Name: Akua | Dekmantel 2022 | Saturday by Boiler Room
Duration: 59 min 58 s
Description: Akua — live from Boiler Room at Dekmantel Festival 2022.

WHAT A SET ... 💣💣💥💥💯⚡️💯

Techno has been reclaimed and refined in the last few years. For Ghanaian-American Discwoman associate Akua (@akua_b), that means a deep dedication to bringing forth narratives about the genre's history. It's about original, authentic and rebellious old school values of the sort that Underground Resistance defined so early on. It's about breaking modern expectations with a fresh sense of attitude. Her recontextualisation of techno centres its long lineage for contemporary audiences. All this most often plays out in Akua's blazing sets, most often during the late-night and early morning hours of the clubs around her New York City hometown. They find her transmute 90s nostalgia while connecting the dots between past and present. "Playing fast feels cathartic," she says, "and helps me deal with the nostalgia I have for a time that I never got to experience but remember and connect with so fondly.”

This week's mix is a testament to that: it starts with 1994's 'Global Warning' from the late great K-Hand and goes on to cover decades of history at warp speed. There are frenetic layers of percussion and hammering kick drums, bouncing bass lines and arresting rave synths all threaded together into something hugely powerful and muscular. It is only a DJ with Akua's sense of control that can serve up a chaotic collision of sound in such a compelling way.

Tracklist
K-Hand - Global Warning [Warp, 1994]
Voltage 9 - Untitled B1 - Candema [Synewave, 1994]
Drax (Thomas P. Heckmann) -  Search [Trope Recordings, 1998]
Mike Dearborn - Warning [Majesty, 1994]
Gene Hunt - Juno 106 [Contaminated Muzik, 1998]
NYCO - Plasticity [ESP Collective, 2021]
DJ Shufflemaster - 808 Cosmetics [Self-Released, 2018] 
Mike Dunn - Damn You All [Trax Records, 1994]
DJ Powerout - Lift [Synewave, 1995]
DJ Slugo - Taris Sleeps Wild [Dance Mania, 1995]
DJ Rush - Control Yourself [Djax-Up-Beats, 1999]  
Fuzz Face (DJ Hyperactive + Woody McBride) - New Ones [Communique, 1996] 
DJ Slip - Bushwick Birds [Kanzleramt, 2001]
DJ Hyperactive - Get In [4 Track Recordings, 2008]
Joey Beltram - Caliber [Warp, 1994]
Surgeon - THX-1139 (Level) [1996]
Creeper - Spoke [Cluster Records, 1997]
DJ Jes - True Honesty [Contaminated Muzik, 1998]
Tevatron - Molekule [Re-load Records, 1998]
Jana Clemen - Momentum [Convex, 2001]
Decoder - Populations [Self-Released, 2021]
Unknown Force - Internal Drive [430 West, 1995]
Bios - Basic Black [Black Nation, 1998]
DJ Apollo - Hooligan Stomp [Head In The Clouds, 1996]
DJ Genderfluid - Dirty Funker [Wet Trax, 2021]
Woody McBride + DJ T-1000 -  Test Three [Generator Records, 1995]
Fumiya Tanaka - Micro One [Torema, 1995]
Max Watts - Ichi 3 [ESP Collective, 2021] 
DJ Rashad - Acid Bit (Feat. Addison Groove) [Hyperdub, 2013]

Tracklist

Dekmantel Podcast 350 - Akua

Next up in our mixtape series is the incredible @helena-hauff 😍
We are extremely happy to have her on board for this one, since she is easily one of our very favourite DJs! 🙏
Helena started out as a resident DJ at Pudel Club in Hamburg, a legendary space where she perfected her mixing skills that now make her one of the best djs in the world 🧨  

Over the last 10 years she has not only stuck to djing but also produced her own music, resulting in two albums that she released in 2015 & 2018 which were both widely celebrated, as well as several EPs. 

For Spandau20 she has delivered one hour of pure vinyl-mastery, full of electro / breakbeat gold and we couldn’t be prouder to share it with you today 🖤

SPND20 Mixtape by Helena Hauff

Akua — live from Boiler Room at Dekmantel Festival 2022.

Akua | Dekmantel 2022 | Saturday

Whether you're hearing a track or a DJ set, you can usually tell it's Nene H pretty quickly. In just a few years, Beste Aydin has developed a very specific approach within the realm of techno. She inhabits the genre yet colours just enough outside the lines without losing the plot—or the pull—entirely. The focus is on fun, on groove and on hooks, with sets that dip into trance, electro, ghetto house and even hints of hyperpop, tying in neon threads into techno's all-black garb. 

She's used techno as a jumping off point for orchestral and choral performances, as well as the poignant expression of grief (on her stellar debut album). She's become a regular at Berghain and groundbreaking festivals like CTM, traversing a highbrow-lowbrow line that posits that every kind of dance music deserves the highbrow treatment. Her RA Podcast is an irresistible hour of techno full of what she calls "Neneisms," turns into pop hooks amidst hulking techno beats and dips into funky, electro-informed beats.

@nenetreat

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/850

RA podcast

RA.850 Nene H - 2022.09.19

Volvox and Juana went b2b for the first time at July's summer Balance and the results were fantastically fierce. The meeting of two of Unter's most beloved DJs was a first and one we hope is not the last. This recording drops you 15 mins into their 2 hour b2b set from an all around unforgettable night at BASEMENT. Balance will return Nov 11 ... @volvox @thatjuana

Volvox b2b Juana - Recorded at BASEMENT July 2, 2022

REC 004 w/ Schacke

The REC series compiles outstanding performances recorded in the club throughout the year, highlighting artists representing our love for electronic music.

Another boiling recorded night at Fuse lands upon us once again. A worthy representative of the Copenhagen underground scene, Schacke takes us through a sound bite of the night dedicated to Fast Forward Productions. 

Armed with tireless practice, the eye for detail of the Moral Defeat label father can be heard through his two hours of music crossed with presence and confidence. With a vast gamut of inspirations, one thing is sure here: groove is king. Latent dynamism, seamless 4/4 transitions, sometimes toying with chopped vocals and deep rhythms, Schacke’s sense for music is both sweet and brainy. Until the next one, hats off to you Schacke.

▪️ Soundcloud: @schacke
▪️ Resident Advisor: ra.co/dj/schacke
▪️ Discogs: discogs.com/artist/5901037-Schacke-2
▪️ Bandcamp: schacke.bandcamp.com/
▪️ Instagram: instagram.com/schackedelic
▪️ Facebook: facebook.com/mschacke

Schacke — Recorded live at Fuse Brussels (27/08/22)

As the year winds down, let loose with Lolsnake and her entry into the Crack Mix series.

Storming in at just over an hour, it’s a “deep journey exploring the mood of rolling into the winter months” from the Berlin-based DJ and visual artist, who is also the founder of queer platform and event series Weeeirdos. Expect scintillating techno and melodies bright enough to rival any festive season decor.

Find out more on crackaud.io: crackm.ag/3HuXiz0 
 Still Independent. Help us keep it that way: crackmagazine.net/subscriptions

Crack Mix 481: Lolsnake

Mama Snake is the reptilian alias of Sara Svanholm, a Copenhagen-based DJ/Producer whose slithering beats are every bit as cunning as the name suggests. She’s an integral part of her city’s scene and a card-carrying member of collaborative ‘mixed media channel’ Amniote Editions alongside names like Celestial Trax, Hadone and D.Dan. Her full-blooded sound leaves no room for misinterpretation, it is thrilling, primal and overwhelming in the vein of the most compelling main stage techno. There’s a raw practicality to the music too, perhaps a function of her second career as a medical surgeon; Mama Snake wants to create a communal feeling through her work, and there’s the human touch. These rumbling rhythms might sound formidable, but they’re there to bring people together and get both bodies and progressive ideas moving. Bassiani Podcast 163 is pure, unadulterated, percussive power, 80 minutes of coiling loops and white-hot basslines from the Denmark-based techno matriarch.

@mamasnake

Bassiani invites Mama Snake / Podcast #163

u.r.trax is a driven producer and DJ from Paris. The mix combines deep trance atmospheres and uplift, bright, and shiny vibes. 
You can find the interview on www.numeromag.nl/in-conversation-with-u-r-trax/
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https://soundcloud.com/urtrax

u.r.trax | Numéro Netherlands

There are DJs, then there are DJs who capture—and live—a moment in dance music's evolution. Born in Los Angeles, but based in New York for the better half of a decade, Akua has established herself as the latter, an important voice in the North American techno scene. Akua's DJing practice is fueled by her research in the '90s techno music archive, with a special interest in the history and roots of techno within America. 

Akua's sets are raw extensions of the foundations laid by the pioneers of '90s U.S. techno. Most prominently, the work and influence of DJs like Jeff Mills, Claude Young and Jay Denham can all be heard across her mixes, as well as the spirit of Underground Resistance. Her interest in fast-paced techno comes from these traditions as well as own individualist streak—while there's no shortage of DJs who play high-BPM techno, you won't hear anyone else play it quite like she does.

Her old-school meets new-school sound has catapulted her from the New York underground into the European techno circuit, where recent gigs have seen her perform at dance music institutions like Berghain and Dekmantel. Akua's RA Podcast is her in full-throttle mode, featuring all the stripped-down, hypnotic groove of early techno aside rushes of searing acid, carefully speeding up until closing at a healthy sprint.

@akua_dj

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/878

RA.878 Akua

Juana B2B Ne/re/a - Merge 02.24.23

Connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and irl through parties, film and video.

Akua | Dekmantel 2022 | Saturday

Boiler Room

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