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.

For this instalment of our Dekmantel Selectors podcast, we welcome Amsterdam-based Nèna (@castro-nena). Her song selections range from reggaeton and bass-heavy beats to dancehall and dreamy pop. When Nèna enters the booth, an emotional genuineness and an open atmosphere will connect the audience.

Defined by its day to night feeling, this mix continues to enter your ears with beams of sunlight and fast-paced emotions revolving around 'break-up season'. "This mix is created to break away from anger and sadness, dancing forward towards a new season," Nèna explains. "A higher pace than my usual mix, characterizes this podcast. It is created to trigger emotions." Moving your body and processing all kinds of feelings is facilitated by this sincere Dekmantel Selectors 2022 artist.

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.