Dekmantel Mix Series Archive 1-500

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 indust...

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 collage...

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 liqu...

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...

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 ki...

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 co...

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...

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 he...

Samuel Kerridge is one of the most striking techno producers around. Offering up a wall of noise and rhythm, texture and experiential electronics, he stands alone and really doesn’t care what anybody thinks. This attitude allows him to push borders and explore new ground on labels like Downwards, Contort and Blueprint. There Berlin based Brit is as exceptional in the DJ booth ask he is the studio...

Magic Teapot Records is an exclusive online record store in Barcelona, but also a recently launched record label (run by Daniel Baughman— A&R at Hivern Discs, booker at audiophile venue Nica —, Marco Gegenheimer - who releases on Studio Barnhus as MLiR - and Jens Ingelstedt). The DJ duo though is made up of Baughman and Gegenheimer, and when they come together they unleash hidden vinyl gems that g...

DVS1 came up as a raver in the Midwest, throwing techno parties for over 20 years and getting up to mischief, often next to huge stacks of speakers that still influence him to this day. He is now well-established as a vital DJ and resident at Berghain and Panorama Bar.  This mix is something special and a side of DVS1 normally not heard or recorded! A true digger and passionate record collector ru...

Khidja is a Romanian duo focussed on fusion. They met at high school in Germany and since then have soaked up sounds from all over the world, as well as from their Romanian homeland. From jazz to gypsy music, traditional instrumentation to techno, they skip between genres and generations with ease. Mixing up synths and cult instruments like the setar or ney, their organic soundscapes have come on...

Every mix in our series is special for different reasons, but there’s no denying that a new one from DâM-FunK will always turn heads. The multi-talented American DJ, musician and vocalist is a one man funk machine who has spent his life distilling boogie, g-funk, electro and synth pop into his own modern take on the genre. The Stones Throw afficionado and Glydezone head honcho has an encyclopaedic...

Batu’s on a roll. He always is. In a few short years, the Bristol producer has made his own Timedance label widely acclaimed as one of the best out there, while his own productions constantly nudge swinging, bass heavy and broken beat techno in subtle new directions. They have come on the likes of Fringe White and Hessle Audio, while earlier this month he signed to XL Recordings for his latest EP....

After a couple of well received releases for 1080p and Pinkman, Betonkust and Palmbomen II will properly consummate their relationship with Center Parcs, a debut album on our label this summer. It brings together two Dutch artists with an achingly nostalgic, perfectly washed out and saturated sound that calls on house, pop, ambient, electro and IDM and fills you with familiar emotions from a time...

SHXCXCHCXSH’s techno is as mysterious and abstract as their artist alias. The Swedish duo has remained anonymous since their debut in 2012, largely because they believe that existing in isolation makes it easier to be creative. And they sure have been that, with a spotless run of EPs and LPs on Avian and Rösten that balance light with dark, noise with groove. Though the pair produce famously heavy...

Alessandro Adriani has been championing unusual and unknown synth wave and industrial sounds for a decade now. The Berlin based Italian has done so on his Mannequin Records label as well as on Pinkman and Jealous God and at his bi-monthly party at Säule/Berghain. An inquisitive mind and avid collector whose taste ranges from jazz to Italo to disco, he is a real treasure trove of musical knowledge,...

Shanti Celeste always gets the party pumping. Not by reaching for obvious tunes or resorting to the lowest common denominator, but with great selections and slick mixing. Her reach extends deep into house, electro and techno, and can take you way back to the early days or propel you into the future with a seamless ease. Her own productions pull the same trick, and have given rise to pumping vocal...

Kamaal Williams has almost single handedly made jazz cool again. The exceptional keys player first did so as part of the now sadly disbanded Yussef Kamaal. Their debut album Black Focus was widely heralded as a modern great, and will soon be followed up by The Return, which finds Williams link with bassist Pete Martin, drummer MckNasty and sound engineer Richard Samuels. It is said to be a natural...

Stanislav Tolkachev has been turning out experimental techno for more than a decade but might never have been as prolific as he is now. Hot on the heels of an EP on Raw Waxes that brimmed with dark IDM invention, this month sees him serve up his fourth full length, It Will Be Too Late Then. It finds the Ukrainian serving up controlled machine made chaos, cavernous grooves and his trademark arpeggi...

Paramida is a breath of fresh air on the Berlin scene. Her sound and style goes against the dark, mono-chromatic, machine made music of most of the city and instead heads in a more colourful and Balearic direction. She pushes a bright and emotional sound, and runs the Love on the Rocks label with a similar aim. She calls herself ‘Berlin’s most hated’ but surely isn’t, instead she’s picking up ever...

Since the end of Sandwell District, Silent Servant has continued to be an influential presence in the techno world. The American’s Jealous God label defies convention and expectation with each release and his own avant guard productions remain utterly unique. Each one speaks to his roots—Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure—by fusing post punk and industrial with techno in chilling ways. His...

SØS Gunver Ryberg makes big, powerful music. Hailing from Denmark the former stunt woman turned BAFTA nominated producer and composer lays down driving rhythms and textures for exhiliarating live shows at Berghain, Atonal, and on Boiler Room, or labels like Contort. Often stitching in field recordings to add texture and timbre to her work it adds up to a brilliantly dark and insular experience som...

One of many debuts at Dekmantel Festival later in the year will come from Detroit in Effect aka D.I.E, the now solo project of Tameko J. Williams, also known as DJ Maaco. The Motor City artist has roots that run deep into techno and electro and have helped make him one of Detroit’s most under the radar but influential acts. Records like ‘RU Married’ are classic to this day, while other releases on...

Mafalda has quietly become a truly influential part of the London music scene. Born in Portugal but based in the English capital since 2014, she moved there after a powerful club experience involving Sadar Bahar and has since gone on to create many of her own. Not only does she play at Europe’s most cultured clubs and festivals, but she also co-runs the peerless reissue label Melodies Internationa...