Selectors Podcast Series

Each year, we ask a few artists from the Dekmantel Selectors line-up to deliver a mix in anticipation of the new edition. Who could be a better fit than DJ Python to re-initiate this tradition?

Even before Dulce Compañia, which introduced the Python alias to the world, Brian Piñeyro has been providing a wide array of unique sounds to those who care to listen. To be fair, he makes it hard not to care, and also to describe his ambling, dembow-inspired rhythms as something other than ‘deep reggaeton’. But if Piñeyro has taught us one thing, it is that music is just moods flowing into one another. Sometimes, the mood is a percussive therapy session, and sometimes it warps drone-driven electronica, tingly synths, and steely dancehall.

It is unsurprising that this mix is all about the mood too. A 60-minute journey across genuinely emotive songs and honeyed hymns. In his words, it’s just about “enjoying the time with people around you, whatever shape the people or the time may take”. When listening to this mix, keep in mind DJ Python’s approach to making soup: you can only really do it well if you allow yourself to move beyond the recipe. The only thing left to do is let go and get locked in.

Selectors Podcast 028 - DJ Python

This instalment of our annual Selectors Podcasts series comes from Mika Oki, who is probably best described as a sensory artist. Heavily influenced by a background in sculpture and electro-acoustic music, her work frequently revolves around weaving together sound and vision – simultaneously creating and exploring intangible spaces, be it in installations, performance pieces, music, or mixes. And when it comes to the latter, Mika Oki has proven, time and time again, that an amalgamation of grime, reggaeton and dancehall might just be an essential component of a well-crafted, esoteric soundscape.

What you’ll hear in this industrial and organic mix partly derives from Mika Oki’s friends, producers and residents at LYL radio, as it happens that she recently opened the third, Brussels-based branch of the Belgian webradio together with a collection of dedicated musicians. Combined with sounds reminiscent of “broken machinery” and a “glitched, collapsing world”, we are left with a celestial selection that converges across the realm of sonic experimentation and - somewhat otherworldly - club rhythms. One thing is for certain: this mix will leave you wondering what you were doing before you started tuning in, once it’s over.

Tracklist

Selectors Podcast 029 - Mika Oki

Each year, we ask a few artists from our Dekmantel Selectors line-up to deliver a mix in anticipation of the new edition. First up in this year’s series is Garage Noord resident and LYL radio show host @merelrhizoom. As a proper connoisseur of modular synth tracks and avant-garde compositions, merel rhizoom tends to navigate the musical stratosphere between what one could refer to as “weird psybient”, hypnotic jungle, trance downtempo or industrial breaks with implausible ease in her selections.

The mix at hand makes a good case for doing what feels right: merel rhizoom told us that she “initially was very tempted to make a more dance-oriented mix”, but then decided to go into a different direction: “focussing on (modular) synthesis of veterans such as Max Loderbauer, Robert Aiki Low, Andreas Tilliander and Driftmachine, while on the other hand including more avant-garde compositions by Jon Hassell, Oren Ambarchi, Upperground Orchestra and others”. What already sounds good on paper, has turned out to be a mesmerizing and thoroughly mind-altering listening session – enjoy it with your eyes closed and mind open.

Selectors Podcast

Selectors Podcast 030 - merel rhizoom

For this instalment of our Dekmantel Selectors podcast, we welcome Amsterdam-based Nèna (@castro-nena). Her song selections range from reggaeton and bass-heavy beats to dancehall and dreamy pop. When Nèna enters the booth, an emotional genuineness and an open atmosphere will connect the audience.

Defined by its day to night feeling, this mix continues to enter your ears with beams of sunlight and fast-paced emotions revolving around 'break-up season'. "This mix is created to break away from anger and sadness, dancing forward towards a new season," Nèna explains. "A higher pace than my usual mix, characterizes this podcast. It is created to trigger emotions." Moving your body and processing all kinds of feelings is facilitated by this sincere Dekmantel Selectors 2022 artist.

Selectors Podcast 031 - Nèna

After starting the mini Dekmantel Selectors podcast series two years ago, it feels like a tradition to bring it back to life. In the next couple of months, we will release 6 podcasts by some of the exciting artists from the line-up. This year’s podcasts challenges the artists to work around a theme or idea they picked theirselves. Next up: the talented duo from home grounds, Strange Boutique.

Strange Boutique a.k.a. Femke Dekker and Nicole Martens have two important things in common: their love for art and music. Whilst Dekker works as an art curator at De School, Martens is a visual artists and every now and then teaches design at the well-known institute Willem de Kooning over the past years. The kindred spirits they proved to be excellent curators: not only when it comes to art, but also behind the decks, playing everything in between ambient, experimental music and more crazy exciting stuff. That being said, inviting them over for their debut at Dekmantel Selectors sounded like the ultimate match.

In anticipation of that, the duo served up a mix full of tracks from outstanding artists like Beatrice Dillon, I:Cube, Green Vision, Cos/Mes and De Leon. Danclefloor gems meet experimental vibes. Strange Boutique: "Usually when we’re asked to create a mixtape, there's this one song that becomes the core of the mix and the way it's build up.  In this case it was 'Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest’ by The Fireman. Most of you will know that The Fireman is the moniker of English producer Youth aka Martin Glover of Killing Joke and the Orb fame and Paul McCartney. Both of us are huge McCartney fans and both his solo work, as well as The Wings and of course The Beatles has found a way into our various projects." Get to know the duo at its best.

Selectors Podcast 

Selectors Podcast 019 - Strange Boutique

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Selectors Podcast 019 - Strange Boutique

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