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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 last year, we couldn’t resist continuing it with artists from this year’s line-up. In the next couple of months, we will release 5 podcasts by some of our favourite artists. This year’s podcast theme is all about ‘another side of me’, wherein the artists show another side of theirselves.

First up is Dutch local A Good Christian, who’s been in the business of music for over 25 years now. Over the years, this music head has had a go at almost every position within the industry imaginable, except – perhaps – manning the mailroom. In doing so, he has mostly chosen a position outside the limelight. Nowadays, A Good Christian has a bit more time on his hands and spends his spare time frolicking amongst the fruits of a quarter-century spent digging for records, occasionally playing those slabs of black gold to people other than his closest disciples as well as cutting up and rearranging some of these for his own pleasure.

This first Dekmantel Selectors podcast of this year is recorded right after his performance at Dekmantel Selectors in 2016. “I’ve probably had more DJ aliases than DJ gigs in the last years with Dekmantel Selectors being a rare exception. For this gig, I packed as many sunshine and sand (ok: ‘balearic’) records a Rimowa could hold. I ended up playing a back-to-back with Tako, which was fun, but I only got to play a few records. That’s why I made this mix of all records I brought upon my return home. Free cocktails to those who listen through all 3 hours and 32 minutes of it.”

Selectors Podcast 011 - A Good Christian

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

Selectors Podcast 011 - A Good Christian

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