Dekmantel Podcast

This week we turn to another close Dekmantel family member in Matrixxman. In just a couple of years the American has emerged as one of the foremost producers in the house and techno world. His rugged analogue sounds have come thick and fast over nearly 20 EPs and are famous for their balance of quality, invention and diversity. Never sticking to the same sound for long, his Sector series on our label proved that, roaming as it does from repetitive peak time techno futurism to mind melting acid and back again. Always focussed squarely on the dance floor, that carries over into his always body jerking sets, many of which have been at Dekmantel events and festivals around the world.

Over the course of an hour here, the artist goes deep into a streamlined, intergalactic techno soundworld. Supple synths are layered up over pressurised and rubbery drums, manic melodies circle the grooves and there is a sense of darkness to the whole thing that is truly compelling. As energy levels ramp up throughout, you can’t help but go hard right until the blissed out ambient end game.

Interest in Japanese electronic music never wanes, and that is thanks to the work of producers like Gonno. As a key part of the contemporary musical landscape in the Far East, he has released on local as well as international labels like Perc Trax, Endless Flight and Ostgut Ton. He is someone who brings acid and melody to his techno and has put out fantastically realized full lengths such as 2015’s Remember The Life Is Beautiful as well as many EPs in the last decade. A regular guest at key parties in Europe as well as Japan, he recently played one such party on a Sunday afternoon.

Taking place at a club near the beach called Oppala, he played for seven hours straight and managed to record the mix. Now he presented the first three hours for our podcast series. Starting with some unmistakably Japanese ambient sounds and delicate instruments, he then plots a journey through organic slow motion grooves that drip with musicality and tumble in pleasing ways. Never less than smooth and seductive, things get a little more energetic later on with more corrugated grooves, icy hi hats and bumpy beats and the whole thing makes for a rare recorded insight into the DJ side of this esteemed artist.

As boyhood friends, Dutchie @Jan-van-Kampen DJ’ed with founders Casper Tielrooij and Thomas Martojo as Dekmantel Soundsystem in Holland. Anno 2017, the skilled DJ is flying solo quite succesfully. He layed down a super sunny disco set on Boiler Room Dekmantel last year, and now he also comes correct in our mix series. 

Over the course of ninety minutes he digs out a diverse mix of music from the moody spoken word opener through some breezy house and loose organic grooves. Always hovering around a steady tempo, its the details around the beats that keep you locked here - they are intoxicating and deep, late night and playful, with many different shades of heady house all touched upon in smooth and seductive fashion.

Underground Resistance founder Robert Hood is one of the pioneering old guard who is still doing it right today. He is the epitome of Detroit house and techno, serving up pulsing minimal, and has been since the early nineties. Last year he joined our label for a series of three EPs entitled Paradygm Shift and a full length which will see the light of day the 22nd of May. The project is aimed to take techno out of its current comfort zone and very much did so, as does Hood himself whenever he plays one of our parties.

Now he has served up the latest mix in our series and once again subverts expectation. His hour long Paradygm Shift Mix water no time in establishing a rock solid kick drum, and then proceeds to colour the airwaves around it with hypnotic hi hat loops, rougher claps, and raw synths. As ever with Hood, it is a bouncy and fast moving mix that hurries you along at a great rate, but because there are so many thrills along the way, you are more than willing to go wherever he wants to take you.

Mumdance embraces a much wider world of sound than many. The UK producer is an experienced collaborator who grounds his sounds in anything from grime to breaks, techno to hardcore, experimental to world and afro. Making textured noise with a module set up, playing sets that run a dizzying gamut of genres and performing live with the likes of Novelist, he is a restless creative who works with labels like Tectonic, Keysound Recordings and XL Recordings. On top of all this, he runs his own Different Circles label, heads up one of Rinse FM’s most popular radio shows and designed sound presents for the relaunched 303 and 909 machines by Roland.

His mix for us is a beguiling, hard to categorise blend of all of this, forthcoming stuff and more: from brain frying frequencies and skeletal grooves from somewhere on the hardcore continuum to sci-fi ambiance, deep techno rhythms and immersive passages of raved-up sound design, it is a singular proposition from someone who embodies many different aspects of UK electronic music past, present and future, often all at once.

The last couple of years have seen D.K. emerge at the centre of a new age, ambient laced and misty sonic sphere. Taking cues from boogie and synth pop, house and funk, the Frenchman’s subtly soothing sounds have come mostly on Antinote and sound at once nostalgic but also forward looking. Musical and lush, dreamy and balearic, it is music for warm climates and laid back moments in your life.

And so is the mix he has put together for us: over the course of ninety minutes it takes you from the hammock to the beach bar and on to the club. Starting with the sort of smooth and serene sounds you would expect, things get crunchier and more hard hitting as you move along through prickly house, wild analogue jams and trippy four thumpers.

Since the turn of the millennium, UK artist Alistair Wells has been putting out a tough and abrasive brand of experimental techno that cannot fail to arrest your attention. Always skewing existing ideas into his own new—often brutalist—ways of thinking, his output has seen him become an in demand live act and DJ who plays across three decks all over the world. He does so under the alias Perc, mostly on his own label Perc Trax, and at the same time he has also brought on a number of likeminded artists from Ansome to Manni Dee. His own catalogue boasts albums like Wicker & Steel and The Power And The Glory, and these have rightfully won him deserved time in the limelight. That fact proves that although Wells has been around for years, he is as vital now as ever.

As such he brings something new to our mix series across an hour of lively selections. Very quickly settling into a high tempo, high impact groove, there are maximalist techno cuts, passages of angst ridden noise and thumping bangers all bolted together into something uncompromisingly physical and in your face. Franky, it’s a vital visceral offering that would work at any point in the past, present or future of techno.

Here at Dekmantel we are a big fan of Berlin based Brit Objekt. Evidence: you will see him play our festival in Amsterdam as well as Lente Kabinet, and then Dekmantel Selectors in Croatia. And right now, the man known for his unrivalled technical nous is in a fine run of form. His recent, self-released EP is another testament to his ability to skew house, techno and breaks into his own imaginative forms. Following on from releases on Hessle Audio, Bleep and an album on PAN, it is another boon in his fine discography.

And he is just as impressive across a 90 plus minute selection for us: it finds him serving up a cavernous world of intricate and hi fidelity sounds that are abstract and unusual. Moving through sparse minimal soundscapes into pummelling but atmospheric drum tracks and on to jungle, dub and experimental worldly rhythms, it is a wildly compelling and singular selection filled with unusual sounds that often leaving you wondering WTF?!

German DJ Vladimir Ivkovic is resident at Dusseldorf’s Salon des Amateurs, and he has truly made the place his own over the last 12 years. Quite what to expect from him on any given night is anyone’s guess: he can do folk and experimental, sludgy techno or abrasive noise that is always original and arresting in equal measure. The Belgrade born artist also runs Offen Music and manages Loco Dice’s Desolat, and this year will close down our Selector’s stage, something we're truly looking forward to.

And it is that fact which informs the 80 minute podcast he has done for us here. Designed for soul soothing and post party contemplation, it is a meditative mix with basically no drums. Instead it is about suspensory ambient sounds, worldly lullabies and blissed out Balearic moments that encourage you to lay back and stare into the sky. As beautiful as it is beguiling, it is a mix that has us very excited for what is to come and proves what a singular talent this man is.

Later this year, Awanto 3 will release his new album 'Gargamel' with us. Three tracks from it are included in the podcast he has put together, and as you should expect, they are rugged, hard to pin down affairs. And that pretty much defines the Dutchman’s career to date. Early on he founded Rednose Distrikt with Aardvarck, later on he released on labels like Rush Hour, and always is he inventive and unpredictable, whether solo or working with the likes of San Proper and Tom Trago. From sample heavy house jams to rip roaring techno, he is always on the move, just like his Dekmantel Podcast.

Starting warm and loungey, it picks up through dumpy broken drums, colourful chords and spraying basslines. The final third is more jacked up and raw, with filtered vocals and frazzled textures moving you from a vibey house party to a more energetic and cosmic dance floor. Robust and with a heavy analogue feel, it is a fine way to tease us ahead of Gargamel.