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/

Each year, we ask a few artists from our Dekmantel Selectors line-up to deliver a mix in anticipation of the new edition. First up in this year’s series is Garage Noord resident and LYL radio show host @merelrhizoom. As a proper connoisseur of modular synth tracks and avant-garde compositions, merel rhizoom tends to navigate the musical stratosphere between what one could refer to as “weird psybient”, hypnotic jungle, trance downtempo or industrial breaks with implausible ease in her selections.

The mix at hand makes a good case for doing what feels right: merel rhizoom told us that she “initially was very tempted to make a more dance-oriented mix”, but then decided to go into a different direction: “focussing on (modular) synthesis of veterans such as Max Loderbauer, Robert Aiki Low, Andreas Tilliander and Driftmachine, while on the other hand including more avant-garde compositions by Jon Hassell, Oren Ambarchi, Upperground Orchestra and others”. What already sounds good on paper, has turned out to be a mesmerizing and thoroughly mind-altering listening session – enjoy it with your eyes closed and mind open.

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.