Dekmantel Mix Series Archive 1-500

Jon Rust is a real DJ’s DJ. With roots in London’s club heritage and an approach to DJing which reflects that, Rust draws inspiration from the city's rich diversity and no-holds-barred approach to music. This is also backed up by the fact that he has hosted a deliciously diverse show on NTS since the stations first week of broadcasting - "No Boring Intros". Rust also runs his own label, Levels, wh...

Brazilian duo Selvagem is made up of Millos Kaiser and Trepanado. Their alias translates from Portuguese as “wild” and their collective output fits that word well: it is organic and from-the-jungle, littered with traditional instruments as well as weird synths, plus bird calls, naturalistic sounds and vocal chantings. As well as being colourful DJs and record collectors, the pair host their own mu...

Kobosil is one of the new wave of artists to have emerged under the wing of Berghain. As well as being a resident at the club, the Berlin DJ and producer has also released on its in house labels Ostgut Ton and Unterton, as well as on fellow resident Marcel Dettmann’s own eponymous imprint. His dark, heavy sound also gave rise to a debut full length earlier this year, and with its clear focus on bi...

If you manage to come up and make a mark on the Detroit scene, you are clearly doing something right. And that’s just how Derek Plaslaiko started: spinning his clinical yet sophisticated sets at various key raves around the Mid West of America before eventually establishing himself on the global underground circuit. Now, although Berlin based, you may caught his name on the flyer for the No Way Ba...

The Canadian techno scene would sound very different without the work of Adam Marshall and Christian Anderson. The former runs the essential New Kanada imprint and the latter is one of the most regular artists on it. As well as that, the Berlin based pair work together as Graze, and on November 8th will put out their first EP on our own UFO label. It is a varied four tracker that showcases their f...

Mr Beatnik is a proud musical boffin. As well as being a writer able to talk at length about Tangerine Dream, the history of hip hop or the influence of George Duke, he is also boss of his own cult label Mythstery Records. On top of this he is a DJ that spans all sounds and scenes with real knowledge, and as a producer the last ten years have proven him to be a master of both classy house and dire...

Doms & Deykers is the work of two dance music powerhouses. Better known as Steffi and Martyn, between them this Dutch pair have helped shaped the underground with not only their high class DJ sets (they are both Panormaa Bar Residents), but also their always fascinating EPs and LPs on labels like Ninja Tune and Ostgut Ton. Of course, Martyn also runs 3024 and Steffi runs Dolly and off shoot Dolly...

Roland-TR808 and Afro obsessed duo Africaine 808 conjure up the sort of loose limbed, tightly programmed drum based grooves that are aimed directly at your body. Made up of Berlin based Dirk Leyers and Nomad, they most often do so on Golf Channel Recordings and imbue thousands of years of rhythm history into their own borderless sounds. “No Rules. No Bullshit. All Styles,” is their own apt mantra,...

Simoncino is a life long student of classicist house and techno. Having soaked up all Chicago and Detroit has to offer for as long as he can remember, Simone Vescovo fomented his own style that draws on the past but looks to his own life for emotional inspiration. Always made with an authentic selection of original hardware such as vintage synths and analog drum machines, his frayed and nostalgic...

Though very much part of the lo-fi techno movement of recent years, Florian Kupfer’s past includes six years as a soprano choir boy. As such it is no surprise there is a real sense of enchanting grace to his work, which most often comes on LIES, but also on Russian Torrent Versions and Wille Burns’ W.T. Records. Whether mechanical and menacing or sombre and heartbreaking, his grainy grooves always...

Honey Soundsystem is an American creative collective that has become hugely influential in the decade since they formed. As DJs both solo and as a team, the San Fran foursome has more than made its mark with an eclectic sound that draws on the diverse backgrounds of the musicians, performers and designers involved. They also host their own parties—famed for fantastic art installations as well as c...

Little is known about Stump Valley, but the Italian duo sure did make an impact with their unassuming EPs on Off Minor and Uzuri in the last two years. Before that they had worked solo on numerous projects, and came together over a shared love of vinyl and with the aim of making something “old sounding but modern conceived.” They melt jazz and ambient moods into languorous house soundtracks that s...

UK artist Lone emerged on a wave of rave nostalgia and computer game sound effects back in 2009. His earliest albums and EPs were like juicy peaches with reflective and refracted stabs making for succulent party sound tracks. Since then he has emerged with a new direction on each new album, his latest being full of jungle and hardcore tropes that cannot fail to make you move. As well as releasing...

Space Dimension Controller’s music is as obsessed with sci-fi themes as the man himself. His latest album—Orange Melamine on Ninja Tune—is another ode to hazy ambient sounds, cosmic energies and colourful soundscapes which proves that once more. It was written in a teenage Jack Hamill’s bedroom and is a thoroughly absorbing affair as indebted to Eno as it is to Boards of Canada. Before that he has...

It is a wonder it has taken us this long to get Tom Trago involved in our series. The Dutchman has been a pillar of the Amsterdam scene for years, either as a producer for Rush Hour and a veteran of no fewer than three artist albums, or as a resident at places like the sorely missed Trouw. He also runs his own Voyage Direct label, has worked with everyone form Aardvark to Bok Bok and, of course, p...

Joy Orbsion is someone we have a long and fruitful relationship with here at Dekmantel. He is, and always has been, a pure embodiment of UK dance music. His sound is steeped in English musical history (often explicitly in the form of sampled monologues) but also very much makes a new history of its own. He’s had countless underground hits from his definitive post-dubstep breakthrough ‘Hyph Mngo’ t...

Few people have shaken up the dance world as much as Ron Morelli in recent years. With his punk attitude and lo fi aesthetics, his L.I.E.S. label has flooded the underground world with raw, dirty, imperfect music for freaks and outsiders. The New Yorker himself produces a sketchy variety of sound that draws on “the fear and repulsion of basic human interaction,” amongst other things, and he has al...

Danny Wolfers aka Legowelt is irrepressible. Creativity flows from the Dutchman like water from a tap: if he’s not making his own fan magazines, writing and performing in web movies about space weed, drawing album art based on his own dreams or making his own synths, he’s probably making music. That music comes under an intricate web of aliases on labels all over the world , and at Dekmantel we re...

One of our all time favourites delivers a 4,5-hour long live recording for this week’s Dekmantel Podcast: BMG is the man in charge of the Interdimensional Transmissions label and Ectomorph - two dynamic, long-standing Michigan institutions. Brendan M. Gillen is part of the history of Detroit as much as the acclaimed superstars. Through a network of pseudonyms such as Ectomorph, BMG, Flexitone, Exi...

Peter Van Hoesen might be best known for his techno work, but the Belgian’s real resumé is actually much more diverse. Formally trained on organ, bass and guitar, the Time to Express boss has put out albums of abstract sound design, has composed for contemporary dance, has been a sometime promoter, run various labels and works with Yves De Mey as Sendai. He also recently stepped up to mint our own...

Kosme is a label boss, producer, DJ and promoter who has built his own discerning musical empire in France. That musical empire is one laced with a spaced out spiritualism, with trippy sci-fi melodies and a seductive sense of groove, whether on 12” format via labels like Thema or his own Cosmic AD, at his cult Cosmic Adventure club night at Le Sucre or in the DJ sets he plays. Kosme is without a d...

What stands Marcel Fengler apart, as well as his knack for refined atmosphere, is his widescreen vision: he reaches for records from all across the electronic spectrum and from throughout the ages. His official mix for Berghain proved that, snaking as it did through a number of different moods and grooves, but all with a sense of cohesion that betrays his many years behind the decks. As a producer...

Many people claim to have eclectic tastes, but few carry through on their promises as ably as Illum Sphere. The Manchester man is as likely to drop a hip hop joint as he is freak you out with some wave or dub, make you move your ass with some boogie or pummel you into submission with some techno. It is the same story at his night, Hoya:Hoya, which has grown into one of his native city’s most accla...

New York City’s Veronica Vasicka very much discovered an untapped musical mine when searching for music for her radio show more than a decade ago. That mine was full of rare, overlooked and forgotten DIY synth records from the 70s and 80s and inspired her to start her own label, Minimal Wave. Since then it has become an imprint with a very focussed musical and visual identity, has spawned compilat...

As co-founder of the Music From Memory label, UK born but Berlin based Jamie Tiller has encouraged us all to take time out, go slow and get lost in some essential Balearic, neo-classical and minimalist works by legends old and new. As well as working with celebrated Italian composer Gigi Masin, the label has put out the work of ambient super group Gaussian Curve and Joan Biblioni amongst others. T...