Skee Mask is one of dance music's greatest crossover stories of the past decade, with new albums greeted with the attention usually reserved for an Aphex Twin or a Caribou. ("Loved seeing this on r/indieheads," said one Reddit user, on the release of the 2021 LP Pool.) It's not hard to understand why: albums like Compro, he blends well-worn dance music tropes with incredible, detailed soundscapes and spine-tingling melodies. And on his 12-inches, he brings that sensibility to the dance floor, with an approach probably best described as articulate. Even on his most ambient of tracks, everything is in its right place. Along with founders the Zenker Brothers, his music outlines everything that makes Munich outfit Ilian Tape one of the best techno labels going.

On the decks, it's kind of a different story. It might surprise you if you only know his albums, but Skee Mask is an incredible DJ, balancing his predilection for hip-hop and UK-informed sounds with laser-focused techno. He can adapt to all sorts of situations—there's an incredible recording of him DJing with four of the best grime and drum & bass MCs in the business—and on his RA Podcast he focuses on the techno side of things, with nearly two hours of pacey techno and creative mixing, with dips into acid, electro, garage and more. It's a party-starting mix from a genuine star, perfect for getting through the holiday doldrums or pre-gaming your NYE plans. Like Skee Mask's best records, it's something to enjoy in any number of settings.

@skeemask-music

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/864

RA podcast

RA.864 Skee Mask

(tracklist below) 

This is part 1 of 3 of the recording from my set at Nowadays Nonstop on April 7, 2024.

I played from 9am-3pm, between JASSS and Bearcat, and it was one of the most creatively fulfilling sets I can remember playing – one of those sets where the audience, environment, atmosphere, tech setup, phase of the moon, whatever, all somehow lined up for a full 6 hours. And happily, the recording is maybe my favorite I’ve managed to capture to date. Huge thanks to Kristin for inviting me and to everyone who was there that morning.


TRACKLIST – PART 1 – 9am – 11am

Moritz Von Oswald – Opaco
La Fe – Alta
Xcor – transmission
Levl – Nullpunkt #4
DB1 – B5
Es.Tereo – Temple of Ra
Skeptical, dBridge – Poor & Poverty
Last Life – Hope Killer
Metrist – GMFGR
Fracture & Deft – I Just
Reeko – Rooted
Massive Attack – Inertia Creeps (Floating On Dubwise)
Overlook – Phantom
Scotch Rolex and Shackleton – The Eleventh Voyage
Cortex of Light – Key Hall Mix
Sote – Kangaroo Court
Meo & Steve – Global Village (Funk Version)
Ali – Abyadh Aswad
Kalua feat. Dj Brahms – Brain
Hysterical Love Project – Boyracer
Scorn – Exodus
El Alfa, El Mayor Clasico, Chael Produciendo – Galapin
Osheyack & Nahash – Bait (Florentino Remix)
Material – Reality Dub
Golden Bug – Tokoyo No Kuni (Wolf Müller Remix)
Tammo Hesselink – Work Work Work
Robo-Gnostic – Ghost Rider
Sea Of Disillusions – Voodoo Heaven
Om – Brother That (Tribal Om Acid Remix)
Mosca – Thin That Blood Down
Timeblind – Come Back Wicked (Original Mix)
Pluralist – Body
Einstürzende Neubauten – Yü-gung (Fütter mein Ego)
Piezo – Skinner
Hypna feat. Warrior Queen – Rolling Deep
Kouslin – Michael
Siu Mata – Vaalbara
TEACHI feat. カクマクシャカ – Esther
vromb – emphase
Two Dogs in a House – Dogs DJ Tool
Neon – Voices
The Knife – We Share Our Mothers's Health
Unknown Artist – Spider Crab [Sacred Stones 01]
Ssiege – Drama Lover


Artwork by Brodie Kaman

Live at Nowadays 7 April 2024

Live at Nowadays 7 April 2024 - Part 1

Recording of Identified Patient's set at Dekmantel Ten

Pre-register for Dekmantel Festival 2025 here: bit.ly/4fyWKXc

Identified Patient at Dekmantel Ten

Recording of PLO Man's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2024.

Dekmantel Selectors 2024

PLO Man at Dekmantel Selectors 2024

Recording of CCL & Objekt's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2024.

CCL & Objekt at Dekmantel Selectors 2024

Six hours recorded at one of my favourite clubs in the world, between the hours of 6am and 12pm. 
I absolutely loved doing this - taking the party deeper and deeper into after hours, and bringing everyone back to consciousness again in the second half. 
I LOVE NYC!

Ben UFO - Six Hours At Nowadays Nonstop 2024

Another Barker masterclass.

Sam Barker asks more from techno. The artist known simply as Barker is one of electronic music's most consistently conscientious and curious producers, challenging listeners to question the norms we accept about our shared culture—whether it's the music that fills the room, the process behind it, or the purpose of the space itself.

British-born yet based in Berlin since 2007, Barker forged a connection to many of the city's leading institutions, including Ostgut Ton, and over the course of a long and fruitful relationship, he carved out one of the more singular paths on the club and label's roster.

Not one for orthodoxy, Barker challenged four-to-the-floor techno framework in favor of melodic experimentation. By decentering or completely stripping away the typical trappings of kick drums and claps, his productions are both light and immersive, buoyant in low-end presence and shimmering in weightless space.

Six years after Utility, his sophomore album Stochastic Drift arrives this month. Shaped by pandemic-driven reinvention, it burrows deeper into harmonic twists and freeform drift. "At some point I became conscious of the process," he wrote of his latest album. "The only thing you can do is embrace the uncertainty and see every change as a potential positive.”

Consider his RA Podcast another sequel. Like his much-beloved 2019 mix for FACT, it's a collage of live recordings and a fitting expression of the artist's own internal spring. RA.982 radiates wide-eyed optimism: percussion cloaked in foggy, swirling pads and trance-like chords, neatly synched in synthetic glimmers. 

All in all, it's an hour of music crafted for contemplation, collective euphoria, or heads-down epiphany—or for that matter, any moment, really, its emotive depth seemingly endless.

@voltek

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/982

RA.982 Barker

Interview: https://truantsblog.com/2025/truancy-volume-345-sleep-d/

Soundcloud: @sleepd

Access the download and full tracklist on our Patreon (patreon.com/truants).  However if you need anything leave us a nice comment here with @sleepd tagged and either of us will try get back to you with an ID! Your support helps cover all our costs allows Truants to continue running as a non-profit and ad-free platform.

Sleep D

Truancy Volume 345: Sleep D

Tripped-out excursions through percussive club music with the Nowadays resident.

Ayesha Chugh, AKA Ayesha, makes club music that activates the body. The Brooklyn-based artist has spent the last few years carving out a distinct lane in modern club music. Her fusion of dubstep, techno and essential '90s rave elements into dynamite club tools that test and support dancers in equal measure. This time though, for her RA Podcast, Chugh purposefully tilts in a "more colorful wonky direction."

Since first turning heads with releases on labels like Fever AM and Kindergarten Records, she’s continued to refine a sound that feels both playful and punishing, marked by writhing basslines, rumbling drums and an innate ability to make bodies move. Her productions capture a kind of kinetic precision—tracks that are slippery yet forceful, balancing psychedelic textures with dubstep-like physicality and club-focused power. As Andrew Ryce wrote of her debut, Rhythm is Memory, her skill is "full of textures that wrap around the otherwise thudding, sub-heavy kick drums." After a serious accident in 2024 stopped her in her tracks, this year marks a full return to global touring with a new vantage point on life and the sound she seeks to push.

RA.983, clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, finds Chugh flexing that club muscle once again. Offering a tour through global club music both old and new, it's based around a set at her home base Nowadays this February. It's a patient but relentless ride: from deep, tunneling psytrance, progressive techno and slippery electro before really turning on the gas at the half mark, moving into slanted UK techno territory.

As she explains in the Q&A, it's a carefully curated selection of tracks that probes "what we perceive as tasteful." It's a mix that speaks to her deep knowledge of dance music’s lineage—and her intuitive ability to push it forward.

@aye5ha
Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/983

RA.983 Ayesha

Sábanas Negras (Original Mix)

dZb 1004 - Rous b - Eco Round (Original Mix).

Amsterdam based DJs, events company and record label. - support@dekmantel.com for all your webshop and label enquiries.