Dekmantel Mix Series Archive 1-500

@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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Vale Budino describes herself simply as a ‘music lover,’ but ‘music obsessive’ might be more apt. Since moving to Berlin from her native Italy in 2018, she has spent just about every penny she’s earned on records. Afro, Italo, funky, new wave, disco, soundtracks, you name it, she has it. The diversity of her taste slowly but surely won her the ears of people in the know and she became resident for Discodromo and DJ Boris’ party CockTail d’Amore having already founded her own event, Oscillator. In the last year, she has also become Music director and project lead at Terminal of Babylon, “a performative game and a social experiment in authority, fluidity and chance” hosted in Berlin. A grand and theatrical track opens this week's mix as if it were a Hollywood movie from the 60s before crashing beats take you to the heart of the party. There is then a real sense of occasion to each and every mix. Euphoric Italo sits next to sleazy wave, tripped out cosmic minimalism brushes up with disco rap that is high on attitude. Every track is so full of flavour, passion and energy that you cannot help but react in the most physical of ways. What a ride.

For Sydney-based Dutch artist @nadiastruiwigh, ambient is a way of life. It has always been a vehicle for her to convey memories and emotions in slow, absorbing, drawn-out movements that blur the lines between techno, industrial, and something else altogether. It is at the heart of what she does with IAMBient, where you can book online sound healing or spiritual coaching sessions. It often soundtracks the Twitch channel she runs from her studio, offering live sets, gear reviews and more. It has also formed the backbone of the two albums she has put out on Central Processing Unit and Denovali Records, as well as the new one that is due on Nous'klaer Audios later this year. But she can also do deep, sleek, beat-driven music that makes a physical impact. Her Oooso EP for Nous'klaer Audio in March showed that, and this week's mix backs it up. Over the course of an increasingly intense hour, she layers up pressurised drones and throbbing pads, static-laced synths lumpy drums that are constantly ascending. It makes for a distinctly linear sound; a meditation on rhythm and movement that cannot fail to hypnotise anyone who gives it their full attention.

It's not often an artist serves up a debut album as accomplished and complete as @bambounou's XXX in 2012. His ambient synths and techno rhythms were perfectly formed right from the off. Impressively, the Pairs-based artist has still managed to evolve and explore plenty of new ground in the years since, not least in March with the first release on his new label Bambe. It found the straight-up, muscular grooves of his early work making way for a more restrained and minimal sound, where heady repetition and hypnotic pads seem to bend space and time. It's fair to say that all aspects of the Bambounou sound past and present make up this week's mix. It kicks off in high gear, like a caged animal finally let free into the wild. The synths are nasty and twisted, the hammering rhythms never let up and cacophonous percussion keeps the intensity levels high. The frenetic pace remains throughout but there are occasional moments to catch your breath as tracks are stripped back to their bare bones. Ultimately, though, this is a peak time mix from a true techno futurist.

Marseille's Loïc Bodjollé started out making classic Chicago house as Donarra. As good as it was, he has really found his voice as @cardinalandnun. It's a project at the opposite end of the musical spectrum - a place where dreamy grooves and imagined utopias have been replaced by a much more biting reality. Deranged vocals, tortured guitars and punk synths drag you into a world of raw and visceral sound that has found a perfect home on L.I.E.S. Back in March, Ron Morelli's label put out Bodjollé's Dancing In Evil album, a gothic collection of EDM, industrial and electro from the dark side. This week's no holds barred mix takes you right back to the same place in an instant. Clunking factory automation, caustic drones and heavily distorted drum machines lend the mix a sense of architecture that traps you at the centre while repeatedly collapsing around you. What starts as a collage of short, wrecked textures and busted loops eventually turn into a more elongated techno sound. It is blistered, banging and brilliantly suited to the grottiest rave warehouse you could ever imagine.

No one can deny that @conducta is surfing on the crest of garage's new wave. The Bristol-born artist is a dexterous DJ who jumps from style to style, leaving uplifting grooves in his wake. As a producer, he is just as nimble, and his Kiwi Records label and regular mixes have also helped to define a fresh new take on the classic sound. Always bright, sun kissed and never afraid to take on a big tune or recognisable sample, nothing is off-limits for this classy, party-starting DJ. Part of the reason Conducta is so effective is the quickness and precision of his mixes - there is no time to linger when he is in the booth. Instead, you're hurried along from one bumping groove or darkened bassline to the next, and of course, that is the case in this week's mix. Elements of grime, dubstep, 2-step and the odd cheeky bootleg all colour his tightly woven and sun-baked grooves. The result is a mix as fun as it is fresh, and one that effortlessly highlights the fantastic breadth and depth of the current scene.

The B12 story started back in the early nineties when @mikegolding and Steve Rutter helped define the UK's intelligent techno and early electronica scene. Releasing on their own self-titled label as well as Warp, they turned out cult classics like Electro-Soma. From 1996, they took the best part of a decade off before returning in 2008. To this day, the music remains firmly in the future, with sci-fi designs and languid rhythms unfolding in cinematic fashion. And that plays out in this week's brilliantly atmospheric podcast. It's a sensitive journey through an expansive world of glistening electronics and synth-laden sounds. Rhythms nod to IDM, braindance, techno and bass. As the tempos vary, tender and thoughtful passages sit happily next to more muscular and physical workouts. Few artists get such beauty out of their machines as B12.

Tokyo's @sapphire-slows has her own distinctive aesthetic. The music she makes is ghostly and delicate, eerie yet beautiful. The multi-talented artist plays her own synths and keys and layers her own beautiful vocal drones into her tracks to lend them extra intimacy. This of course means she has toured extensively and released on labels such as Japan's Big Love, Greece's Nous and LA's Not Not Fun/100% Silk. Despite often making and playing music with the brain cleansing purity demonstrated on 2017 album Time, Sapphire Slows can also do more caustic and mechanical sounds, as on 2014's Allegoria LP. This week's mix explores a melancholic and introspective mood, but it is never dark. A range of mid-tempo rhythms set the tempo. Sometimes they're dubby and linear, at others more bubbling and off-grid, while the synths above glow like fireflies or glisten like knives in the sun. Organic bird calls float above hyper-real synthetic textures and the overall effect is to cocoon you in suspensory and meditative sound that feels out of this world.

Gavilán Rayna Russom (@gavilanraynarussom) is an accomplished and multi-disciplinary artist who works in the fields of performance, visual art, film, and writing. Musically, the New York composer necessarily works under a wide array of alias in order to capture the broad range of sounds she makes. From experimental drone techno as Hail of Arrows to acid and EBM under her own name via new wave as Black Meteoric Star, to touring extensively with LCD Soundsystem: she is impossible to pin down. In 2020, she founded the Voluminous Arts label as a home for boundary-pushing artists. She also released Secret Passage, an album of ambient created around her memories of growing up in the East Side Rail Tunnel which runs for one mile under the streets of Providence, Rhode Island. Later this year, another full length is due under her Black Meteoric Star alias. As a DJ of 30 year's experience, Rayna is just as free-range, and she demonstrates that is this week's mix. At over three hours long, it is an epic oeuvre with many different chapters. There are passages of fuzzy, distorted ambient with a muted industrial clatter that take you to those underground train tracks, pieces of sound art that pair spoken word with icy wave minimalism, plus thrilling club, rock, and noise selections that are all coated in layers of grit and grime. Keeping the intensity so high, for so long, is no mean feat. But in Gavilán Rayna Russom's hands, it seems effortless.

Wonja (@wonj) is an elite level record collector. The Oakland-based DJ and producer has been putting together mixes for many years that are filled with music that is hard to describe, let alone to find. From teary-eyed Italo disco to her series of Wood Glass Metal mixes via world music and more club ready sounds, she is a Jedi-level digger who also occasionally produces solo, or with partner Dan as Motoko & Myers. Her main priority, though, is to devour and share as much music as possible. This week's podcast is a two hour trip to the outer edges of Wonja's collection that her partner describes as "hard sci-fi party tracks." It is a wide open and spacious selection where alien details, solar pulses and cosmic motifs all drift by as scattered percussion only hints at the most skeletal rhythms. Nothing about the tracks is at all familiar, and all genre terms are redundant. Even when more propulsive grooves do arrive, the sound sources are wonderfully weird and abstract, yet the desire to dance is as primal and compelling as ever. Few mixes are as full of WTF?! moments as this one.

Jordana (@jordanaofficial) is one of America’s most widely respected drum & bass artists. In that field alone, she has already achieved a lifetime’s success and secured her legacy with albums and EPs. These impressive achievements haven’t stopped her also fronting a goth metal band in her Seattle hometown, holding DJ residencies in London, working in radio, performing and recording with Lady Sovereign, remixing Blondie and scoring the ‘Free Cece’ documentary. Just as important to Jordana as her musical achievements is her on going dedication to speaking publicly about trans rights and Black Lives. As a hate crime survivor herself, her activism is close to home and as personal as the music she makes. Whether producing under her own name or aliases such as Lady J, she has an expressionistic, sci-fi influenced sound that is as likely to sample Malcom X as it is Al Pacino, but is always laden with a raw emotional power. That’s laid bare on this week’s two hour mix, which is packed with drum & bass gold, including some exclusives from Jordana herself. It is an exquisite heart-on-sleeve selection that isn’t afraid of a big vocal or a euphoric synth line, but is just as open to a flurry of hardcore breaks and gritty bass. Because there are so many absorbing highs and lows along the way, this is two hours of music that leaves you feeling utterly exhilarated.

We're all familiar with the healing power of music, but the Motor City's Whodat has made it her life's mission to spread that through her DJing and productions. Always coming at music with a sense of sincerity that carries over into her infectious sounds, she has released on the likes of Uzuri, Meakusma, and Queen Mum's Mail. Always uplifting and filled with life-affirming melodies, her take on house is all about feeling good and sharing love. On this week's podcast, Whodat's smooth mixing style allows the glory of her selections to shine though. Despite dealing with difficult personal circumstances of her own, on top of the pandemic we've all endured, her music never fails to bring joy. There is warm and diffusive soul from start to finish, with scuffed up beatdown, off-grid Detroit grooves and seductive deep house all adding up to the sort of heartfelt and authentic grooves that the MidWest, and Whodat herself, are so well loved for.

@lukid is about as low key as they come. Somehow, he's managed to remain in the shadows despite making music - either solo or as half of Rezzett - for cult labels like Actress' Werkdiscs and The Trilogy Tapes, as well as his own Glum. His style is hard to define and can take in anything from caustic sonic collages to experimental and abstract sound design via lo-fi house and blistering beats. Since 2018 he has also made old school jungle as Refreshers, but whatever he does, it always explores the outermost fringes. The same is always true of his never less than adventurous transmissions on NTS each month. In just 55 minutes for us this week, he serves up a breathless trip through hugely kinetic sounds that could be 30 years old or not out till next month. Amongst the colliding energies of hardcore, jungle and rave he will often drop a pitched up vocal so soulful and emotive it hurts, before racing onto the next flurry of drums. Frankly, it's a high speed mix of hyper real sounds that acts like a double shot of adrenaline straight into your bloodstream. You have been warned.

Techno has always been about futurism, but in Russell E.L. Butler's (@russellelbutler) hands it becomes a vehicle for a more inclusive, communal and positive now. The Oakland based producer pairs their stripped back and powerful rhythms with uplifting sound design to make for music that is both defiant yet welcoming to all. They have done so on Left Hand Path, Mister Saturday Night Records and Spectral Sound since 2015, with 2018's 'The Home I'd Build For Me And All My Friends' album being a particularly standout work that showcased Butler's mastery of their machines. In the studio, Butler is most at home manipulating modular machines and making propulsive techno, but as a DJ they expire wider sonic terrain. That's demonstrated on this week's mix, which begins with dystopian atmospheres and heavy rhythms that eventually break out into jerking EBM, bleak cold wave and mechanical house sounds. It's a brilliantly taught and tense selection with a careful smattering of human vocals that keeps it rooted in an approachable realism.

London duo @sicariasound has reinvigorated dubstep by pulling from every side of the 140bpm spectrum. The pair of Ndeko and Imbratura are longtime friends who have an unspoken understanding when it comes to DJing together, as was frequently demonstrated at their residency for Mala's Deep Medi. They also run their own Cutcross label which can serve up sounds that reference anything from breakbeat to grime, rave to bass. Despite this success - and the news this week that they are to put out Binate, their first official EP - they have also announced that they will disband the project at the end of 2021. Thankfully, we will always have the mix to come back to, because it is a perfect embodiment of their sound. Well informed but never too serious, it takes in ice-cold wobblers as well as industrial strength steppers and skeletal, minimal dubstep sounds that hark back to the golden era. The whole thing is stitched together in a way that shows up the contrasts of light and dark, spaciousness and intensity and ensures you remain fully locked in.

It is no stretch to say that Sao Paulo's Trepanado is at the heart of the Brazilian music scene. His Selvagem party is one of the most influential in terms of the sounds it pushes, and his label Selva Discos is also hugely respited for the sounds it curates. Trepanado himself has also put out a vital compilation for Hello Sailor Recordings that spotlighted Brazil's Street Soul sound of the late eighties and early nineties. As a DJ he joins the dots between those classic niches and the contemporary electronic landscape thanks to his tireless devotion to digging for wax. This multi-genre maestro distills also his considerable know how into a lively carnival mix that oozes Brazilian charm in the bird calls, whistles and Spanish vocals, but also seems to reference UK rave culture, traditional Latin rhythms and throwback house music. It's a full flavour, fully bumping mix that makes that feeling of being in the middle of an outdoor dance floor on a hot summer's day feel tantalisingly close.

Bristol's @giantswan came to dance music after formative years as guitarists in the band The Naturals. This lends them a genuinely outsider perspective which means their music breaks rules the pair of Robin Stewart and Harry Wright didn't even know existed. Coming on labels like Keck, Timedance and Whities, it is caustic and twisted, textured and dense with layers of abrasive sonic fuzz. Add in harsh vocals and unrelenting beats and you have a duo that sits in their own unique world somewhere between noise, techno, experimental and rock. There is no concession to your lockdown life in the mix they serve up for us this week. It is a banging and thrilling collision of hi NRG techno, juke, hardcore and bass that bristles with confrontational energy and raw texture while making improbable leaps from Dizzee Rascal to DJ EARL, Kangding Ray to SOPHIE, SOPHIE to Theo Parrish.

Norwegian-Algerian artist Karima F (@karimakarima) doesn't fit in with the usual Scandi-disco stereotype. After many years of work on her local scene in Oslo, she broke out into the wider European scene playing soul, hi NRG disco, broken house, hammering breakbeats and plenty more. She holds down resident duties at Jaeger Club and also famously runs Schloss records from a defunct Porsche repair shop together with Ida Ekblad. "I want to be traumatised to work," she has said before, which explains her often dark, heads down approach to making you dance. There is a lot packed in to her far-travelling mix, which is every bit for listening to as much as it is for dancing. From the kinked techno rhythms of the first half to the spoken word oddities at the mid point via loose limbed drum work scattered in between, Karima twists and turns her way through a leftfield world of sound that is very much her own.

Former military man and marching band member @jamesbangura is an artist who has roamed the world and picked up musical influences at every stop on the way. Be it drum & bass in Alabama, blog house in California or the rich house sound of New York, this Washington DC native is now distilling all those references into his own searing sounds. They have come on labels like Mister Saturday Night and can range from sauced out to brutally energetic. And the latter of those two is what defines his unrelenting mix for us. It is a hard hitting collision of raw, decaying textures, pummeling drums and stark, post industrial atmospheres that are thrillingly harsh. The rhythms roam from the fringes of techno to the heart of jungle and on to an icy but powerful minimalism that very much consumes your body. So strap in, cause this is one helluva ride.

DJ Autumn (@autumn-bpr) plays various pivotal roles in the UK dance music scene. Firstly, he is label manager at Banoffee Pies Records. It's a buy on sight imprint and network of various sub-labels such as Otaku, Beats, Limited Series and the ambient Sonder Series that plots an always tasteful path between broken beat, garage and minimal clubs sounds from cutting edge artists. Those sounds also characterise his own DJ sets and radio shows everywhere from Worldwide FM to NTS to the BBC. From high tempo intensity to tripped out atmospherics, he's an ever present vibesman who also founded his own Headroom Festival in 2019. His mix for us this week is a stripped back and dubbed out winter warmer. Always oozing a sense of cool and control, it builds through the most cavernous of bass spaces and icy sci-fi sonics towards a skeletal jungle workout that gets you on your toes. The sounds are always rich and soulful so pull you deep into a comforting musical world. And we can all make time for that right now.

BSS (fka @beesmunt-soundsystem) is Amsterdam born and bred artist, DJ and producer Luigi Vittorio Jansen. Over the last decade plus, formerly as a duo but now a solo concern, BSS established a sound with residencies at key Amsterdam clubs and radio stations plus the Opium Club in Vilnius, and with releases on the likes of Hivern Discs and Honey Soundsystem. The music is always about musical adventure so spans a wide remit from lush downtempo weirdness to tropical electronics via proto house grooves. The warmth and sensuality of the BSS sounds runs right the way through this week's mix. It slowly builds through ever more expansive synths and long legged drums to wake you from your post weekend slumber. It remains charmingly deep and hypnotic, with sinewy pads, frazzled synths and soft acid motifs all bleeding in and out of the mix to add detail to the trip. It's as mindful as it is subtly physical and leaves you feeling ready for action.

@cassius-select is a rhythm master. His grooves twist and turn you inside out and contort themselves into bold new forms. Drawing on the weight of bass music and the skip of garage, he has landed on labels like Matthew Herbert’s Accidental JNR and Banoffee Pies over the last few years. The Canadian - who is also one half of SUMAC Sound System - is now based in Hong Kong and continues to serve up killer club tracks with eerie vocal sounds and alien sound designs that make each and every production standout. His mix for us is just as unique. It starts off by skating on low riding skeletal rhythms, bumping on stripped back bass and drawing you in with a rich array of vocal, percussive and synth details. Just as you think it’s all set to explode, the dexterous DJ draws back to a murky world of bass and dub then rebuilds with a more high pressure sound before ending on some blissed out r&b. It’s dark, sweet and thoroughly seductive.

Renata Do Valle (@hellosailornyc) was born on an idyllic island in the south of Brazil but is now based in Brooklyn, New York. Her vast music collection reflects the heritage of both places but largely draws on Brazilian sounds, be that samba, MPB, electro or soul. She also expertly curates her own Hello Sailor label and has a knack for transporting you from Brooklyn to Bahia and back again whenever she plays one of her expressive and eclectic sets. This week's colourful selection is one packed with familiar cornerstones like electro, disco and house, but all reimagined through a Latin lens and served up with plenty of South American flair. Joining the dots between the old and the new, the classic and the unknown, it's a steamy and sunny mix that is perfect for parties inside, outside, online or in your headphones. It's such a sweet and full flavour mix that when it's playing you can almost taste the caipirinhas on your lips.

@khotin has served up a free flowing range of multi-genre experiments since announcing himself with a soft-hued acid album on 1080p back in 2014. Now involved with running Normals Welcome as well as releasing on DFA, Pacific Rhythm and Public Release, his music is united by a distinctive take on melody, post-club melancholy and love for downtempo sounds. He crafts blissful songs filled with nostalgic feelings and is exactly the sort of artist in whom we can all find some sort of solace. And this mix is a perfect tonic for reluctant bodies with its slowly cascading rhythms and soft focus melodies serving as a gentle New Year wakener. It's laced with perfectly dreamy pads and ramshackle drums that are never too forceful but always compelling. While often invitingly sombre in mood, the clouds do break along the way to bring moments of real lightness and joy just when you need it.

@vtss is as fierce and direct as they come in the DJ booth. She came up in Poland's most edgy clubs and since moving to Berlin has been an unstoppable force who has made her always ravey mark on the wider European scene. She's collaborated with Randomer as Body Sushi and with Varg as VARGTSS, and always offers a thrilling barrage of hardcore, EBM and caustic techno from across the ages. It seems fitting that VTSS takes care of the last podcast of the year because she imbues it with the same pent up tension, confusion and unknowing that has defined the last 12 months. Her selections confront you head on and never let up whether reaching for strobe lit rave, hype speed techno or warped broken beats. Controlled chaos is the best way to describe it, so strap in and prepare to cut loose.

MSJY (formerly Miss Jay)(@jockey_jay)has a foot in many different scenes and brings them together in bold, brazen sets. A core part of the team at OOST club in the North of the Netherlands and with former residencies at Noorderling and Griessmuehle, her sonic character continually changes. She often weaves bass heavy sounds, dark vibrations and dense IDM into logic-defying musical journeys that counter the dark dark and light sides of her personality in compelling conceptual ways. Ahead of putting together this week's mix, the artist rewatched the newest Blade Runner and got inspired by the scenic shots. "I tried to imagine what my soundtrack to adventures in that world could look like. I guess you could call it post-apocalyptic dystopian energy with a hopeful end but approachable sound." The result is a cinematic mix that uses atmospheric ambient and minimal drum & bass rhythms to set the scene, build the tension, and take you from moments of thrilling intensity to brain cleansing calm.

@nabihahiqbal’s music is informed by a much wider world of reference than most. The pioneering artist has a Masters in Philosophy focused on African history, has studied ethnomusicology and has experience working in human rights law in South Africa. She has an academic approach to the way she builds her music - and her vital NTS radio shows - that unites strands of sound from all over the world into woozy pop lullabies, late night synth soothers and heartbreaking, guitar licked vocal dreamscapes. A new album was due from her in 2020, but a studio break-in meant Iqbal lost a whole heap of music. The album will now come in 2021, but in the meantime she has given us a snapshot of where she is at with a one hour mix that is truly pan-global. It’s a characterful selection of party sounds featuring pop music and Sade covers, worldly funk and 80s synth jams that sound familiar but are never quite what they seem. This is a mix with the unmistakable stamp of Nabihah Iqbal’s very unique musical identity running all the way through it.

Mary Lake (@marylakeworld) grew up in France, Algeria and The Netherlands, so has also been exposed to a broad mix of music. In recent years she has distilled that into her own often frenetic rhythms, always with a perspective that is left of centre, but never too far out to lose the attention of her dance floors. It was on her NTS show Worshipping Discordia where she first showcased her distinctive collisions of electronica, folk and globally influenced sounds, but since then has become a firm favourite at clubs all over Europe, Australia and beyond. Lake's distinctive sense of rhythm is at the heart of this week's mix. The often stripped-back tracks she seamlessly stitches together have drum programming so compelling that little else is needed to keep you locked. Whether riding up and down on a rubbery loop, skating over busy poly rhythms or sinking deep into more linear and minimal cuts, this is pure, seductive body music from someone who exerts expert control at all times.

@colleen-cosmo-murphy really cares about music. That might seem an obvious thing to say, but even in our own obsessive world she stands out for her devotion to the cause. Initially mentored by legendary The Loft resident David Mancuso, she has gone on to champion the value of the long player with her much loved Classic Album Sundays on Worldwide FM, has written and produced a number of music documentaries for BBC Radio and this year was nominated for a 2020 Audio and Radio Industry Award for her Unfold Japan series. She's also co-founder of her own Lucky Cloud Loft parties in London, regularly plays on the world's best sound systems and has put together fantastic compilations focussed on the New York scene, Psychedelic disco and plenty more. All that means her mix is packed with musical knowledge and story telling sounds. After opening with a guitar-licked strain of deep, chugging electronica, Murphy opens up into a world of psyched-out grooves, tropical afro beats and dub deviations that is rich in ingredients. This is a real listening mix from someone who appreciates more than most that the devil is in the detail.

"Nobody did it the way Earl did," says the Moveltraxx label of the time they first fell in love with this Chicago producer 10 years ago. On December 4th, they will mark the milestone by putting out his sophomore album, BASS + FUNK & SOUL. In between his debut and this first solo album in four years, Earl (@djearlchi) has continued to shape juke and footwork with music on Hyperdub, Planet Mu and Teklife that combined tragedy and ecstasy with hyper speed BPMs. Frankly, the title of the new record says it all, with those sounds making free associations with old school samples and new school rhythms that are unafraid to head off in bold new directions. Whether deep and soulful or frantic and club-ready, it's a record that leaves you breathless. And of course, so does this mix, a thrilling one hour selection that chews up and spits out a dizzying array of drum patterns and vocal samples with carefree abandon. Trapping you in a high pressure loop one moment then lifting you to the heavens on a wave of euphoria the next, it features plenty of material from the new album as well as some classics. This, then, is high class body music that has the power to swell your heart and give your brain just as much of a work out, quite often at the exact same time.

From his online presence to his smooth falsetto, his lo-fi beats to his love of smoking weed, @dreamcastmoe comes across as a super chill, super cool kinda cat. The American is signed to PPU, has put out a couple of well received Lost Tape mixes and recently unveiled his new Lamont EP on Real Life. Drifting through jazz, r&b, funk, soul and house, his sound is fluid, heart wrenching and disarming. It truly blurs the lines between traditional genres while conjuring up the familiar feelings of highs, lows, loves and losses we all experienced on a daily basis. Moe is a lifelong resident of Washington DC. He recorded this mix after the election so it is extra cathartic and features his own intermitting musings between the beats. It features some exclusive dreamcastmoe live versions but kicks off with a powerful 1965 speech on race by American activist James Baldwin. The next sixty minutes remain just as potent, sometimes with steamy r&b, sometimes heartbreaking soul and at other times playful boogie and cuddly deep house. This hour with Moe is like an hour spent with a friend who understands all your innermost aches and pains and comforts you through them all.

@aliciacarrera has been quietly working away in the underground for a number of years. She is Barcelona based after a spell in Berlin, and is a multi-disciplinary talent who works as a graphic artist, photographer and editorial designer all while managing the cult Hivern Discs label and (in other times) spinning weird and wonderful DJ sets all round Europe. She has a penchant for sounds that come from opposite ends of the spectrum - colourful and psychedelic, dark and experimental, slow and cosmic or more hard and techno - and hearing her join these up is always a thing to behold, as are her radio shows for the likes of NTS Radio amongst others. This week, no doubt mindful of the fact many of us are spending most of our time at home, she takes on a far-flung journey through mid tempo grooves and cinematic sounds. It's a mind-expanding trip that opens with worldly ambiance and takes you through a number of wide open spaces littered with sombre trumpets, gently tumbling jazz drums and cosmic drones. It's pensive and absorbing as it slowly shifts through the gears, and is a perfect catalyst for escapism.

Much of dance music might have been on pause in 2020, but not Roska (@roskaroskaroska). The vital underground powerhouse has continued to put out a steady stream of high quality singles both solo and in collaboration with the likes of Syren Rivers, Ruby Wood and Serocee. He collected them all together this summer on Eight Trax, a mini album on his own Roska Kicks & Snares which tells the story of an artist who still finds freshness in UK funky having played a key part in its initial emergence over a decade ago. On top of this, he also assumed his Bakongo alias again recently to serve up his unique take on UK rhythms with the new 3 x 2 EP on Livity Sound, which comes after years of veering into UKG, house and various other mutant strains of bass heavy music on labels like Tectonic, Rinse and Hotflush. This week he digs deep to serve up a podcast filled with a mixture of his key influences and personal favourites. "The whole theme is how genres outside of dancehall have been influenced by dancehall," he says of a sunny selection including material from Sean Paul, Major Lazor, DJ Gregory, Kenny Dope, Karizma and DJ Zinc next to plenty of his now new beats old and new. It's a real history lesson that brings us right up to the present day and beyond.

Mika Oki (@mikaoki1) is an expert in spatial design, whether through the music she makes or the sculpture she creates. The French-Japanese visual artist works with video, sound, and electro-acoustics to create abstract textures and mental imagery that perfectly intersect the worlds of club rhythm and ambient experimentation. In the past she has been behind 24 hour performance pieces involving dancers, performers and poets, has played high concept festivals such as Atonal and Nyege Nyege and recently served up 'As Clean As I Was,' a debut production for a forward looking compilation on Metaphore Industrie. On top of this, she also opened up the Brussels branch of LYL radio and hosted a fundraiser for the vital community station. Her mixes are never less than faultless and this week she crafts one such trip which balances many opposites: heady ambient synth work and rugged drums, busy acid workouts and sparse, bass heavy rhythm tracks, cathartic passages of musical mindfulness with brutal drum assaults. Artists like Pq, Sirio, Low End Activist, Simo Cell, Aphex Twin and Hanz all feature to make for a selection that tugs you in many different directions at once, both physically and emotionally, and for that reason we cannot get enough.

Though she came up in London, @danielle_dj embodies the cutting edge electronic sound of her hometown of Bristol. She traverses styles and tempos with a boundary blurring vision that makes each and every selection a surprise. She credits the freedom that comes with years of playing warm up sets as having given her the confidence to play it weird, and has kept that MO now she has become a headliner in her own right. Of course, her NTS shows are always eye-opening affairs for the same reason. Given where she lives, a certain bass weight will always underpin a Danielle set, and this week's podcast is no different. In 75 minutes she plots a line from sparse and atmospheric rhythmic pulses to full throttle jungle-referencing rave. Along the way she finds a perfect sweet spot between head wrecking experimental tracks, futurist breaks and universally appealing techno that manages to be both muscular yet refined. It makes for quite the thrill.

A master of kinetic percussion and low end bass weight, Hemlock, Timedance and Hessle Audio producer Ploy (@deejayploy) has long been a techno favourite. On his most recent album, Unlit Signals on L.I.E.S., however, he mixes it up much more across nomadic tracks filled with visceral energy. In fact, the record chews up and spits out influences taken from "decades of UK dance" as well as plenty of harder, more raw and noisy industrial scenes. It features eight tracks all with a darker overriding mood, as well as "dishevelled closing hours delirium applied across a spectrum of bpm." That is of course the case on this week's podcast, which is a slippery selection of weighty rhythmic propulsions. As they pull you up, down, forwards and back, fractured percussion peppers the groove and twisted synths weave their way in and out of the cavernous spaces left behind. Whether playing slow and sludgy bass or hard and fast techno, Ploy seems somehow able to warp space and time, and often your mind and body are left just as bent out of shape.

@omolokoo is part of the new wave of artists who are leading the Brazilian scene from the front. His colourful 101Ø party in Belo Horizonte is one the most exciting in the country thanks to its exchange of artists both nationally and internationally. Having lived all over Brazil, his own music is infused with all the various niche scenes and sounds you would hear if you travelled the country, from disco to world music, techno to broken beat. His reputation has seen him booked at landmarks like Panorama Bar as well as our own festival in Amsterdam, and now he joins our podcast ranks with a mix that represents his open-hearted, free flowing style perfectly. It is a selection that perfectly captures an outdoor, sun kissed summer vibe from the off. The funky drum patterns, the tropical r&b, the Latin hip hop all ooze warmth and soul and make for an instant party. As the long legged drums get more upright and tempos increase, the grooves remain steamy and humid and do an expert job of transporting to a different climate entirely. This is exactly the sort of timeless mix you will come back to for years to come.

300 up! And who better to help us mark this milestone than @parrishsmith, a core member of the Dekmantel family for a number of years. Not only a much loved regular at our festivals, he is also at home on Dekmantel UFO when not releasing on L.I.E.S.. Smith's famously full-throttle body music has a distinctive analogue edge whether raw and industrial, or acid laced and raved up. Does that make him Holland's most punk DJ? Quite possibly, because his ability to bring sonic terror to any dance floor is second to none, no matter what tools he uses. This week, he brings his bristling and unrelenting energy to your home stereo, headphones or car with all the disregard for genre you would expect. Across 90 punishing minutes there are distorted techno drums and caustic synths, brightly lit strobes and death metal vocals that will scare you to your core. Managing to keep a lid on such a high octane and confrontational mix of darkened sounds is a skill in itself, and one that Parrish Smith has long since mastered. This one, then, is not for the faint of heart.

Bristol raised, London based Otik (@otikmusic) turned a lot of heads right from the off, and by now he has fully established himself as one of bass and techno's most interesting artists. His always original sounds on the likes of Keysound, Dext Recordings and Midland's Intergraded come with big kicks and curious leads that make for compelling listening. They always manage to be both physical yet emotive thanks to the ambiance around the inventive drum programming. He manages to carry over that sense of the unknown yet the accessible into his always infectious DJ mixes. This week's podcast is a case in point: it's a meticulous piece of DJ craftsmanship that splices jungle, booming bass and skeletal UK techno together into a dark soundtrack that flails away wildly one minute then drills down to a hypnotic groove before cutting loose once more. Off-setting the dark with the light and the intense with the atmospheric in this way is a rare skill, but one that Otik has got down to a tee.

China's 33EMYBW (@wushanmin) is part of a wave of producers around the world who are bringing a wealth of new ideas and plenty of fresh energy to the club music realm. She releases what she calls "limb dance" on Shanghai label SVBKVLT and is inspired by "insects, spiders, crustaceans and other exoskeletal creatures", which she tries to translate into music that gives the perception that you are surrounded by tiny dancing creatures. She has been busy recently, too, with a new composition called 'Intermission' coming out on the forthcoming Unsound Festival album, as well as a new track coming out in December on the second 'Cache' compilation on SVBKVLT. For this week's podcast, 33EMYBW serves us up a live recording, made exclusively from her own music and mostly unreleased, with plenty of demos, new ideas and improvised sections included along the way. It is a fine snapshot of where she is at right now - which seems to be somewhere in an extra-terrestrial realm inhabited by impish spirits and alien lifeforms. Her synth lines ping pong about the mix with a mind of their own, her samples are mangled and distorted and her drum patterns wilfully off grid. It's a trippy world of sound that still manages to explore plenty of emotional nuances despite the otherworldly vibe and pure physicality of it all.

Retired rapper, outdoor garms connoisseur, king of the blend, genre bender extraordinaire... there is no one quite like @teki-latex. The Frenchman has a rare but healthy insouciance when it comes to rules and conventions of the dance floor, so isn't afraid to drop hip hop in a techno club, or weave a forgotten pop vocal into a contemporary club banger. He gets away with it because his hyperactive mind is matched by his hyperactive skills and the results are never less than brilliantly WTF?! Because a Teki Latex DJ sets has you riding by the seat of your pants, they can feel improvised and off the cuff, but in fact they are often meticulously planned. That is surely the case with this week's podcast, which is 75 spell binding minutes of musical ping-pong. It jumps around with the energy of a thousand frogs from UK funky to blistering techno, old school jungle to original 2-step via divisive summer smash 'WAP' and plenty of who knows what else. One thing's for sure, it will make you smile as much as it makes you dance.