Dekmantel -  Amsterdam

sonix

Later beluisteren 2

Recordings Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Max Abysmal at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

As you would expect of someone called Lovefingers, American DJ and producer Andrew Hogge has a very special touch when it comes to making, playing and releasing emotionally involving, blissed out music. Hailing from LA, he runs the magical ESP Institute label and is also half of The Stallions as well as being a self-proclaimed hippie. That always comes through in the organic, loved up music he works with, and visual aesthetics always seem just as important to him as musical ones. 

The romantic and intoxicating mix he serves up is dedicated to Red Light Records owner Tako Reyenga and Mule Musiq affiliate Kuniyuki Takahashi. It is a loose-limbed, love-fuelled and fully horizontal delight made up of underlapping grooves, oriental motifs and gluey pads. The second half touches on more physical drums but also offers up yet more heavenly ambiance, bird song and jumbled percussion that will have you reaching for your shades and dreaming of summer. 


Dekmantel Podcast 061 - Lovefingers

Gerd Janson is the influential label boss, journalist, DJ and producer behind the Running Back imprint an doesn't need any introduction nowadays. With a fine ear for unearthing new artists and developing them on his label, Gerd has a very busy schedule and puts out a dizzying amount of music from ambient to disco, house to techno. As a DJ, he has no identifiable style but is a master of many and is someone who can play to just about any crowd and make them move. As if that wasn't enough, as one half of Tuff City Kids he kicks out the club-ready jams that keep kids dancing. 

Back on New Year’s Eve 2015, he played back-to-back with Irishman Krystal Klear, who is at the heart of the modern house scene in his hometown Manchester. His fresh take on a classic sound has seen him win plenty of favour with the youth of the day, as well as getting him signed to Kerri Chandler’s MadTech label. Only active for six years, he has already become a regular on the global circuit and now heads up his own Cold Tonic label as well as hosting an influential show on Rinse FM. With a great sense of humour that always permeates his music, former Hoya: Hoya resident Krystal Klear has a passion for a wide range of sounds. 

Our latest mix is taken from the five hour b2b the pair played that NYE. As such it really found them stretching their legs and playing across the board. From slow disco to playful r&b grooves, 80s synths to classic house, it is a truly playful set that is chock full of jams, all carefully mixed into one explosive and loved-up whole. 

Dekmantel Podcast 062 - Gerd Janson X Krystal Klear

Vakula is a prolific Ukranian producer, DJ and outspoken artist who very much has his own sound and is a Dekmantel family member for a long time now. Releasing a vast amount of house and techno that touches on everything from super sweet and deep to melodically off kilter, stripped back and ornate to magically cosmic. Before now the Leleka boss has released a number of conceptually strong LPs and plenty of EPs as well as an album of psychedelic rock and spoken word. His album 'You've Never Been To Konotop' is a modern classic. He takes risks and isn’t afraid to buck trends, basically, and for that reason has a cult following around the world. 

Proof that Vakula does things his own way is this mix (released on his birthday) which focusses completely on techno. At around two and a half hours, it really allows him to stretch his legs into a weird and spaced out techno world. From Detroit and Millsian to old school and jacking, many different moods and grooves are explored here but never do energy levels dip below full on sweaty. 

Dekmantel Podcast 063 - Vakula

Quentin Vandewalle is probably better known to you as Zaltan. The French DJ is head of the Antinote label; a homebase for many upcoming artists such as Syracuse (catch them on this year’s Lente Kabinet), D.K, Dominique Dumont and Geena. It is the place where horizontal ambient, gently Balearic sounds and nostalgic house all rub up with retro design attached to it. Each EP and LP is a lovingly crafted and memorable affair that will sooth any busy brain or tired soul, and that is the case with his journeying mix for Dekmantel. 

Over the course of an hour, it will ensure you to forget your woes and drift to a sunnier place before getting down to some dancing action. Vocal ditties, dusty breakbeats and crunchy DIY beats get blended and fused into a set that is expertly slow to start, then decidedly direct later on. Listen and learn from a master of balancing beats with blissfulness.

Dekmantel Podcast 064 - Zaltan

Just like Larry Levan was Paradise Garage, Tony Humphries was Club Zanzibar. With his inimitable take on house and garage, the US-DJ was able to command audiences for hours, taking them up and down, round and round with a dizzyingly eclectic mix of soul, tribal and gospel styles. Kerri Chandler has said before how much of an influence Tony was on him during those early days in New Jersey, and this August he will offer a very real link to that past with a set at Melkweg under the title 'A Tribute To Zanzibar'. 

Ahead of that, Tony has served up a ninety minute mix for us that showcases the skills he has been honing for more than 35 years. It is a party starting selection that touches on every facet of house music in feel good fashion. Quick and slick and always smooth, more than the odd history lesson is included along the way but the results never feel less than timeless. 

Dekmantel Podcast 065 - Tony Humphries

This was the last set on a monday night, closing a very long weekend in kater blau. We played from 02 to 08 and this is a small excerpt including some very new and some very old tracks. Have fun!

Live @ Kater Blau (Kiosk) 03.10.2016

Let yourself be hypnotized by soundcloud.com/spekkiwebu’s mesmerizing mix. Like a snake charmer he entrances you with cosmic tribal percussions, elephant trumpets, intriguing vocals, and what sounds like a spaceship landing overhead. Representing the Ohana Hana crew he subtly shifts gears between tempos as to ease you into altered states of consciousness.

ZeeZout Podcast 043 | Spekki Webu

Bamboo Shows 034 : Dark mantra w/ Vector Trancer
Infos, Links & Podcast Series : bambooshows.com/vector-trancer-bs034

@vectortrancer

BS034 - Vector Trancer (Mirror Zone)

for my 6th edition of my bi-monthly @operator-radio show i played 2hrs solo..

Abadan Bar 006 w/ Moody Mehran

Dj Okapi at Jaeger Oslo
live recording 04/09/2019

I have to tune the car radio manually to get to the place I want to be on Cape Town’s FM bandwidth. The seek button scans over the desired channel even though I’m just a few blocks away from the broadcasting headquarters. Immediately, the old, but familiar hiss of white noise transports me back to my youth and then it pops into life as I get to 89.5. A two-step punchy snare and a syllabic yelping in Zulu greets me on the other side, this sounds more like home.

“You have to listen to Bush Radio” a friend told me the night before, “if you want to hear South African music”. For the past week I’ve been driving around my hometown listening to the ubiquitous sounds of popular music from Europe and USA proliferated by the nationally syndicated stations like 5FM. This has always been the case in South Africa and notwithstanding the community focussed programming from small, inconspicuous stations like Bush Radio, this has remained the broadcasting practise for the most part of my adult life too.

Every time I return to South Africa I’m always astounded and dismayed how very little has changed in that regard, even when in Europe, South African music is being proliferated by DJs and radio everywhere. The sound of GQOM, the band BCUC, a revival of seventies era Fusion, and the newfound interest in the eighties bubblegum sound had all been largely instigated and promoted through European labels and record stores in recent years.

Limited by constricts like the lack of vinyl presses to re-issue music and the fact that most of the original records are harboured in European record collections, it’s obvious why this has happened, but it doesn’t look set to remain this way for much longer. In recent years a DJ, a blog, a label and a record store has come along, all dedicated to changing this, bringing South African music back home and making availeable on the vinyl format again. It all funnels down to one man, Dave Durbach, better known by his DJ alias Okapi, who is tirelessly and selflessly, collecting and re-distributing this music through Afro-Synth, a blog, store and record label dedicated to new and forgotten South African music.

Hailing from Cape Town, where he cut his teeth around the bars and clubs in the small scene around Long Street, playing everything from Hip Hop to Jazz, Dave had always been known as something of a “vinyl junkie” by the locals. At a time when the format was largely forgotten for the more accessible digital formats, Dave would haunt the used record shops in and around Cape Town for obscure records from the eighties. The records largely disregarded as disposable “bubblegum” music by a predominantly white music media, became an obsession for the latent digger in his teens and laid the foundations for what would later become Afro Synth; a blog dedicated to shedding new light on a lost era in South Africa’s rich music history.

Afro Synth garnered attention for its unique and largely untapped source of records from from an apartheid-era South Africa with considered reviews and articles about the artists and the records sound tracking the end of white-minority rule and the first exciting years of post-apartheid South Africa. These were the talented, mostly black artists that remained obscure for the longest time, pressing limited runs of their records on independent labels that were quickly assigned to bargain bins all over SA. He established the blog to highlight these finds and through his words, many South Africans (this writer included) were lead on an extensive journey of discovery through a very niche, and almost forgotten corner of music history.

Dj Okapi at Jaeger Oslo - live recording 04/09/2019

Playing deep Indonesian digs in the RLR AMS SHOP listening basement. One hour of esoteric gems, traditional Sunda, psych rock and more.

@redlightradio

RLR AMS SHOP - Sekan for Waves September 19th 2019

CC&PT with Steven van Hulle #013

"[Started DJing] sometime around 2011-2012. I'd made hiphop beats for a long time before that and then stopped for a few years. When I started making music again, I was focused on dance music and DJing seemed like a good outlet for that." - @reverenddollars

DISCWOMAN 79 x Reverend Dollars

Recording of Paquita Gordon's set at Dekmantel Festival 2019.

Dekmantel Festival 2019

Paquita Gordon at Dekmantel Festival 2019

Recording of Solar's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Solar at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Recording of Max Abysmal's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

Recording of OKO DJ's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

OKO DJ at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Recording of Identified Patient's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

Identified Patient at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Recording of Objekt's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

Objekt at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

Recording of Intergalactic Gary & Pasiphae's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2019.

Intergalactic Gary & Pasiphae at Dekmantel Selectors 2019

This is my guest mix for Radio M2o (Italy), it was aired on the 01.11.2019. Now is available via my soundcloud!

Musumeci Guest Mix Radio M20 (Italy) - 01.11.2019

Nicolas Masseyeff @LaConfiserieSonore - Radioshow #61

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