Mathew Jonson brings lovers of all forms of dance music together. His live show is one of the best in the business: an elegant techno adventure with pounding drums and well crafted synths that endlessly twist and turn through emotional highs and darker physical depths. In short, he is someone as schooled in jazz as he is electronic synthesis. He’s a master of his hardware; a human who can speak through his machines. His meticulous approach also carries over into the studio and has given rise to plenty of underground hits on his own labels as well as a fine selection of others.

His mix for us this week is a 90 minute recording of his masterful live set at Dekmantel 2017. Wasting no time in getting down to business, it kicks off with classic electro and from there the killer baselines just keeping on coming, some from his own back catalogue, some from outer space and some from the future. It’s a mix with a compelling sense of momentum and one that traverses sounds and scenes with ease.

VRIL is one of the most reliable artists in techno. He emerged with a style that was his own and has pretty much stuck to it ever since. Eight years after his debut, that loopy, dubby take on the genre sounds as vital as ever, and most often comes on labels like Delsin, Dystopian and Giegling. A live set from the German is just as floor facing and effective. It will veer from deeper moments of intensity to trippy, off kilter drum patterns that are designed to keep you moving.

Here he serves up a perfectly mix that syncs perfectly with the changing season: it’s all warm and cuddly from the off, with cosy dub techno cocooning you in an inviting sound world that slowly transitions into more twisted and straight up techno. Whether the drums are thumping or laying more horizontal, there is an absorbing intensity to VRIL's work that proves he is someone who has a real mastery of his art.

Lawrence le Doux is impossible to pin down. The Belgian has been beating his own path since the nineties under a range of different guises. His latest album Host—following a soundtrack on Hivern Discs and years of everything from rap to hardcore to ambient—came on his home label Vlek and was an embodiment of the last 30 years of electronic music in his homeland. From digital dub to house to industrial, it covers plenty of ground in authentic style and made for a fascinating listen.

Over more than eighty minutes here, he serves up an equally kaleidoscopic mix filled with beautiful moments. It’s a late night affair that takes in ambient house, trippy 5am techno, dubbed out grooves, beguiling broken beats, trance, afro and plenty in between. Transitions feel natural and coherent even if, on paper, they shouldn’t. It’s a mix that comprehensively proves Lawrence le Doux’s understanding and knowledge of electronic music runs deep.

Lots of artist like to think they have their own singular sound, but not many are as hard to categorise as Lutto Lento. The Polish artist cooks up intoxicating brews of churning drums, weird samples, lithe synths, jumbled percussion and plenty more. Is is dancehall? Is it techno? Is it ambient? Who knows, but it’s beautiful in its abstraction and makes for some of the most compelling sound collages you are likely to hear.

As a DJ he has an approach to sound that is just as eclectic and magpie. This mix one starts off with warped, twisted synths that sound stripped from the UK hardcore continuum, before growing into big, tumbling drums. A flurry of dancehall, broken rhythms, raved up Indian bass all follow and leave you in awe of the man’s ability to thread to tether so much different stuff with such a strong sense of cohesion. Truly, he is one of a kind.

Olivia has been intrinsically linked wit the Polish electronic music scene for almost 15 years. Maybe most famously, she is a resident DJ at Unsound, but next to that she also runs her own Radar night at celebrated Krakow club Szpitalna 1—where she is also chief booker—and DJs as one half of Chrono Bross. Both technically excellent and well versed in the history of house and techno, she mixes liquid acid with cosmic melodies, Detroit futurism with Dutch rawness and is someone fascinated by the paranormal, the infinity of space and the potential of robotics. All this informed her full bodied and psychedelic debut release on K-Hole Trax, and the mix she has put together for us.

There is a dystopian air to start with, where fizzing synths and malfunctioning machines make for uncomfortable listening before jerking rhythms tinged with elements of electro and EBM being to make you move. Unsettling and abstract throughout, it’s a dark mix for strobe lit dance floors that is industrial and dehumanised, but one that is never less than compelling.

Pariah has recently returned with Here From Where We Are, his first solo material in a while. The debut album on Houndstooth finds the producer develop beatless, synth heavy soundtracks into long, thoughtful pieces that are utterly absorbing. It’s a new musical identity for someone closely associated with visceral techno thanks to his work as one half of live duo Karenn with Blawan, but as a DJ he still pumps the dance floor.

This mix is testament to that: it’s ninety minutes of diverse electronic music that dips into afro drumming, sleek minimalism and off kilter UK bass as well as some cheeky garage. As it wraps up, drums make way for subtle and supple synth rhythms that leave you utterly horizontal, a mile away from the sweaty state that proceeds it. Like Pariah himself, it’s tied to no one sound or scene and is wholly refreshing as a result.

Skymark is someone who flies rather under the radar despite being a DJ who can light up your spirit with his carefully constructed sets of deeply resonant music. Like his selections in the booth, his productions combine soul, funk, Brazilian, gospel and jazz into spine tingling moods and grooves that emanate strong life forces and fill you with positivity. They come in the form of perfectly sun kissed albums like Primeiras Impressões and boogie fuelled Waves From The Nucleus on labels like Neroli, nsyde and Rush Hour as well as his own his own Modern Sun Records.

The Swiss born, Rio based artist is a real student of sound and so time in his company is always a genuine lesson, and so it proves with the all vinyl mix he has done for us. It’s a joyous mix of shimmering, shining disco, soul, boogie and gospel gold that takes you ever higher. Making tough transitions feel smooth and seductive, he provides an utterly perfect summer soundtrack that you will be reaching for whenever the sun comes out.

Don’t DJ breaks rules. He takes risks. He goes with his heart and not his head. The music he makes is littered with odd sound sources, from oversized flutes to the sound of crushed plastic cups to frog noises, and his rhythms are always complex and challenging. He releases it on Fullfridge Music, Berceuse Heroique, and also runs his own Disk and is a master of fusing different sound worlds into compelling new forms.

And that’s the case on the podcast he’s done for us. “I got drunk and recorded an all over the place old time favourites mix. it’s cursed,” he says. That means it’s a raw, instinctive selection with the mistakes left in and plenty of tough riding transitions that make it all the more thrilling. It’s exactly the kind of approach you would expect from the man: who else could squeeze in the likes of MC Hammer, Neneh Cherry, Frak and DJ Sotofett and still make it work? This is truly the work of a standalone DJ.

Jonas Rönnberg is full of ideas. Since 2013 he’s turned out 15 albums and a handful of EPs that find the Swede forever cooking up moody techno landscapes. His atmospheres are heavy, and there is always a bleakness to his work; a darkness to his drones that is cannot fail to suck you in. Labels like Northern Electronics and Semantica have proved perfect homes for his longform sounds, and serious as his music can be, the man himself is also very playful: his latest release is a romance inspired album that rushes with the excitement of falling in love and soars with acoustic guitars and lush pianos.

Over the course of an hour here he shows off many contrasting sounds and offers a real snapshot of his hyper-active mind. One moment you’re up against of wall of glitch, then pop vocals and heavenly pianos, then suspensory ambient that is as beautiful as the beats that follow are brutal. It’s an ambitiously freeform session that never lets you settle in one place and, despite—or maybe because of—the strangeness of it all, cannot fail to hook you in.

Each of Steffi’s three studio albums on Ostgut Ton have brought with them new musical explorations. The Dutch born Panoramabar Bar resident’s debut was a warm and classic house affair with steamy vocals. Her second in 2014 was a more techno and electro styled work that took cues from the sleek futurism of Underground Resistance. But her latest, World of The Waking State from late last year, was her most fully realised and individual yet. A deep affair with flourishes of IDM, it’s utterly emotional and intricate, with pulsing drums coloured by deft synths that flash about with a life of their own. It was a perfect continuation of the mix she served up for fabric, but this new one for us follows a different path.

Slowly awakening from spaced out ambient, it explores kinked electro, more rugged EBM style grooves and tough, drum lead tracks that are all tied together by a sci-fi sense of atmosphere. Like everything Steffi does, it manages to pack a real punch at the same time as touching on a range of moods from melancholic to optimistic. Now over two decades into her career, Steffi remains as unpredictable and compelling as ever.