Dekmantel Podcast

London-based Oblig's (@djoblig) sound is closely intertwined with the rich DNA of UK club culture. Bass, garage, grime and techno all influence his robust rhythms, whether he's going dark at 140 bpm or hypnotising with sleek techno. His label Obligated Records and regular shows on Rinse FM are extensions of that, as are his razor-sharp DJ sets across the world.

Hot on the heels of Volume 2 of his label's latest compilation, he's put together an hour mix that smudges the lines between his go-to genres. The selections are punchy and uptempo while twisting through mysterious late-night grime, kinetic club cuts and pneumatic bass workouts, all with a constant low-end pressure that keeps lips curled and heads nodding.

@philippapacho is like a musical Swiss knife: she has exactly the right tool for every occasion, from warm-ups to peak time to wonky afters. It was a long residency at Under Bron in her native Stockholm that equipped her with those skills, and since moving to Berlin, she's gone on to make her mark across Europe playing all forms of techno. Late last year, Pacho launched her own label Phorum Records as a further extension of her sound, and she also curates tracks and parties under the Positive Source banner.

This August, Pacho joins us at Amsterdamse Bos for Dekmantel 2025 but first serves up this deeply cerebral trip into Millsian techno. It's a high-speed selection of sleek and synth-laced sounds rich in narrative, be that mind-melting urgency, more dark and moody undercurrents or a sense of cosmic unknown. Utterly timeless and effortless classic, this is techno in its most futuristic form.

Brooklyn's evilgiane (@aloevine) is one of alt-rap's most respected figures. The sometime beatmaker for stars like Kendrick Lamar and ASAP Rocky is also the founder of the Surf Gang label and party collective whose experimental style collides drill, footwork, trance and trap into something new. He is a master collaborator whose lauded 2024 mixtape #HEAVENSGATE VOL. 1 saw him work with a range of next-gen talents while serving up an array of the sounds that have influenced him in recent years. Whether happy, sad, or something in between, evilgiane always knows how to best express himself in sound.

And he proves that once more with an hour selection for our series that lands just ahead of him playing a rare DJ set for us at Dekmantel '25. The mix taps into every nuance of his style, with swirling r&b vocals floating over crisp beats, psychedelic melodies smudged into ice-cold rhythms and distorted low ends landing heavy under mumble rap musings. It's a kaleidoscopic window into evilgiane's mercurial musical world, which is a place you will want to keep on returning to all summer long.

@fadimohem is right at the heart of contemporary techno. He brings his own twist on the classic sound - deep, rhythmic and atmospheric. He's a Berghain resident whose first contact with the genre came at the hallowed club, and since then, he has blazed his own trail on the most influential labels in the scene, including his own Mohem imprint. This year, he plays twice at Dekmantel Festival, once as part of WSNWG Live and once on the Radar stage.

Ahead of that, he has put together an exclusive one-hour live set comprised only of unreleased music. It's a masterclass in control that embodies just what you get from Fadi in the club: deep techno planted firmly on the floor but always going somewhere. As dubbed out low ends, glitchy textures and more tripped out melodies come and go, the tension ramps up while both body and mind stay locked.

NIKS (@niksbad) is as dedicated as anyone to furthering dance music culture. Hailing from south-east London via Bath, NIKS has long proven her curatorial skills with radio shows on BBC Radio 1, Rinse, and NTS. Her idiosyncratic blends of ‘90s groovy, rhythmic sounds and forward-thinking, underground-leaning soundscapes have brought her to some of the world’s most revered clubs. After contributing music to various compilations, last year she explored bass-heavy sounds with her first solo EP on Or:la’s Céad label. Beyond her work as a musician, NIKS also co-founded the Black Artist Database, a crowd-sourced list of Black-owned labels, artists, and producers designed to amplify and uplift talent.

Ahead of her debut at the Dekmantel Festival this year, NIKS serves up a 90-minute window into her current musical world, including her own forthcoming productions in a deep, dub-infused journey into hypnotic techno and house rhythms that intertwine to create a warm, supple soundscape. Its seamless flow takes in sounds from the past, present, and future, and they all encourage you to move and meditate in equal measure."

South London's @angeldlite is a musical thrill-seeker. Her colourful take on rave is all about big moments, big energy, and big love. The newly installed High Hoops resident effortlessly straddles genres. From piano house to emotive trance, always delivering uplifting moods and euphoric drops that turn her dance floors into spaces of pure joy.

This June, she’ll be closing down the Poppy area at Lentekabinet. Ahead of that, she serves up one of her signature sessions for our series: a jam-packed ride through every corner of rave culture. Expect strobe-lit synths, rapturous vocals, thumping bass, and playful twists. It’s the perfect soundtrack for the road to Het Twiske—and a summer full of fun.

@oscarmulero is one of those artists whose sound is immediately identifiable. It has had an unwavering depth, headiness and atmospheric richness to it for more than 30 years, which is a remarkable achievement few can match. A famous non-conformist, the Spaniard's top-tier three-deck mixing skills and ability to distil techno to its most hypnotic form have also long stood him apart, as have his Polegroup and Warm Up labels.

Mulero's consistency of sound means you know what you're going to get with this mix: spaced-out, layered and deep techno brilliance. Whether more dubby and roomy or glitchy and intense, it's music for both mind and body from one of the scene's most low-key but high-class veterans. Turn it up loud and look forward to more of the same when he plays at Dekmantel Festival later this year.

Bristol-based @k_means operates at the fringes of electronic music. It's not tempo and genre that unites their sound, but more an exploration of mood and texture underpinned by bass-heavy low ends and hypnotic rhythms. The Noods, Rinse FM and Kiosk Radio regular is also resident at Bristol's Psychotherapy Sessions and will debut at Dekmantel Festival where you should fully expect to be taken into plenty of unknown musical territory.

It is the same with their mix for us this week - a wild trip into futuristic drum patterns and interplanetary sounds that melt the mind and contort the body. There is a constant push and pull between the organic and the synthetic with tribal percussion and warped vocals brushing up with bleeping synth modulations and experimental minimalism. It's a magnetic selection that's as much an imaginary movie soundtrack as it is a dance floor escape.

The next Dekmantel mix is a wild melting pot of dark, murky techno grooves by @mattikk. A pillar of the Amsterdam underground, the Garage Noord resident has a long history of DJing in the city and is closely connected to your favorite techno labels. He’s the mind behind Delsin Records' Mantis series, collaborating with artists like Forest Drive West, Konduku, Lemna, and Dino Sabatini.

Drawing on UK sound system culture, his selections always carry an experimental edge, whether diving into deep Italian techno or ambient. Usually, he crafts mixes for immersive listening pleasure, but here he makes a rare turn to the dance floor, inspired by his closing set on the UFO2 stage at last year's Dekmantel Festival. Over an hour of powerful, driving grooves and subtle details, sprinkled with new tunes and some personal favorites that span low-end-heavy electro and broken beats.

Tracklist/

Dasha Rush - 100 Hearts

O.utlier - Evoparation

Tammo Hesselink - Harbour Launch

R-010 - Exhaust Pipes (Absis Remix)

Amotik - Iktalis

Kon Janson - Unbound Perspective

Saku Niamh - Unreleased

Roseen - Separation

Stenny - Hazy Grove

CAIV - Shimmer

Broken English Club - Ghost

Konduku - Unreleased Remix

Agonis - Unreleased

James Ruskin - Lahaine (O/V/R Remix)

Konduku - Unreleased

Firn - Rakaposhi

Vand - Futureshock

Gez Varley - Purgę

DJ Slip - Spice

VC-118A - Unreleased

Carrier - 2 Slow

Kellen303 - Pinehearse

Fret - Stuck

Broken English Club - Songs Of Love And Decay - Dekmantel - DKMNTL-UFO15

buy digital: https://deathandleisure.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-love-and-decay

buy vinyl: https://dekmantel.com/shop/records/broken-english-club-songs-of-love-and-decay

1. A Shallow Lake

2. Crawling

3. England Heretic

4. Love And Decay

5. Death Cult

6. Vessel Of Skin

7. Night Fall

8. Pacific Island Kill

9. Lost Gods

10. Prisoner

11. Sacred Sacrifice

12. Ghost

13. Non Place

14. The Occult Body

Dekmantel UFO Series continues its resurgent form with a new album of bruising, industrial wave and techno from Broken English Club. UK techno mainstay Oliver Ho (@oliverho13) debuted his dark and brooding alias more than 10 years ago with a release on Jealous God under the guidance of the late, great Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) — Songs Of Love And Decay is explicitly dedicated to Mendez, whose influence runs deep in this seductively sinister corner of underground, independent electronic music.

Within the overarching aesthetic of the Broken English Club sound, Ho finds the freedom to deliver a full spectrum album as diverse as it is consistent. You can sense the shadow of his roots in 90s tribal techno punching through on 'Crawling' and 'Death Cult', while 'England Heretic' leans on thick swathes of analogue synthesis indebted to Giallo soundtracks and the ever-compelling lure of 80s synthwave. In its grinding layers of distortion and dubbed out vocals 'Vessel Of Skin' speaks more to the post-punk influences which have set Broken English Club apart since the outset. This isn't a purely retro-fetishist expedition, though — 'Pacific Island Kill' and 'Lost Gods' exude stark modernism in their sharply-angled sequences and dramatic sound design, moving beyond the functional demands of 4/4 dance music to reach to more cinematic zones.

These are but some of the approaches Ho burrows into as he shapes out the depth and breadth of his muse on Songs Of Love And Decay. It's marked by the undeniable impact of his production, perfected over a decades-deep career at the bleeding edge of machine music. At times the album celebrates the addictive thrust of the dancefloor, while elsewhere it relishes the tension of suspended animation. Throughout, the gritty veneer binds together this accomplished, uncompromising body of work as both a fierce artistic statement and a loving tribute to Mendez — an artist who equally embodied the darker side of the dance.