Dekmantel Podcast

As soft and dreamy as their moniker may be, Clouds actually make some of the most brutal and destructive techno out there. The Scottish duo of Calum MacLeod and Liam Robertson have been doing so with ever more abrasive surfaces and twisted drums since 2010, releasing on the likes of Turbo, Opal Tapes and Soma. Two of their three albums, though, have come on Speedy J’s Electric Deluxe. The latest, Heavy The Eclipse, is a conceptual affair that comes with a brilliantly realised website telling the story of a city that was left to rot after social and economic collapse. This “post-industrial hell-future” is taken over by Germans and renamed Neurealm, and is soundtracked across 14 perfectly dark and dystopian pieces featuring snippets of vocals, tinges of euphoria, passages of desolate dub and frazzled industrial noise.

In their mix for us, the pair continue with that bleakly immersive sonic imagery by using unreleased material only! Nightmarish screams are obscured by scuzzy sonic blizzards, rave synths spray about above overdriven drums and hardcore and dub culture references often poke through the mire. It’s an all out aural assault that takes you to the heart of a grotty, strobe-lit warehouse in the very dead of night.

After numerous compilation appearances, the first half of 2018 saw object blue put out her first two solo EPs—‘Do you plan to end a siege?' on Tobago Tracks and 'REX' on Let’s Go Swimming.’ Their impact, next to her spellbinding live shows, was so significant that by the end of the year she was one of the most talked about new artists around. The reason is that the Chinese sound designer contorts her drum machines and smudges her synths with utter disregard for any rules and lands somewhere fresh and new; some grey area between broken techno, warped bass and experimental club.

A sonic meticulousness always manages to shine through object blue’s work, despite what can often be carnage beneath the surface. And that’s the case with the one hour session we end the year with here: it’s a symphony of layers that variously sooth and seduce or rough you up with rhythm. Despite the shades of sound art and musical collage that are never far away, a dance floor narrative underlines the whole thing and will keep you moving well into 2019, a year which promises plenty for object blue.

There are a great deal of things you can say about Dan Snaith. His list of achievements would burnish any CV: a doctorate in mathematics under one arm, and some of the 21st century’s most celebrated electronica albums under the other. He manages to juggle festival headline slots across the world with the live iteration of Caribou, while slipping out timeless dancefloor burners and one of the last ever FabricLive CDs as Daphni. Oh, and he’s a super friendly guy too.

That experience – and crowd-charming magnetism – can be heard all over today’s Dekmantel Podcast, a three-hour tour de force of Daphni in peak-time mode at the peak of summer. Recorded on Sunday of Dekmantel Festival 2018, in the middle of a humble-superstar-sandwich of Jamie XX / Floating Points, Snaith glides between rave stabs, strutting funk, stirring soul, global grooves and everything else under the (very warm) sun. Here’s to the next decade of Dan’s dominance!

Amsterdam’s Mendel doesn’t want the headlines, he wants your heart. He’s a DJ who likes to make connections between sounds and scenes that span entire continents and generations. He works the floor into a loved-up mass that doesn’t know where it is going next. He often drops his own well crafted edits into his sets with a sympathetic touch that continues to win him an ever more ardent fan base.

Next to a rare knowledge of soul and disco, he also loves house music. All these elements come together on his mix for us, which is another impossibly nimble jaunt through the ages. Energetic disco, heart swelling house and breezy, afro tinged groovers all sit smoothly together with acid jack and uplifting songs. Add in some old classics and future anthems that the 'ID?' crew will die for, and you have a perfectly tasteful party mix that works in any setting, during any season.

When New York City’s DJ Python (@wnkrs) is in the studio, very different worlds collide. His drums and rhythms draw on dub and reggae, his synths come from celestial ambient skies, and together they resulted in 2017’s Dulce Compañia album on Anthony Naple’s Incienso. As beautiful as it is beguiling, the music was hugely original and managed to make both a physical and cerebral impact. Since then he has made music for Moxie’s On Loop and also been installed as resident at Mister Saturday Night's New York venue Nowadays.

In brazen fashion, Python calls his Dekmantel selection ‘Best Mix of The Year Let’s be Real’ and certainly does come correct over 75 minutes. As ever he serves up the unlikely but intoxicating pairing of dub rhythms and soothing ambient. Before long he has you utterly locked in for the ride as the drums get more long legged and upright, broken and steel plated. The synths get freaky, too, with cut up vocals and tropical percussion all colouring the airwaves in ways only DJ Python can.

Fred P’s music is not just deep, but spiritual. Under his own name as well as Black Jazz Consortium, FP-Oner and FP197, the man from Queens, New York imbues his bottomless grooves with pensive pads and emotionally loaded keys that sink you into another dimension. His DJ sets are also cathartic experiences for mind, body and soul, and he’s remained hugely prolific over the course of more than 11 LPs and 20 EPs during the last decade. His eternal aim is “to raise each other's consciousness”, and he never fails to do that whether playing all night long at one of his residences or serving up releases on his own Soul People Music. In October, that label came to an end after more than a decade, only to make way for Perpetual Sound, which launched with a new Black Jazz Consortium EP featuring remixes from Mr G and Fred P.

His emotionally awakening style is present and correct on this 90 minute mix he serves up for us. It starts with warm and cavernous atmospheres and the sort of balmy pads and tight basslines that define his sound, before progressing into a zoned out techno sound. Always smooth and meditative, moments of jazzy musicality are never far away, and there is a timeless nature to everything Fred does. Without him, then, dance music wouldn’t be anywhere near as deep.

It was a long time coming, but last month Fatima finally dropped the follow up to her debut album Yellow Memories. And Yet It’s All Love—released on long time home Eglo—found the artist’s newly matured vocals taking centre stage amongst production that was slightly more paired back. It revealed her very real talents on the mic and her ability to go from buttery smooth slow jams to resoundingly chest pumping neo-soul anthems via curiously innocent lullabies and grown-up jazzy invention. Covering a wide musical and emotional scale, the record mixed up all consuming seriousness with the same sense of fun and playfulness that characterises her essential radio shows on NTS.

They are treasure troves of r&b, hip hop and neo-soul that can be 20 years old or not yet released, and that’s what she serves up on her ‘Maple Motivation Mix’ here. It’s an intimate and personal listen that offers a window into the artist’s wide array of influences. Like Fatima’s own rich musical output, it variously bumps and grinds, melts your heart or empowers you, and will keep you coming back for more time and time again.

Chicago’s Specter is a maverick, but one who has remained somewhat under the radar. Over the course of twenty years, he’s continually turned out gritty house that manages to be deep yet physical. For the last eight of those he has released on Theo Parrish’s Sound Signature—a suitably unconventional home for his unconventional grooves. Most recently he excelled on his debut full length, Built to Last, which reworked house music into various colourful, experimental and bass heavy new forms.

As well as rare studio skill, Spectre is a hardworking DJ who can light up a loft or jack a warehouse. On his Dekmantel mix, he decides to serve up a two hour mix that is suited to home listening. It’s all simmering, slow burning deepness to start with before gradually the drums grow more raw and angular. The mood remains reflective and thoughtful, though; a meditation on the more cerebral side of house music, which is just one of the many things Specter does so well.

Like his name suggests, Black Merlin is something of a wizard. His music is drenched in worldly sounds and colourful cultures, not least his forthcoming Kosua album, a second on Island of The Gods. Inspired by his love affair with the island of Papua New Guinea, it features recordings of the local tribes, jungle sounds, wildlife and ancient dance customs so is a living and breathing document that immediately transports you to the southwestern Pacific. It comes after years of dizzyingly diverse releases on the likes of Pinkman, Mannequin and She Lost Kontrol that mix up EBM, techno, ambient and house, plus collaborative projects such as Karamka and Spectral Empire.

His 90 minute mix for us is as stylish and unrestricted as you would expect, and given that we’re in Halloween month, it feels like it’s come just at the right time. Starting out with soot black apoca-disco, it traverses its way through study industrial, urban desolation and factory floors in meltdown. It’s mechanical and shadowy, but always filled with a sense of tension and suspense that keeps you enthralled.

Lisbon is enjoy plenty of time in the spotlight at the moment, not least thanks to artists like Violet, who is busy on many different fronts at once. As a lone force she producers anything from big techno breakbeats to rave tinged acid house. Next to that she’s also co-founded Radio Quântica, which is an essential platform for local underground artists and activists. She also performs as part of an all female rap group and covers classic tunes made solely by woman. Besides that, she even found time to start her own new label, Naive, this year.

It should come as no surprise that such an active mind packs a lot into her 75 minute mix. Tripped out cosmic breakbeats kick things off before the drums grow more distorted and synths begin to howl as you’re dumped onto a dance floor at 3am. A subtle rave euphoria washes over the mid section before dusty breakbeats and slippery electro see things out. Despite the driving nature of the underlying drums, this is a mix that exudes warmth, soul and romance.