Australian Kia very quickly rose up through the grimy after-hours rave scene of Melbourne to make her mark on the international stage. Now Berlin-based, her unique grasp of rhythm is rooted in a love of bass, IDM and deeper techno though she is adept at exploring a wide range of moods within those worlds. She has done so at places like ADE and our own festival and extends her good taste to the curation of her Animalia imprint and its ambient sub-label Cirrus as well as her own original tracks on Nous'klaer Audio.

In this week's mix, Kia showcases a colourful and kaleidoscopic take on techno which she says was awakened by an early trip to Japan's famously head Labyrinth festival. It's a hi-fidelity feast of supple rhythms, icy synths and deep space ambiance that unfolds in late-night fashion. The melodies are as delicate as silk, the drums rubbery yet punchy. It's high-paced future music that manages to be as delicate and beautiful as it is dynamic.

Dekmantel Podcast 440 - Kia

@ciel_dj

Introduce yourself? Pronouns? Where do you currently reside? 

Hello, I'm a producer and DJ going by the name of Ciel. My real name is Cindy, my pronouns are she/her, and I'm based in Toronto, Canada.

How do you deal with being nervous before a gig? 

Try not think about it :) It doesn't always work, but i find it happens from time to time if I'm really exhausted from not sleeping on tour and my brain has naturally shut off. If I can't stop thinking about it, I will try to select the first track from my vinyl bag and have a vague sense of what Rekordbox playlists I plan to play from. I ad-hoc all my sets because I love picking tracks in response to the audience's energy, but sometimes that is a lot more stressful for me and I find myself doom scrolling the USB. Devising a strategy, even if I end up not following it, does a lot to soothe my anxiety. 

Where do you see yourself musically in 2044?

I don't know what the future holds but I hope to be a full time composer of film and TV scores when I'm in my 50s and no longer want to tour constantly.

If you could have anything on your rider… What would you choose?

An indica-sativa hybrid joint (no tobacco), nice bottle of orange wine, German flat peaches, and a bathroom in the booth (anything is possible, right?)

What would you like to see in the future for the dance community?

Less celebrity worship, less influencer culture, less fame & money-chasing, more focus on behind-the-scenes folks (whether DJs or producers or labels) who foster community and tirelessly build their local scenes.

Ciel - 36˚C

A sunset set at Waking Life, Portugal, in June 2023. I DJed after Vlada and before Anthony Naples, in front of a beautiful lake with the sun setting behind me and an incredibly wholesome, engaged, positive, locked-in crowd in front of me. Kept this one pretty measured in pace, and went for expansive, moody, euphoric, maybe also a little psychedelic in vibe, sorta imagining gazing into the deep starry abyss.

Tracklist:

Marlui Miranda – Tchori Tchori (feat. Uakti)
ISOR29 – Mi Vida
TB Arthur – Acid Artifacts 1B
Powder – Alien
Petra & Co – Just Let Go (Dub)
D'Marc Cantu – 1Lb Of Flesh
Hodge – Lanes
Supereal – Body Medusa (Leftfield Mix)
Delkom – Maskulin Feminin (Es Muy Facil)
Marcel Dettmann – Renewal Theory
D.O.P. – Get Out On This Dancefloor
Lockgroove – Feel The Joy
D.Yaroslav – Real to Real
Brain Pilot – Serotonin Flow
Fraxinus – Pass One
Bassrace – Futurama (Aqua Space Mix)
Unknown Artist – W.L.W.A.S.I.O.H. (K Lost Acid Dub)
Bassrace – Futurama (Aqua Space Mix)
Jasen Loveland – F--K 6-6 (Trip Report Mix)
Griffit Vigo – Yasizwa Les'gubhu (Vigo Music Original mix)
Data Theft – Dr. Rhythm Tec Beat
Zone – Eternal #2
Shunji Moriwaki – Shirushi-O-Chodai
3 Play – Get On Up
Frankie Bones – Mandolay Break
R-Zac – Untitled
Andreas Gehm – I Don't Care
Factory Floor – Relay (Charles Manier Remix)
DHS – # 9 Bad Acid
Peter Van Hoesen – Voodoo Benny's Wishbone
Wishmountain – Tap
Thomas Brinkmann – NRT
Stanislav Tolkachev – No matter what they've told you
Nilotika Cultural Ensemble – Ejokawulida
DJ Zinc – Dirty
Ambien Baby – Aventura ft. Priori
Tricky Disco – Cosmic Tones
Gilles Renneson – Yara
Bamao Yendé – Begoona
Tati Quebra Barraco & DJ Marlboro – Boladona
Groove Connektion 2 – Club Lonely (Serious Danger Mix)
Oliver Ho – Anaesthetic - Veil - Transform
Cari Lekebusch – Output 2 - A1
Reeko & Surgeon – Gangster in Disguise
2 Bad Mice – Waremouse
Paradise 3001 – Temazepan
Lighter Thief – Zippo King Two
Temudo – Ashamed
Tikiman, Stereotyp – Jahman
Nicolò – All Night Heat
Atrice – Levels
DJ Sliink – Emergency
Leo Anibaldi – Acid Pervertion
Ruff Da Menace – Dub Rush
Sansibar – Sunshine In Gomorrah
Minimal Compact – Statik Dancin'(Mad Professor Extended Dub Mix)
Xes Noiz – A1
Donato Dozzy – messy kafka world
Metasplice – Buoyant Slight
TV on the Radio – Staring at the Sun

Photo by Sara Herrlander

DJ set at Waking Life 2023

Études Mix N°63 by Call Super @call-super
Curated by Aimée @am-agency

A few words from the artist:
1/ How would you describe your personal connection to music and how it influences your creative process?
Very difficult because my life is very much lived "in music", in that the separations between my engagement with music and the rest of my existence are very indistinct. I need some silence every day to continue. For the rest of it I am pretty much consumed.

2/ As an artist, how do you see the intersection between fashion and music? 
Generally I am not a genre person. This extends to disciplines as a whole as much as it does to genres within disciplines. Every creative outlet is very much a space in which ideas are interchangeable and so on. So if you trained in pattern cutting and you also trained in an instrument then you would be able to work on the same idea in both fields. 

3/ How did you curate this musical sequence/audio journey?
Having said that about genres I wanted to make something that spliced a trip-hop mood and DIY/no wave songs. Trip-wave. A Simply Red dub mix had to be the heart of the thing, everything else extends from this centrepoint.

4/ Three words to define your mix for Études?
Massive Red Area.

Tracklist:
John Tchicai - Lied
Dunn - Vision
Gina X - Kaddish
Phil Lynott with Huey Lewis - One Wish (Demo)
Kincaid - 71122.0 (Stone Remix)
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Jah Wobble - Blow Out
Burnt Freidman & João Pais Filipe - 22-105
Simply Red - Thrill Me (Steppin' Razor Ambient Instrumental Mix)
Simply Red - Thrill Me (Steppin' Razor Mix)
Barbie Bertisch - Taking My Time (Gavilan Rayna Russom Remix)
Aksak Maboul - L'Adieu A L'Histoire (Tolouse Low Trax Remix)
The Advanced Cookbook of Mr Selig and Kanzler Z - Pink Rhythm
Pugilist - Symbiosis
Susumo Yoko - Penguin on Desert
Harmon Eyes - Sensaesa
Laura Michele - You Always Hurt The One You Love

Call Super Mix N°63

909 is a special number for us at RA—the name of one of the most hallowed drum machines in all of music, and one of the foundations of techno music—and we're more than happy to offer it up to a DJ who has been a long-time favourite of our team: Glasgow's Bake. In fact, we commissioned this mix roughly ten years ago, but you can't rush perfection. 

When Bake emerged as one of the heads heads behind the label All Caps—a relatively short-lived but influential imprint that released massive tracks like Flørist's "Marine Drive" and Kowton's "TFB"—he also quickly became one of the most impressive DJs in the post-dubstep access, appearing frequently at Hessle Audio events and sharpening his skills behind the decks at the country's best parties. Now he runs his own, Spirit, at Sub Club.

He has a wide-ranging style that touches on all kinds of leftfield techno and broken drum patterns. His nearly two-hour RA Podcast finds him at the end of a sort-of comeback year, and it touches on tracks from Shackleton, Laksa, Batu, Karima F and Levon Vincent, to give you an idea. It's the kind of mix that oozes expertise and practice without feeling showy—the signs of a truly great DJ. If you don't know Bake, then now you do.

@bake-all-caps

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/909

RA podcast

RA.909 Bake

Kia b2b deep creep @ The Lot Radio 11-03-2023

No one like Hessle Audio's grandmaster could have better welcomed sound scouters on a 24-hour (mind)trip to the island of Spandau. Listen back to this testament of impeccable UK mastery, an impeccable selection of bass mentalism, groovy perreo and tribalism ✨ It's dance, it's jungle, it's drops of spiritual crystals: it's Ben UFO.

Ben UFO - Climate Of Fear - April '22

Juanita's Mix 096 with Kia @kia-sydney

Q. How would you describe yourself?
A. easily distracted, busy bee, passionate, nomadic, pensive.. :)

Q. What was your last memorable club night in NYC?
A. nowadays nonstop in may was epic.. that room is honestly the dream in the right context. the lighting and sound is so on point and the energy during my set time was so infectious (I played 3.30-6am before the legend PLO man). also special shout-out to groovy groovy which i played in july :) DIY parties are always extra special when done right

Q. Tell us a little bit about this mix.
A. this is a very honest/ sombre personal diary I’ve been compiling all year. it’s almost for me the musical embodiment of an infinite plane ride.. watching the sun rise and then set and then rise again. also an ode to all the new & old people that were in my life this year.

this year brought lots of purgatory moments, lots of solo transit.. times of isolation and change, also new friends, positive growth, and people coming into my life… so I guess it’s supposed to represent the ups and downs, change and the journey,

I was struggling to finish the mix and it was sitting at 80% complete for the last little while but I feel like the current situation in Palestine </3 really inspired the missing pieces of the mix. for me, I use music and storytelling as an outlet for frustration and emotion generally. lots of old classics in this and pensive moments.. hope the listeners can feel some of that emotion through listening too..

Unknown Album

Juanita's Mix 096: Kia

A fairly large live set by @priori-ties at @thecraveofficial

The Sizeable Mix Vol. 16: Priori (Live)

Recording of Batu B2B Donato Dozzy (the secret B2B) at Aura, Draaimolen Festival 2023, Day 1.

Batu B2B Donato Dozzy at Draaimolen Festival 2023

Lena Willikens and Moopie at A Colourful Storm, Berlin

Adventures in machine music built to make subs rattle and feet wiggle; a convoluted mess of elektrology and teknology, 3-step, bass-core, post windmill, proto-minimal wankstep, gondola, shithouse, acid wonk, ambient gabber, no more, no less.

BOOKING
chris@unfoldartists.com (ROW)
joe@surefireagency.com (NA)
a.montes@cuatroveinte.tv (LATAM)

DJ set at Waking Life 2023

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