Bristol-based @k_means operates at the fringes of electronic music. It's not tempo and genre that unites their sound, but more an exploration of mood and texture underpinned by bass-heavy low ends and hypnotic rhythms. The Noods, Rinse FM and Kiosk Radio regular is also resident at Bristol's Psychotherapy Sessions and will debut at Dekmantel Festival where you should fully expect to be taken into plenty of unknown musical territory.
It is the same with their mix for us this week - a wild trip into futuristic drum patterns and interplanetary sounds that melt the mind and contort the body. There is a constant push and pull between the organic and the synthetic with tribal percussion and warped vocals brushing up with bleeping synth modulations and experimental minimalism. It's a magnetic selection that's as much an imaginary movie soundtrack as it is a dance floor escape.
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1:42:06
Dekmantel Mix 486 - Mattikk
The next Dekmantel mix is a wild melting pot of dark, murky techno grooves by @mattikk. A pillar of the Amsterdam underground, the Garage Noord resident has a long history of DJing in the city and is closely connected to your favorite techno labels. He’s the mind behind Delsin Records' Mantis series, collaborating with artists like Forest Drive West, Konduku, Lemna, and Dino Sabatini.
Drawing on UK sound system culture, his selections always carry an experimental edge, whether diving into deep Italian techno or ambient. Usually, he crafts mixes for immersive listening pleasure, but here he makes a rare turn to the dance floor, inspired by his closing set on the UFO2 stage at last year's Dekmantel Festival. Over an hour of powerful, driving grooves and subtle details, sprinkled with new tunes and some personal favorites that span low-end-heavy electro and broken beats.
Tracklist/
Dasha Rush - 100 Hearts
O.utlier - Evoparation
Tammo Hesselink - Harbour Launch
R-010 - Exhaust Pipes (Absis Remix)
Amotik - Iktalis
Kon Janson - Unbound Perspective
Saku Niamh - Unreleased
Roseen - Separation
Stenny - Hazy Grove
CAIV - Shimmer
Broken English Club - Ghost
Konduku - Unreleased Remix
Agonis - Unreleased
James Ruskin - Lahaine (O/V/R Remix)
Konduku - Unreleased
Firn - Rakaposhi
Vand - Futureshock
Gez Varley - Purgę
DJ Slip - Spice
VC-118A - Unreleased
Carrier - 2 Slow
Kellen303 - Pinehearse
Fret - Stuck
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1:12:37
Dekmantel Mix 485 - Noizar
@noizar's sound goes far beyond conventional house or techno. The Ukrainian DJ, who is now based in Amsterdam, has long since proven this with countless closing sets as resident at Kyiv’s legendary Closer club. It was there where he stood out for unearthing minimal techno treasures in places no one else looks. As such, you can always be sure that wherever Noizar mixes crop up online, they will be flooded with cheeky "ID?" requests, and quite often you will find they come on his vinyl-only Wicked Bass label.
For his Dekmantel Mix he offers a perfect snapshot of what he does in the booth: carefully dug out delights that don't really fit in usual categories. But they do tap into a specific deepness and groove that is rooted in Kyiv's minimal scene and the dance floor of Closer club. It results in a tight, taught hour of body music that perfectly balances function and form.
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1:03:45
Dekmantel Mix 484 - Eli Verveine
@eli-verveine is a musical chameleon who can do it all from banging peak time sets to pensive warm-ups via weird and wonderful hour hours sessions. She has proven that over the years in many of the scene's most cultured clubs whether playing solo, B2B as Among Trees with Andrey Pushkarev or live with Gwenan as Gin & Tonic. On top of all this, she has a well-formed discography that delves further into her versatile sounds.
This week's mix reflects her musical malleability as she draws on plenty of diverse tempos and textures to craft a lively trip. There are moments of blissful deepness next to more nuanced rhythms, futuristic bass explorations and cosmic electro sojourns that keep things moving at pace, but always with great control and expert selections.
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1:11:55
Dekmantel Mix 483 - Piezo
Milan-based Piezo (@piezopz) sits at the heart of the current club sounds. He has long had an obsession with sound system music and that defines what he does today: mutant and beguiling club tracks with meticulous sound design and thrilling energy, heavy low ends and a real dose of UK influence from d&b to garage, grime and techno. He kicked off the year by dropping his genre-busting Ecstatic Nostalgia EP on our Dekmantel-UFO sub-label and now returns with a podcast that is just as fresh.
It's a futuristic mix of bleeping machines and lurching rhythms with bright synth designs and deep space ambience. Over the course of 90 minutes, the pace picks up and you're whisked along a variety of rhythms from broken to dubby, head spinning to minimal. It feels utterly spontaneous but is also a fully coherent mix from this restless innovator.
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