have come on the likes of Livity Sound, Opal Tapes and Banoffee Pies. This week's mix is an epic one spread across two and a half hours which showcases Monotronique's ability to start slow and build a fantastic mood. Nothing is rushed here as the electronics go from deep and dubby to smooth and seductive. House, techno and raved-up breaks all build the pressure then well-placed moments of euphoria break out to release the pressure before things build once again. It's a brilliantly balanced mix from this essential Ukrainian.

@flore is adept in many different fields. She was Ableton's first certified female trainer in her native France. She pioneers a leftfield take on bass with her own music and heads up the crucial POLAAR label. Her explosive sense of energy and ever-curious mind draws on the fundamentals of Jamaican sound system culture and embellishes it with the new music she is constantly searching for. Across two full-lengths she was ahead of the curve, first with a unique take on bass, and then a futuristic techno offering on 2020's Rituals. Guessing what might come next is part of her appeal. In a little over an hour on this week's mix, Flore whips through 30 thrilling tracks. Almost every single one has a different rhythm, some pound, some skip, some float. There are jungle throwbacks, future club tracks and manic acid cuts that make for a full-throttle ride, but always with a sense of control that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Like many of his generation, @lefto Early Bird has gained a global following because of his radio shows. Broadcasting on the likes of Studio Brussel, Kiosk Radio and Worldwide FM from his base in Brussels, he's become a beacon of good taste whether dropping jazz, new beat, house or hip hop. He manages to make seemingly unrelated sounds make sense in the same context and is just as versatile in the DJ booths of Europe's best clubs and festivals. He plays for us at Dekmantel Selectors later this year and is sure to serve up one of his magic musical melting pots. This week's mix is just that, with a brilliantly broad selection of tracks from Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Kerri Chandler, Synkro and Kendrick Lamar just some of those he weaves in. It makes for something that manages to transport you to a sun-kissed beach, a prohibition-era speakeasy and then a boogie-fuelled dance floor in the blink of an eye. You are sure to be left wondering how on earth he does it all.

For the last decade, the tireless work of Tel-Aviv quartet Maor Anava, Zach Bar, Yoav Magriso and Ariel Tagar has been shining a light on magnificently obscure and previously forgotten Middle Eastern sounds. As a DJ crew and label heads of Fortuna Records, their carefully curated reissues focus on the psychedelic end of the spectrum and give their Israeli homeland the exposure it deserves. Their NTS show is another bastion of good taste and takes in everything from Arabic pop to acid, free jazz to traditional Arabic sounds. This week's mix is a similarly freewheeling selection that is steep in hypnotic Arabic music, transcendental instrumentals and curious grooves. It makes for an intoxicating listen with snaking melodies that lead you down a rabbit hole before loose-limbed Middle Eastern rhythms carry you to the edge of the dance floor and back again. Add in leftfield dub and ritualistic vocals and you have an authentic snapshot of a unique musical world.

For @eliasmazian, music is a time capsule - a form of transport to somewhere safe and secluded away from every day worries. It is a way for the Dutchman with Moroccan roots to express his deepest emotions and connect the music of his childhood with contemporary sounds from around the world. He showcased this with us at Dekmantel Connects back in 2021 and always in the music he makes. He crafts a moody and atmospheric start to this week's podcast with melancholic melody over languid beats. There's then a slow shift to the dance floor before party-starting house jacks your body with plenty of hands-in-the-air pianos and ever more pumping basslines. It's a high-energy selection that wears its heart proudly on its sleeve.

Composer, DJ and sound artist @yu_su is Vancouver-based but China-born and she makes music that travels just as far. It is rooted on the dance floor but with influences that span a wide array of emotions, styles and scenes. From jazz to ambient to organic synthesis, wistful texture to her own multi-instrumental skills, she brings a new style of composition to her work. That was best exemplified on her adventurous and accomplished 2021 album Yellow River Blue which picked up plenty of critical acclaim. Her mix for us this week brings Su's signature blend of dub, downtempo, house and trippy leftfield electronics. She says, "Once again, the story has a start and an end, but you could be anywhere you want inside the journey." She's not wrong - it is a living and breathing selection packed with cultural references, interesting rhythms and carnival atmospheres that is perfect for out door dancing under the sun with music from Pearson Sound, Jimmy Edgar, Midland, Carl Craig and many more.

@kiernan-laveaux is a boundless ball of chaos energy - an adventurous spirit, conducting the binary dissolving forces of our world that are reflected & transmuted through the unbridled passion contained within her DJing. The Cleveland artist's mission is "to channel love and understanding to dancers of open mind and spirit everywhere." Since 2014, her ethos of community building, personal autonomy, & transportative psychedelia has grown to encompass the multiversal creators of possible worlds everywhere, the In Training, Heaven is in You, & Disco Paradiso parties that traversed the wormhole of limitless expression & jouissance together in Cleveland from 2014-2018, & the Motherbeat raves that continue to manifest sporadically throughout our known universe. The music she plays is impossible to pin down in genre terms, but is unified by it's restless sense of ecstatic momentum, dissonant euphoria, & kinetic exuberance. Her 80-minute mix for us this week is jam-packed with a little bit of everything, from peak time and head melting techno to heavenly electronics and Earth moving beats. The twisted rhythms and quick mixing style keep the whole thing moving at a real pace and move you ever closer to a transcendental state of dance floor psychedelia.

@dee_diggs plays with a sense of rapture that can be soft or heavy, but is always fun. The East Coast selector is Brooklyn-based, and that's where her House of Diggs party offers a place for marginalized groups to express and organize themselves. Next to this, she has a residency at Public Records but no matter where she plays, you can be sure it is always with real respect for the Black roots of house, techno and disco while touching on everything from sensual grooves to euphoric thumpers. This week's mix is a seat-of-your-pants selection that is unashamedly party-focussed. The good vibes flow from the first moment as Dee races through passionate house and vocal laced classics. There are moments of all-out hands in the celebration next to boogie workouts and a heart-swelling Mariah Carey edit. It's a quick, tight, and impossibly enjoyable listen from this cultured party-starter.

Peach's DJ bio simply reads: "Ball of energy." And that's exactly what she brings each and every time. The Toronto-born, London-based DJ has made high impact, thrillingly eclectic sets an art form in the last few years having first started to turn heads with her brilliantly broad radio shows on NTS. Her dynamism also carries over into the music she has produced for labels like Midland's Intergraded and Shanti Celeste and Gramrcy's Peach Discs. Peach's signature passionate style runs all the way through this week's mix. From the flurry of jungle breakbeats that open it up to the prickly bass, frenetic club rhythms and euphoric rave of the midpoint, it's an unrelenting ride. The second half becomes more spaced out, with roomier cuts and hypnotic grooves carrying you through the night and into the next morning. @ohpeach

As co-founder of the MNML SSGS blog, Chris SSG was at the heart of dance music's most pressing discussions and cutting edge sounds from 2007 - 2012. Though originally from Melbourne, he has been based between Osaka and Tokyo for some time. It is in that city that he has hosted a number of events while also playing his own ambient, techno and experimental sets further afield around Japan as well as at European clubs like Nachtdigital, Sustain-Release and Berghain. He says of this week's mix, "Half-jokingly I describe my style as ‘big room ambient’. Well, for two years, I did not play in any rooms, big or small. Then, finally I did, again, and this was what happened. This is the recording of an extended extended ambient and deep space session at a chill out party in Tokyo. I tried to play in a way that really captures my approach to playing ambient, moving between different energies and making contrasts, while featuring many of my favourite artists. This was a special experience for me, and I am very grateful to be able to share it with you." And he does just that over the course of four absorbing and compelling hours. Myriad different worlds are explored from textured and tense to blissed out and beautiful, but the whole mix is held together with a narrative arc that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Oliver Hafenbauer is a quietly influential artist who, for many years, shaped not only his local Frankfurt scene but also the wider electronic underground through his work with the legendary Robert Johnson club. In 2019 he stepped away from his roles there and has made his own mark. He is an accomplished DJ who takes his expert selection of house, IDM, techno and electro all around Europe, and also runs his left-of-centre Die Orakel label where artists are free to serve up their most experimental sounds. This week he comes live and direct into your life with a timeless mix of club-ready beats that showcase exactly what he does so well. It's a balanced cross-section of robust four-four sounds that swerve fads and eschew any frills in favour of different textures and bass weights. Some are dark and heavy, others are more sleek and hypnotic, and the whole thing is held together with a sense of energy that makes the 60 minutes pass in an instant.

Over the past decade, Santiago-born, Mexico-based producer @tomasurquieta has harnessed his own brand of noise. His sounds are heavily textured, often distorted, and range from hammering techno bangers to intense flurries of drums and caustic synths. It is protest music that gave rise to his excellent 2018 long player Duenos de Nada and has continued to challenge the system ever since with a mix of futuristic and political, anarchic and metallic 12"s. This week's podcast was recorded on a cold night in Brooklyn and the idea behind it was simple but effective, says Tomás. "I put together some new and old tracks I’ve played in my recent gigs." As such it is a fine snapshot of what to expect from him in the club right now - bold rhythms, dystopian moods and plenty of industrial, ambient and IDM influences. It's a physical selection that is constantly on the move and densely packed.

@biancalexis brings a whole new level to the world of eclectic DJing. Anyone who has regularly tuned into her radio sets for dublab or NTS will know that there is no limit to what she might play. It isn't just the electronic spectrum she traverses with ease, but also soul, synth-pop, folk, post-punk, soft rock and myriad other sounds. She also knows how to hold down a vibe in the club, either at her Standard Downtown LA residency or anywhere else around Europe. Later in summer, she will play at both Lente Kabinet Festival and then Dekmantel Selectors, but first... Bianca keeps one foot firmly on the dance floor with her mix this week. That's not to say it is a traditional club set, but the whole thing is underpinned by a very seductive and danceable groove that is always slowly building. There are proto-house cuts, dusty and analogue 80s rhythms, flashes of acid and breezy, feel-good sounds that send you off on a high. It is a perfect taster of what to expect from this exciting break-out selector.

Experimental sound artist KMRU(@kamarujoseph)is a master of quietness. His music is as much about empty space as it is the delicate field recordings that fill it in. The Kenyan artist has been perfecting this balancing act from his base in Berlin, most notably on 2020 full-length Peel. It's a record of slowly unfolding synth beauty and drawn-out drone mindfulness. Soft focus chords bleed and blend into one another like different shades of watercolour paint and the environmental nature of the sound sources lends it a gorgeously natural atmosphere. For this week's most meditative mix, KMRU puts together an hour of soothing sound in a painterly fashion. It is unhurried but always going somewhere thanks to a gentle underlapping rhythm, expansive synth arc or little hiss of static. What sounds like distant vocal calls drift in and out of the mix which at times is like a recording from the furthest recess of the cosmos, at others the pleasant ambiance you might hear out of a Berlin window on a sunny afternoon.

@shannensp has made big moves in quick time. After teenage years immersed in the sound system culture of nights like SubDub in Leeds, she moved to London and started working with Hyperdub, produced with hosted on NTS, and then took off as a DJ. She has a sound rooted in the black music that exists around the edges of traditional house and techno. Be it kuduro, dancehall, bass, kwaito, hip hop or whatever else, it is always right at the cutting edge. As has always been the case with her mixes, this week's podcast is another carefully assembled collection of diasporic sounds. There are high-pressure percussive workouts and juke rhythms, heavy Afrocentric techno sounds and flurries of crashing breakbeats that lead into acid-dancehall. It's an intense selection that could only be held together by a DJ with some serious chops.

@tammohesselink has always been enthralled by rhythm. He explores the unknown areas in between the UK's broken beats and hypnotic trans-Atlantic techno. Hailing from a small town, he did things himself to start with and soon turned heads with his respected The Invariants label. After that began to get wider attention for its spacious and supple sounds, he went on to become a regular on Nous'klaer Audio and has just minted another new label, Real View Memory. The first EP, Borrowed Wheels, touches on percussive techno abstractions, halftime drum & bass and deep, atmospheric bass. All of that comes out in this week's mix. It is a 90-minute showcase of Tammo's ability to lay down body-popping rhythms. Sometimes they are silky and seductive and worm their way deep into your psyche, at others that are heavy, upfront and smack you over the head. The skillful balance between the moments of airy suspense and dense, unrelenting drums is what makes this selection so compelling.

@adab arrived at a love of electronic music on the dance floor of queer-run techno party In Training in their native Cleveland. Before long, they went on to established themselves as a DJ who plays electric sets of house, techno and club beats as part of a constant quest to "seek the unifying elements in the world and themselves." The Pittsburgh resident and radio regular is now half of Cleveland party Heaven is in You and has an international profile that is only set to grow as they continue to confound expectations with each new set. That starts with this week's mix, which is an other-worldly trip into genre-less electronics. Dense and cinematic ambiance and sound design set the opening scene - it's a world of searching synths and shadowy alien life forms in which a skeletal rhythm eventually appears. Deconstructed dub, club and jungle flavour the ensuing grooves which are heads down and dark. They evoke all manner of dystopian futures and make for a brilliantly unconventional ride.

Vivian Koch (@kochvivian) has real range. For labels like Life And Death, a.r.t.less and AD 93 she has served up everything from IDM to moody breaks, ambient soundscapes to emotive techno. Her most recent album - last year's ominous but hopeful Beyond Contact - was fine proof of that from the Berlin-based artist who started DJing aged just 16. She has since mastered the art of making and playing club music thanks to her residency at Griessmuehle and her own Olympe party series. She very much eases into this week with a superb ambient selection. It's broad in its remit, with the most beautiful and suspensory pieces bleeding into gently suggestive rhythms. The moods, too, range from mind-emptying bliss to passages of hopefulness and even romance. It's the sort of cathartic listen we all occasionally need to immerse ourselves in as a way of resetting.

Tarzsa (@tarzsa_williams) has quickly become a firm favourite amongst lovers of electronic soul. From her hometown of Manchester, she secured a radio residency with NTS and DJ residency with the local Swing Ting crew, both of which have served as platforms for her to showcase her selections. They span hip hop, soul, r&b, jazzy dance styles and can go from laidback sessions to peak time party. Ahead of a busy upcoming festival season, she lays down an uplifting mix to start your week off right. It is built from loose but seductive grooves that take in delicious deep house, seductive broken beat and glowing jazz-funk with plenty of heart and soul to spare. Not only are the selections here electric, but Tarzsa's ability to join the dots between them so smoothly is also what makes her such an exciting new talent.

For American artist @nick-klein, music is a gateway deep into our collective and individual psyches. He explores loudness as a form and "the sociology and ideology that presents in self-identifying music subcultures." He does this with his own @psychicliberation label, we all as with music on the likes of L.I.E.s and Viewlaxx. Next up for this prolific producer is a forthcoming double album - roughly his 15th overall - on IDEAL that will continue to explore the fringes of electronic sound with a bank of trusted modulated synths. Of this week's mix, Nick says, "Happy Valentine's Day! The hour of material here is a collage of releases that have come out in the previous three years on my label Psychic Liberation, or the collaborative installment of releases between Enmossed and Psychic Liberation known as ENXPL. Here you have layers of material that map the cloud of my music listening consciousness. The interior includes artists who have participated on PL since the 2013 inception. Artists like Berlin's Wilted Woman, ENXPL artists Bridget Ferrill or Rene Nunez's Horoscope project, the PL Seoul based crew of Yeong Die, Jiyoung Wi, and Joyul, prolific Iranian brother band powerhouse of Saint Abdullah, and founder of the Enmossed label Glyn Maier are found braided through each other sonically. "While a lot of the work here isn't directly oriented towards the club setting, it could be congruous as an epilogue to an evening's more psychedelic potential. It is interesting to see how broadly sonic aesthetics in electronic music have shifted in the absence of major clubs operating at capacity, if at all. I am pleased to share pieces of what has been in my head as an obsessive listening journey and the process of documentation throughout that time. Thanks to Dekmantel.”

@bjarki is relentless. The Icelandic artist has admitted in the past he is obsessed with making music. And since his debut in 2015 there has been a lot of it - six albums and plenty of EPs, mostly on Nina Kraviz's трип, !K7 and his own bbbbbb label. It is always bold and innovative whether taking the form of a straight up club banger or abstract IDM composition. He has released it under more than 10 different names, and what unifies it all is its experimental spirit. You could say the same about this week's podcast, which begins with kiddie favourite 'The Birdie Song' before slipping into spoken word monologues, ice cold broken beats and twisted rhythms. They unfold at a relentless pace, with quick and seamless transitions from electro to techno to club music immersing you deep in Bjarki's unique sonic psyche. The cumulative effect is like a busy collage; an outpouring of captivating music from an overactive mind.

Sekan (@sekansekan) is, like many of his Dutch peers, known for his eclecticism. He has a particular fondness for exploring the music and artists of the Indonesian archipelago, but also a love for contemporary sounds, both of which are evidenced on his label Jiwa Jiwa. Over the years, it has grown into a multidimensional platform that also deals in photography, articles and films. Whatever he does, including his Operator Radio residency, you can be sure that Sekan mixes up rough edge analog textures with more sleek and modern digital sounds. The first 85 minutes of this week's mix features some of the old and new Indonesian records that have fascinated him since his childhood, but also plenty of dubs, Chicago bangers and club stuff. The latter section then takes inspiration from coming back home from a club to unwind with slow jams, jazz-funk and Polish jazz. It slowly rebuilds and re-energises, eventually leaving you ready to head back to the club and do it all again.

Russian-born Anastasia Vtorova makes music that is autobiographical in style, but also in name. The titles of @machinewoman's tracks reference things like her favourite bouncers ('Camile From OHM Makes Me Feel Loved’) as well as her least favourite genres ('I Want to Fuck Tech House'). The beats themselves bare the hallmarks of the different chapters of her life, from the industrial she was first exposed to growing up in a post-Soviet environment to the late-night eeriness of Salford where she lived before moving amongst the minimal rhythms of Berlin. All this came out most recently in her distinctly glitchy, mechanical sounds and abstractions for toucan sounds with Derek Muro late last year. This week's mix feels like a continuation of that, with spacious after-dark electronics, moody ambient and shadowy dub techno soundtracking a walk through a desolate network of abandoned warehouses. Ghoulish sounds lurk around every corner as the pace picks up, with the occasional ray of light, drip of water or hallucinatory synth pulling you ever further into her world. It's a fascinating place to be.

Roniere Santos was born and raised in the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil. The streets on which he grew up were often alive with music from local rap heroes, funky old school dance legends and heralded MCs such as Proibidão, Primo and Barriga. It is those sounds that inform and infuse the music he now makes and plays as RHR (@rhrmusiq), whether it's electro with a self-proclaimed ghetto twist or techno with hints of grime. After a debut on OMNIDISC in 2019, RHR has self rebased his music which seems only right given that it operates in its own musical universe. The Brazilian invites us deep into that world on this week's mix, which is a 90-minute exploration of broken rhythms and scuffed-up textures. There are shades of everything from club to techno, gqom to jungle as the sounds unfold with a constant sense of movement that keeps you on your toes. Later on, rap and hip hop switch up the vibe and slow the tempo, but your body will keep on popping. This is raw, physical music that shows off a very different side of the Brazilian underground.

@facta & @k-lone93 have been on a roll recently. Their Wisdom Teeth label has seen them put out not only excellent music from Tristan Arp, but also Facta's brilliant downtempo album Blush and K-Lone's recent Zissou EP. Both hail from London but are now Bristol-based and they mix up many of the different styles you'd expect from those two musical hotbeds. Everything from 2-step to Baltimore, post-dubstep to deep house gets distilled into their sets and productions, but always with well-swung drums and high-pressure bass. The pair kick off the New Year for us with a nimble mix that moves smoothly through glossy house depths, stripped-back broken beats and elastic rhythms. There is always a rich layer of percussion, sweet vocal or elegant melody burrowing deep into your brain while the beats keep your body happy. It's a perfectly persuasive listen that eases you off the sofa and back to the dance floor in no time.

@sky_h1 dropped her debut album Azure at the start of December. It was a genre-busting statement that built on all the sounds she has been exposed to since the start. Drum & bass, techno, grime and dubstep all informed the rhythms while her own life experiences contributed to the album's rich emotion. Next to making club music for labels like Creamcake and PAN's sub-label Codes, the Brussels artist has also written for galleries, films and concerts so is adept at making sounds that evoke in a range of different settings. Across her eighty-minute podcast, SKY H1 strikes a perfect balance between potent drum breaks and heady ambient designs. Tracks float through the cosmos then come banging down to earth on a bed of heavy bass. It's a mix that is as well suited to being lost in deep thought as it is thrashing about on the dance floor. Finding emotional nuance amongst such physical sounds is exactly what SKY H1 does best. Find out more about SKY H1 through: https://skyh1.net/

Glasgow's @fergus_clark has a depth of musical knowledge way beyond his years. He is one-quarter of the 12th Isle label, party and radio collective and digs deep into everything from early techno to musique concrete to obscure exotica. Back in 2017 he released a still essential tape on Tasker's 88T label and a thrilling compilation with JD Twitch, Miracle Steps (Music from the 4th World). Both of these releases are indicative of how Clark puts together music with a sense of storytelling, scene-setting and endless mysticism. This week's mix sure does give you a sense of exploration, of journeying through new worlds somewhere in the global south. The music is humid and wet, with tribal vocal chants and digital synths paired with indigenous instrumentation. As you get deeper into the aural jungle, the drums get bigger, proto-house rhythms make you move and you end up at a steamy tropical rave. It is another accomplished and subversive mix from this ever more renowned DJ.

@zvrra is an avant-garde artist by anyone's standards. Her background as a video game developer has a clear influence on the music she makes. That can be anything from industrial to techno, witch house to hip hop, but most often her sounds exist in the intricate spaces in between all that. Her perfectly entitled November album Bizarroland on Avian was a fine example of that, and one united by an eerie darkness that kept you looking over your shoulder. But this week's mix is full steam ahead through a shadowy world of grit and grime. It's a one-hour techno excursion that explores myriad different rhythms from flat-footed to floating, broken to brutal. It is unrelenting from start to finish, building the tension through a mix of texture and tempo, pulling back then going again just when it matters. It speaks of DJ with a unique sense of control and mastery of darkness. To learn about what inspired the mix, how it was put together, the influence of video games on Zvrra's music and about her recent EP, head over to our website to read a quick interview with the artist herself: https://dekmantel.com/editorial/dekmantel-podcast-363-zvrra

@layla-rutherford has been on our radar for a while and finally played for us on the beach at Dekmantel Selectors in the summer. Her first EP came all the way back in 2014 and was an exemplary and delicate deep house offering co-produced by Floating Points. A year later, she returned the favour by providing vocals for his majestic Elaenia album. Since then she has been a regular on the likes of Worldwide FM and NTS with tasteful selections that cover downtempo, gospel, house and plenty in between. Layla recorded this week's all vinyl mix with two decks and an E&S mixer. It is a perfectly homely selection of soulful songs and gospel goodies interspersed with lo-fi rollers from Omar S, well swung US garage and funk nuggets from around the world. There is no formula and no predictable arc to this mix, just plenty of feel-good music served up with love. Perfect.

Standing out in the overcrowded DJ world is not easy. To do so when you're just 17 is almost unbelievable. But that is when Belgian-born AliA (@aliamusicc) first started making people take note of her fresh selections and technical skills on the decks. They were way beyond her years and since then she has gone on to become a resident at Belgium’s HORST Festival and a guest at the likes of Worldwide, Dimensions and Lowlands. This week's mix is pure vibes. It shows off AliA's ability to seamlessly join dots between seemingly disparate sounds: in her hands a transition from lo-fi house to breezy jazz-funk is easy. A lush vocal cut into dark and dirty bass rhythms? No problem. It all adds up to a selection that will be suited to any occasion, from a pre-party warm-up at home to a long drive in your car. Good music is good music, no matter the speed or style, and never is that more obvious than when listening to AliA do her thing.

@mamasnake is at the heart of Copenhagen's blistering techno scene. She plays with a serious amount of speed and showcased that as far back as 2018 when she played for Boiler Room at our Amsterdam festival. But she is also a qualified surgeon, co-founder of Amniote Editions and curator who oversees the release of music, posters, videos and t-shirts. She prefers to keep a low profile and operate in darkened spaces at the dead of night, but with her at the controls, there is no finer place to be. Mama Snake's supple and sublime sound is a mix of sleek techno and uplifting trance. She plays with a tight and technical mixing style and can make you fall in love with tracks you didn't even know you liked. On this week's mix, she charges through kinetic beats and slithering synths that never let up, but never get stuck in a rut. There is always a breakdown to reset the mood, a dreamy lead to take your mind away or a vocal latch on to. They say that speed kills, but when it comes to Mama Snake, speed thrills.

This Friday, @parris_dj releases his long-awaited debut album, Soaked In Indigo Moonlight, on the can you feel the sun label he co-runs with Call Super. The album is rooted in the pop music he loves but characterised by his own inventive rhythms, joyful vocal features and the many different emotions associated with personal relationships. It comes after years of colourful and psychedelic takes on bass and techno on labels like Idle Hands and Hemlock, and marks a new high watermark in his already assured discography. On this week’s mix, Parris threads together all aspects of his sound - there’s restrained bass music, lively grime and novel techno. Each one is skewed through his own lens and served up with compelling energy. Despite the physical results, the dynamic grooves retain the sort of depth and detail that keep your head as busy as your heel.

Pandora's Jukebox (@pandoras-jukebox) is a perfect name for a DJ who always serves up sonic surprises. By day, Yasmina Dexter works as an art director, but in the evening she deconstructs electronic music before reassembling it in hypnotic fashion. Her dead-of-night soundtracks are both trippy and hypnotic whether she is hosting her NTS show or playing as a resident at Cicciolina Paris. Her abstract, slowed-down take on techno joins inconceivable dots between a broad array of sounds and scenes and sounds that leave you enjoyably discombobulated. This week's mix is another irresistible musical mood board from Pandora's Jukebox. Slow in tempo but dynamic with its detail, it unfolds like a half-remembered dream: fragments of melody and a snatched vocal snippet come and go, a well-swung rhythm becomes a bumping beat and shards of percussion fade away into a gorgeous ambient pad, all without fanfare. Put this one on and prepare to get truly lost in sound.

@gwenans' rise through the ranks has always been driven by a love for the music. She hasn't produced any big breakout hit and never dreamt of headlining on a super-sized main stage. Instead, she has quietly honed her craft playing at intimate London parties like Toi Toi and her own Hi Fi, made a successful move to Berlin where she fomented close ties with cultured crews like The Ghost and impressed with her pitch-perfect sets as a resident at London's Pickle Factory as well as the beloved Freerotation in her native Wales. Her sound is rooted in house and techno that is deep and kinetic, but it can stretch way beyond and into a world of leftfield electronics and heady ambient. On this week's mix, Gwenan does what she does best: establishes a groove your body can't resist then slowly tweaks and builds on it for 80 minutes. There are never any big left turns or flashy tracks, just a well-sequenced, neatly mixed and super-tight selection of irresistibly good records. Some go heavy on the bass, some twist and turn on a cosmic synth and some have a machine-made soul that warms you to your core.

Mexico-city based @tristanarp blurred the lines between the synthetic and the organic on his second full-length, Sculpturegardening. Released on Wisdom Teeth just last week, the Human Pitch label boss approached the album as a gardener might approach a landscape: using his array of machines and modular synths he let the music write itself. It's resulted in an album that bristles with glitches, ambient pads, downtempo drums, digital perc and micro-house details that succeeds in its mission to blend the made with the played. With this week's podcast, Tristan - who is also a member of Asa Tone with Melati Malay and Kaazi - aimed to show off all his sides as a producer, listener and DJ. While his album goes beyond the dance floor, here he mixes those styles with what he would play in a club. "Slippery rhythms, levitating environments and everything between these orbits," as he describes it. There are lots of edits, often many tracks are layered up at once and the whole thing plays out with many an unpredictable twist and turn. It's as adventurous and asymmetrical as you would expect from this always innovative artist.

@mannidee finds comfort in vibing off a room full of people who are lost in abrasive textures and high octane rhythms. It is that industrial brand of techno which he has perfected over the years, not least on his new Perc Trax LP, A Low Level Love. It is his second full length after 2018's The Residue on Tresor and shows a marked evolution in his sound. While still defined by blistering drum patterns and caustic synths, there is also plenty of melody and introspection in the record. As much as it is a fresh look for him, it's a fresh sound for techno, too. On this week's podcast, the London based artist goes hard and fast. He pays homage to his love of grime with a blistering industrial rework of a Stormzy track which launches us into a world of distorted drums and tortured synths. The ensuing barrage of sound is coloured with everything from trance chords to club rhythms and lashings of acid. It's a full throttle mix that is always on the move, much like Manni Dee himself.

@airmax97 concocts rhythms and manipulates synths in weird and wonderful ways. His tracks are brilliantly curious and drip with personality while also making you want to move. He layers up textures and atmospheres like a painter spreads oil on canvas and does so with both eyes firmly on the future. Releasing mostly on his own DECISIONS label as well as the likes of Timedance, the multidisciplinary artist works across a number of creative fields from design and art direction to mixing music. Most recently, he has put out his 'Psyllium / Eat The Rich' release on Timedance featuring two highly detailed, sub-heavy bangers. On this week's podcast, he threads together a diverse array of sounds. There are contemporary grime rhythms, heavy bass cuts and stripped-back techno twisters from the likes of Ikävä Pii, Azu Tiwaline and Ayesha as well as plenty of some unreleased exclusives and a host of his own remixes and originals. It's seriously playful and - like his more recent productions - grows increasingly minimal and skeletal as it unfolds, with devastating results.

There is nothing safe about @dis_fig. The Berlin-based artist makes confrontational, unconventional music that harnesses the power of chaos. She initially came up on the New York club scene but was always most interested in the weirder end of the spectrum so moved to Berlin. It is there that she has established herself as someone who operates on the fringes of the dance floor. Her debut album PURGE in 2019 was wrought with emotional turmoil thanks to her own unique vocal work, while the electronics were just as twisted and harrowing. Last year she showed another side to her vocal skills on In Blue, a collaborative album of bass-heavy dreamscapes with The Bug. This week's mix is 90 minutes of fulsome body music, contorting rhythms and exaggerated percussion. The boundaries between club, techno, jungle, rap and bass are blurred as Dis Fig plots a route through them all with great control. Even when tempos jump around wildly, there is no break in the flow, and to end such a high octane ride on the sultry mind nineties r&b of Total is a stroke of genius.

By choice, @mark_seven keeps a low profile. But the truth is, he is one of those low-key but influential characters you really should know. The Stockholm-based Brit is a busy record dealer and online store owner as well as DJ and producer with a penchant for timeless disco and house. He showcases this in his productions, but also via his much-loved Parkway and Parkwest labels which explore both the soulful and more punchy sides of disco and early house. Loosely defined by raw drums, sweet Italo melodies and hints of early garage, this work has made him a firm favourite of everyone from Hunee to Jamie Tiller to Eris Drew. After 30 years in the game, there aren't many aspects of house and disco he hasn't explored. All that feeds into his glorious mix for us, which is in celebration of the 10-year Parkway Records anniversary in mid-October. It is packed with happy, classy tunes and big vocals from across the ages. The crunchy drum textures and tinny melodies, warm basslines and infectious claps all transport you to a utopian dance floor packed with smiling faces and loose limbs. It's a life-affirming selection that will uplift and enrich your soul. https://soundcloud.com/mark_seven https://soundcloud.com/parkway-records

Darwin (@darwinspec) juggles many different roles in dance music as well as she juggles her records in the DJ booth. The Canadian-born, Berlin-based artist runs her own REEF parties at Berghain, and has nurtured a wealth of emerging talents on her SPE:C label. She is also the founder of Clean Scene, a climate action collective that wants to explore a more sustainable future for dance music. They recently authored a stark report about the industry's carbon footprint, which you can read through cleanscene.club/report.pdf. Darwin's sound is rooted in various UK styles, from bass to dubstep, garage to breakbeat. That is evident in the 100-minute mix she lays down for us this week. It opens with thoughts about environmentalism and some indigenous jungle recordings before grinding through chunky Afro drum patterns and supersized bass. The pressure builds throughout, the cavernous rhythms grow ever more muscular as the urge to snake your body becomes overwhelming. It's a perfectly balanced, well-controlled mix that showcases the irresistible power of heavyweight bass music.

Techno has been reclaimed and refined in the last few years. For Ghanaian-American Discwoman associate Akua (@akua_b), that means a deep dedication to bringing forth narratives about the genre's history. It's about original, authentic and rebellious old school values of the sort that Underground Resistance defined so early on. It's about breaking modern expectations with a fresh sense of attitude. Her recontextualisation of techno centres its long lineage for contemporary audiences. All this most often plays out in Akua's blazing sets, most often during the late-night and early morning hours of the clubs around her New York City hometown. They find her transmute 90s nostalgia while connecting the dots between past and present. "Playing fast feels cathartic," she says, "and helps me deal with the nostalgia I have for a time that I never got to experience but remember and connect with so fondly.” This week's mix is a testament to that: it starts with 1994's 'Global Warning' from the late great K-Hand and goes on to cover decades of history at warp speed. There are frenetic layers of percussion and hammering kick drums, bouncing bass lines and arresting rave synths all threaded together into something hugely powerful and muscular. It is only a DJ with Akua's sense of control that can serve up a chaotic collision of sound in such a compelling way. Tracklist K-Hand - Global Warning [Warp, 1994] Voltage 9 - Untitled B1 - Candema [Synewave, 1994] Drax (Thomas P. Heckmann) - Search [Trope Recordings, 1998] Mike Dearborn - Warning [Majesty, 1994] Gene Hunt - Juno 106 [Contaminated Muzik, 1998] NYCO - Plasticity [ESP Collective, 2021] DJ Shufflemaster - 808 Cosmetics [Self-Released, 2018] Mike Dunn - Damn You All [Trax Records, 1994] DJ Powerout - Lift [Synewave, 1995] DJ Slugo - Taris Sleeps Wild [Dance Mania, 1995] DJ Rush - Control Yourself [Djax-Up-Beats, 1999] Fuzz Face (DJ Hyperactive + Woody McBride) - New Ones [Communique, 1996] DJ Slip - Bushwick Birds [Kanzleramt, 2001] DJ Hyperactive - Get In [4 Track Recordings, 2008] Joey Beltram - Caliber [Warp, 1994] Surgeon - THX-1139 (Level) [1996] Creeper - Spoke [Cluster Records, 1997] DJ Jes - True Honesty [Contaminated Muzik, 1998] Tevatron - Molekule [Re-load Records, 1998] Jana Clemen - Momentum [Convex, 2001] Decoder - Populations [Self-Released, 2021] Unknown Force - Internal Drive [430 West, 1995] Bios - Basic Black [Black Nation, 1998] DJ Apollo - Hooligan Stomp [Head In The Clouds, 1996] DJ Genderfluid - Dirty Funker [Wet Trax, 2021] Woody McBride + DJ T-1000 - Test Three [Generator Records, 1995] Fumiya Tanaka - Micro One [Torema, 1995] Max Watts - Ichi 3 [ESP Collective, 2021] DJ Rashad - Acid Bit (Feat. Addison Groove) [Hyperdub, 2013]

@peverelist is one of those artist’s whose legacy is already assured. His labels Punch Drunk and Livity Sound have been at the cutting edge of their own unique musical niches for more than a decade. Fusing their native Bristol’s history of dub, sound system culture and bass, their output deals in endlessly fascinating genre mutations that continue to push electronic music forward. Peverelist’s own captivating rhythms and precise sound designs have always been at the heart of that, bridging the gap between hypnotic techno and heavy bass. And that’s the path he heads down on this week’s mix. The one hour selection weaves a thread through all the sounds you’d find in his orbit - stripped back beat science and Gqom, UK funky and mesmeric dub techno. Always stripped back but never devoid of character, this is physical yet meditative music that taps into that deep desire we all have inside: to move to the sound of pounding drums.

American Kareem Ali (@kmx19) came to dance music late but has very quickly made a big impression. The formally trained trumpeter has a fascination with the cosmos that colours all his music. Over nearly 50 releases he has proven himself adept at making everything from sleek electro to deep house, driving techno to cinematic ambient. The breakout producer also runs his own CosmoFlux label which he hopes will one day become a non-profit that hosts day parties aimed towards young people of colour. In the mix for us this week, he laces together a smooth and seductive set of richly musical house grooves. It is songs that he is playing mostly, with proper chords and gorgeous vocals that always enrich the soul. Ali is a devout man who is averse to dance music's tendency towards hedonism, but his selections here truly uplift. There is a spiritual aspect to what he does that warms the heart and brings joy in a different sort of way.

@cinema-royale is a DJ who plays flawlessly, no matter the setting or style of music he reaches for. As a lifelong lover and collector of film soundtracks, he likes to take the weird and make it wonderful; to make out-of-context moments into transcendental delights. As one of Amsterdam's deepest diggers, he can put records together that no one else can and is part of the core Dekmantel family. In February, he put together his Profondo Nero compilation for the label and made connections between soulful disco, breaks, electro-rap, Balearic, boogie and much more in ways that only he could. This week he takes us deep across a superb two-hour mix. Rather than following the traditional arc of a DJ set, Cinema Royale is happy to pump the party with a glossy retro-boogie gem then pull back to dubby disco vibe. His sounds are always bright and big-hearted, the grooves uplifting and feel good. Like any decent movie, this is a fluid but unpredictable mix that will have you coming back for more time and time again.