Dekmantel Podcast

@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.

Various Artists - DKMNTL x PATTA 12 - Dekmantel (DKMNTLxPATTA 12)

a1. upsammy - Translucent Edges

a2. RAFF - Disparate Fragments

a3. Darling - Japanter

b1. Zohar - Minor Discomfort

b2. Animistic Beliefs - Save Aru Islands

b3. Ranie Ribeiro - Junee

Digital: dekmantel.bandcamp.com/album/dkmntl-x-patta-12

Vinyl + Merch: https://dekmantel.com/shop/records/dekmantel-x-patta-2020

On November 26th, we are happy to unveil the sixth in our annual series of collaborations with friends and Amsterdam streetwear icons Patta. This year's drop features six items of clothing and a compilation with new music from upcoming Netherlands producers Animistic Beliefs, RAFF, Zohar, upsammy and Ranie Ribeiro & Darling. Vinyl copies are available only with each merchandise item from the collection, and digital copies can be pre-ordered only from Bandcamp.

The focus here is on exciting emerging talents from our home country, and first up is Dekmantel regular and unconventional soundsmith upsammy with the hiccuping rhythms and refracted melodies of 'Translucent Edges.' Clone employee and exciting next gen talent RAFF follows with the drilling bass and funky drums of 'Disparate Fragments', enigmatic Safe Trip associate Darling layers up hyperspeed kicks and soothing melodies on 'Japanter' and Amsterdam's foremost low frequency and heavy bass specialist Zohar brings real menace on 'Minor Discomfort.' Spellbinding Rotterdam live duo Animistic Beliefs weave dark and mangled synths into their industrial-techno offering 'Save Are Islands', while Ranie Ribeiro (fka D. Ribeiro) brings his harp playing skills, soul-driven keys and live percussion to the bright, bristling and broken beats of closer 'Junee.'

@upsammy @animisticbeliefs @zohar01 @raff_ak @ribeirosfate @ddaarrlliinngg

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.