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

Shackleton Fabric 55

Regis and Function's first mix in over 10 years is a unique paean to Silent Servant, heavy on unreleased material.

When it came time for RA to compile our Albums of the 2010s, one record with a tauntingly limited availability of 500 copies was never in doubt: Sandwell District's era-defining 'Feed-Forward'. Encompassing Karl O'Connor (Regis), Peter Sutton (Female), David Sumner (Function) and Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), Sandwell District had the underground in a vice grip for over a decade.

The collective imploded in 2013, with Sumner and O'Connor's relationship appearing beyond repair. And yet, an unlikely second phase is here, featuring imminent comeback LP 'End Beginnings' and their return to the RA Podcast after 16 years. In 2023, the trio of Function, Regis and Silent Servant had been performing and laying down new material before the latter's shock death last January. It's in the shadow of loss that this unique mix was forged.

Founded in 2002 as a spiritual sister to seminal Downwards, Sandwell truly began to hit its straps in the late '00s, as shadow-stalking cuts sliced through clubland orthodoxy like a switchblade. In parallel, the label's artwork—a noir recombination of Burroughs cut-ups, DIY zines and arthouse amour that Silent Servant made his own—helped fortify a movement which placed an aesthetic premium on grit, grain and sadism.

By the early 2010s, this fixation on the dark arts had utterly permeated the mood inside techno's masonic temples. Labels like Blackest Ever Black, Stroboscopic Artefacts, Avian and Modern Love were in their pomp, razorwire legends like Severed Heads and Chris & Cosey benefited from second winds, and it was briefly a jailable offence to not have a press photo in black and white. 'Feed-Forward' was the exceptional coronating statement.

RA.978 features a stack of unheard recordings from each of the trio, as well as close allies Stefanie Parnow and Tropic of Cancer, while also gathering many of Silent Servant's all-time favourite songs, including Psychic TV, Grace Jones and Galaxie 500. It's a strikingly vulnerable listen, one without many parallels on the Podcast. We're glad to run it. – Gabriel Szatan

Read more and find the tracklist here: ra.co/podcast/978
Read our new feature with Sandwell District here: https://ra.co/features/4426

RA.978 Sandwell District

Skee's insight through his daily listening habits, from guilty pleasures to casual recommendations and in between... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/skee-mask/episodes/skee-mask-25th-april-2025

Feierabend w/ Skee Mask 250425

Kiosk and The Lot Radio proudly team up for a three-day broadcast from the Moon Ra stage at Horst Festival, highlighting the vibrant music scenes of New York and Brussels at one of Europe’s renowned festivals.

https://www.instagram.com/secondcousin_

www.kioskradio.com
www.thelotradio.com
www.horstartsandmusic.com

Cousin | Kiosk Radio x The Lot Radio at Horst Festival 2025

Olgica grew up in Serbia and is now living in Austria. She throws events in both countries and beyond. Left field bass, dub, broken techno, experimental downtempo and dizziyng halftime tunes are attributes of Olgicas sets. Enjoy!

ITPS118 OLGICA

SIX MILLION

The Scion and Hard Wax man gets low on this week's RA podcast.

RA.147 DJ Pete

Here at Dekmantel we are a big fan of Berlin based Brit Objekt. Evidence: you will see him play our festival in Amsterdam as well as Lente Kabinet, and then Dekmantel Selectors in Croatia. And right now, the man known for his unrivalled technical nous is in a fine run of form. His recent, self-released EP is another testament to his ability to skew house, techno and breaks into his own imaginative forms. Following on from releases on Hessle Audio, Bleep and an album on PAN, it is another boon in his fine discography. 

And he is just as impressive across a 90 plus minute selection for us: it finds him serving up a cavernous world of intricate and hi fidelity sounds that are abstract and unusual. Moving through sparse minimal soundscapes into pummelling but atmospheric drum tracks and on to jungle, dub and experimental worldly rhythms, it is a wildly compelling and singular selection filled with unusual sounds that often leaving you wondering WTF?!

Dekmantel Podcast 116 - Objekt

Recording of Skee Mask & Zenker Brothers' set at Dekmantel Festival 2019.

 Dekmantel Festival 2019

Skee Mask & Zenker Brothers at Dekmantel Festival 2019

Here’s the recording of my Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1, which I recorded at the start of 2020 and was broadcast in June. Feeling like I’d been given some big shoes to fill, I spent a couple of months planning a rambunctious, high-energy party mix that would also still be pretty ambitious in the range of styles and tempos it would cover, finally finishing it just as the first lockdowns were kicking in. Obviously, by the time it was eventually broadcast it felt a little out of step with the times. But listening back to it I still feel like it’s one of my better studio mixes, and with the holidays (and a vaccine) around the corner maybe its energy will even feel newly appropriate. So in case you missed the official broadcast – or wanted a download – here it is.

I included a handful of all-time personal favourites, and most of the tracks marked “unreleased” are presumably up on Bandcamp by now so go show the artists and labels a bit of love if you’re feeling it.

TL:

Lyra Pramuk - Mirror (Bedroom Community)
Laughing Ears - Blue Dusk (DECISIONS)
Batu - SYX (unreleased)
Doctor Jeep - Snake Eyes (DRX)
Miss Red - Come Again (Pressure)
Yilan x Ren - Ark (Infinite Machine)
Chants - Diptych (Astral Plane)
Quincy Jones - The Verb To Be (Qwest/Warner Bros.)
Pearson Sound - Alien Mode (forthcoming Hessle Audio)
Galaxy Lane - Days Gone By (unreleased)
Roman Flugel - Pattern One (Ongaku Music)
Orange Kush - Tremolo (Botchit & Scarper)
Renegade Soundwave - The Phantom (It’s In There) (Mute)
Lenk - 444 (H. Productions)
Badsista - Soca Sem Parar (ft. MC Morena) (self-released?)
Slowdive - In Mind (Bandulu Out Mind Remix) (Creation Records)
Paul Damage - Passing By (HOG Records)
KAB - Anjua (Sneaky 3) (Azurite Records)
Archetype - Inhabit the Rhythm (Theory Recordings)
Sun Electric - Entrance (R&S Records)
Nothus - Konnor 3O12 (XCPT Music)
Rhyw - It Was All Happening (forthcoming Fever AM)
Nan Kolè x DJ Tess - Gimme Any Riddim feat. NyNy (self-released)
Surgeon - Floorshow Pt. 1.3 (Counterbalance)
Lhasa - Gather Like Dust (Dark Entries)
Simo Cell & Abdullah Miniawy - Locked In Syndrome (forthcoming BFDM)
Reelle - Hybris (Danse Noire)
RAC - Doublejointed (2) (Warp Records)
Mystic Letter K - See Her Weaving (MLK)
Thee J Johanz - Bass Up (Emergency Broadcast/Furthur Electronix)
Odd Lust - Planet Is Transparent (forthcoming Trilogy Tapes)
X/319 - Effekt_03 (Tau)
DJ Boss - Zakruta (Audio Assault)
Lag - Znoj (unreleased)
Ceephax Acid Crew - Grand Marniacid (WéMè Records)
Grandmixxer & Scratcha DVA - Free Gaza Remix (Allyall Records)
Scorp - Atomitron (Scorp)
Luxus Varta - Magnetic (unreleased)
Al Wootton - Natural Forward (Trule)
FFT - orr din (Super Hexagon)
Pepe - Palinka Hammer (Naïve)
N-ter - Low (Databass Online)
Radioactive Man - Jommtones (Asking For Trouble)
DJ Balani - Balani Sanga (Sahel Sounds)
The Criminal Minds - Change The Pace (TCM Recordings)
Fast Floor - Plight Of The Innovators (Smooth Recordings)
Luxxuryproblems - Ideal, Whirlpool, Transfer (Turbulence) (SPA Recordings)
MC Jessi - AQFFE (Laza Edit) (Tormenta)
Jonny Megabyte - Pickles & Tootsie Pops (Databass Online)
Homemade Weapons - Svalsat (Donato Dozzy Remix) (Samurai Music)
Artilect - Mefo (Samurai Music)
Digital & Sight Unseen - Out of Control (Function Records)
dgoHn - Ninnyhammer (Love Love Records)
RTR - Untitled21 (Analogical Force)
Greta Wohlfahrt - Ausweichquartiere (Greta Wohlfahrt)
C-Tank - Walk On Base (Overdrive)
Lakker - Suburban Cutting (self-released)
Smog - Surfactant (Failed Units)
DJ Pacifier - Ready (Failed Units)
Sample: Rhythm Device - Acid Rock (Music Man Records)
DJ Pacifier - Beginning to Breathe (Daniel Ruane Failed Reset) (Failed Units)
Etch - Lost Orbit (Chrome Drum VIP) (Altered Roads)

Radio 1 Essential Mix

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.

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