23:30

Lena Willikens doesn’t play the hits. When she’s behind the decks, even her biggest fans often have no idea exactly what she’s playing, and that’s part of the magic. Like all DJs, Willikens of course has a passion for records, but she’s also after something bigger, something that’s truly transportive for those on the dancefloor.

Born and raised in Germany, Willikens first honed her unique approach during a long residency at Düsseldorf’s beloved Salon des Amateurs. These days, however, she’s based in Amsterdam, where her transportative impulses have been plugged into a variety of outlets with a global reach. On the radio, she pilots the monthly Lightning Conductor program on NTS. On record, she recently curated the fifth installment of Dekmantel’s acclaimed Selectors compilation series, and she’s also been tapped to remix the likes of Lena Platonos, S U R V I V E, rRoxymore, Simian Mobile Disco and Ana Helder, amongst others. On stage, Willikens works with artist Sarah Szczesny on Phantom Kino Ballett, an immersive audio-visual performance art project that defies routine explanation.

Still, it’s in the DJ booth where Willikens continues to make the biggest impact. Whether she’s playing alone or in tandem with fellow sonic explorer and Salon des Amateurs alum Vladimir Ivkovic, Willikens nimbly navigates electronic music’s darkest and most bizarre corners, sampling different temperatures, different moods and a dollop of chaos, just to keep things interesting. And although she herself doesn’t always know the final destination, when Willikens is at the helm, there’s no question that the journey is bound to be thrilling.

Lien SC : https://soundcloud.com/lenawillikens

Rinse France Podcast

Azu Tiwaline invite Lena Willikens - 03 Juillet 2022

jack and elaine’s mixes feature consistently in many of our lives. 

it means a lot to share a recording from them. I don’t know how to express it. maybe like diane once said, it’s a secret about a secret. the more it tells you the less you know.

this one features music that seems to capture the gravity of one place in exchange with a new space and force. a vaporous melange of melancholia and euphoria. metronomic and infinite. that dose of diazepam, guiding the slow death of a year.

time is away

Moving through gears and tape-bent textures, in four-wheel drive. In good hands. @john-howes

22 - Howes

We’re delighted to welcome XDB to the series this week. A little over 2hrs long, this is a long-form insight into the DJ & producer's expansive record collection. The mix kicks-off with slow building house, subtly moving through to electro and deep techno, ending with a handful of the classics, all weaved together in a seemingly effortless style that Kosta has become synonymous with. Catch the master in action at Dimensions thus summer, playing alongside the Freerotation crew ⚡️

https://soundcloud.com/xdb

TASCAM DR-05X

DIM282 - XDB

RinseFM Podcast

Hessle Audio feat. Ben UFO - 03 April 2023

Rinse FM Podcast

Hessle Audio feat. Ben UFO - 24 July 2023

Available on Audio Cassette and digital download directly from the label’s Bandcamp: https://cclurl.bandcamp.com/album/a-night-in-the-skull-discotheque

Side A: Bass is Eternal
Side B: 2-step Mutual Dream

A Night in the Skull Discotheque by the beloved underground selector CCL is the latest offering in the T4T LUV NRG label’s highly limited DJ mix series of cassettes. This immersive journey through a wonderland of proto-dubstep sounds from the late 1970s through the year 2000 is a sonic sibling to CCL’s acclaimed 2018 mix Ode to Queer Steppas.

Inspired in part by Eris Drew’s use of “old records to create new styles out of fragments” on her Raving Disco Breaks Vol. 1 mixtape (T4T LUV NRG, 2019), CCL approached this recording with a parallel frame of mind. Created with 3 CDJs, one Turntable, and a Boss Digital Delay 200, the tracks included in the mix are deconstructed from their whole, and constituent parts are intertwined, sampled, and dubbed out while being further stretched beyond their physical limits. CCL mixed many tracks at the 'wrong speed', pitched beyond their original recognizable tone; others are recontextualized through imaginative layering.

With a solid nod to seminal mixtapes of the early 90s, CCL references the namesake for Side A, Bass Is Eternal, an unreleased 1992 mixtape by influential Bristolian producers Smith & Mighty, an important sonic fulcrum amongst the musical tributaries of the hardcore continuum that continues to reverberate to this day. CCL experienced the after-effects of this ‘proto’ sound genesis in 2008, while living in Bristol, by which point its emergent whispers had coalesced into what became known as dubstep. Tracing a rich history of reference through the samples, basslines, moods, and drum patterns emanating from Bass Is Eternal while looking for connections that predate it became a long-term fascination for CCL. The result is a DJ mix that connects the oft-forgotten dots between proto eras and modern developments in bass and dubstep.

For the resulting sonic ride on A Night in the Skull Discotheque, CCL leads us to a fantastical place of timeless surreality – a majestic haunted dancehall soundtracked by a giddy rush of steppers and dubbed-out delights. Subs rattle through syncopated percs, and moody synths glisten in macabre glory. Fantastical dancers wriggle in wispy eternity, liberated from their corporeal forms in all their greatest spiritual wonder. Both extravagant and dusky, A Night in the Skull Discotheque is a world of seductive in-betweens, a place caught between the moodiest depths and the highest exuberance – A love letter to one of the most impactful formative sounds of the last decades.


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A portion for the proceeds from this release will go to fundraiser "SUPPORT PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY IN EUROPE!". You can also directly donate via:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-palestinian-solidarity-in-europe
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Tape design: Nina Muro
Mastering: TJ Hertz
Additional tape mastering: Eris Drew
Photography: CCL 
Linear notes: Nevan Jio

A Night in the Skull Discotheque [T4T015]

CCL - A Night in the Skull Discotheque

Another set of debuts for the label, CI007 brings you German funkster Martsman and renegade beatmaster turned rockstar Cartridge from Canada…

Side I. Cartridge – Just Let Go

The enfant terrible of the drum'n'bass scene, Scott Koladich a.k.a. Cartridge, would have been a glamrocker had he lived before his time. He steps up to the plate with the masterful 'Just Let Go', which was produced 5 years ago according to Scott himself. 

The tune has everything befitting a future (timeless) classic: a hypnotizing vocal hookline,  a tough rolling B-boy breakbeat workout and a throbbing pulsating bassline propelling the tune ever forward into the breakdown where layers of trance-inspired pads introduce the second coming and together with the unrelenting vocal line lift the tune to it's climactic apotheosis.

Cartridge has officially quit Drum & Bass, as Scott has claimed several times over the last few years, but his gems keep (re)surfacing so you never know what to expect in the future.

DJ support: Alley Cat, Breakage, Brett Offshore, Code, DJ Trax, Equinox, ESB, Fanu, Fractional, Fracture & Neptune, Loxy & Ink, Martsman, Martyn, Nucleus, Resound, Rohan, Selector Moldy, Infuse, Stunna, Rosco and John Doe. 

[CI007] Cartridge - Just Let Go

recorded on a mild July evening


Anthony Naples - Tusk (Mister Saturday Night)
Magic Mountain High - Untitled (Workshop)
Vakula - Mama Said Go Slow (Shevchenko)
Gerry Read - Bozza (Delsin)
Xozar - Tropical Cruize (L.I.E.S.)
Omar-S - Strider's World (Fxhe)
Boddika & Joy Orbison - Prone (Sunklo)
Mr. Beatnick - Sun Goddess (DBA)
Madteo - Mad See Scrolls (Marcellus Pittman Remix) (meakusma)
DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central Part 1 (MCDE Bassline Dub) (Mule Musiq)
Moodymann - Dem Young Sconies (Planet E)
Geeman - Fire Extinguisher (Clone Jack For Daze)
Daphni - Ye Ye (Text)
Andres - New For U (La Vida)
GZA - untitled (Madlib Remix)

numberone

- This release is the soundtrack of the sound system parties we used to host in various places in Paris through the years. 
It's also a tribute to all the fantastic friends we've met along the way -

Big Up Lil Toby, @felixhall , @mothermark , @jon_k_mcr -

numberone

Atoll K

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