Lena Willikens doesn’t play the hits. When she’s behind the decks, even her biggest fans often have no idea exactly what she’s playing, and that’s part of the magic. Like all DJs, Willikens of course has a passion for records, but she’s also after something bigger, something that’s truly transportive for those on the dancefloor.

Born and raised in Germany, Willikens first honed her unique approach during a long residency at Düsseldorf’s beloved Salon des Amateurs. These days, however, she’s based in Amsterdam, where her transportative impulses have been plugged into a variety of outlets with a global reach. On the radio, she pilots the monthly Lightning Conductor program on NTS. On record, she recently curated the fifth installment of Dekmantel’s acclaimed Selectors compilation series, and she’s also been tapped to remix the likes of Lena Platonos, S U R V I V E, rRoxymore, Simian Mobile Disco and Ana Helder, amongst others. On stage, Willikens works with artist Sarah Szczesny on Phantom Kino Ballett, an immersive audio-visual performance art project that defies routine explanation.

Still, it’s in the DJ booth where Willikens continues to make the biggest impact. Whether she’s playing alone or in tandem with fellow sonic explorer and Salon des Amateurs alum Vladimir Ivkovic, Willikens nimbly navigates electronic music’s darkest and most bizarre corners, sampling different temperatures, different moods and a dollop of chaos, just to keep things interesting. And although she herself doesn’t always know the final destination, when Willikens is at the helm, there’s no question that the journey is bound to be thrilling.

Lien SC : https://soundcloud.com/lenawillikens

Rinse France Podcast

Azu Tiwaline invite Lena Willikens - 03 Juillet 2022

TRACKLIST

Syclops - New Bro's In NYC
Koreless - Seven (Drumhell)
Kreggo - Pheeroan
Rhyw - Calippo
Unknown Untitled - uu011 - a1
Marcel Dettmann - Cycling Bits
DJ Patrick R ft. MC KVN & DJ Pikeno MPC - Vai no Chão
Deft - It's Made of Shine
Andy Martin - Electric Blue
Pump Media Unlimited - Bobo 500
Identified Patient - My Way (Hilton Mix)
Harmon Eyes - Tension
DJ Doomscroll - Doomscroll
STEYA - Fast Life
Cirkle - Lunar Orbit
Dead Man’s Chest x King Kutlass - Ananda Tandava
Boris Noiz - Inceptive Point
E-Unity - E-Ternity
DE GRANDI - I Can Relate
Aulic Veil - A-V_001.2 (Bonus Track)
G Jones - Help! I Can't Find My Way Out
Meat Beat Manifesto - Into The Sun (Pts 1 / 2)
Dom & Roland - Interstellar Subs
CCL & Ciel - Spiral Drive (Objekt edit)
gyrofield - Occam's Razor
Shxcxchcxsh - DO 3
Uneak - Bless Dem
DJ Trace & HLZ - Raptor
DJ Phiene - Bass Fanactiks
Marco Maldarella - Buio Omega
solar-x - bionic man
Carrier - FATHOM
Stingray313 - Sentiment
Otto - Hazer
AceMo - Jungle Storm
Objekt - Ganzfeld (Djrum Remix - short edit)
CCL - Strange Attractor
Sonic - Taxi Driver
Instra:mental - Photograph

Objekt at Draaimolen Festival 2024

Welcoming the lovely Refuge Worldwide co-founder and dub-master @richard-akingbehin to the Animix series this week, with a beautiful journey of minimal house infused with his signature dub styles.

Clear in his DJ'ing, but also his work with @refugeworldwide, and his immaculately curated label, @kynant-records, Richard is an all-round classy selector, and a champion of community. Through his various outputs, his deep & considered knowledge and taste shines. 

Richard always impresses me with the diversity of moods he presents via his DJ'ing, hybrid collaborations with legend Tikiman, b2bs with other legends like livwutang, and his label - a diversity that's always strung together with his incredibly distinctive psychedelic, soothing dub formula. 

Thanks for the mix Richard <3

Downloads enabled

Animix One Hundred & Seventy Three: Richard Akingbehin

"I'm ready to bring back gatekeeping." The New Yorker staff writer discusses how to protect the underground, experimenting with drugs and her new book, Health and Safety.

Can drugs help us find meaning in music and nightlife? This is a question that today's Exchange guest, New Yorker staff writer Emily Witt, asks in earnest in her new book Health and Safety: A Breakdown. Just released in hardcover in the UK and Europe, the memoir traces Witt's life in her early-to-mid 30s. A journalist living and working in Brooklyn, she began experimenting with psychedelics and club drugs after years of living what she describes as a conservative, straight-and-narrow, middle-class life. She became enamoured with the borough's underground raves, frequenting events like the festival Sustain-Release, the party Unter and sets at Bushwick haunt Bossa Nova Civic Club, all while falling in love with an aspiring DJ and producer she calls Andrew.

As the book progresses, Witt documents the growing MAGA movement in America, gun rights rallies and mass shootings. As the country falls apart, she watches her romantic relationship fall apart, too. Drugs and Brooklyn nightlife, she writes, became both an escape and a way to rearrange a world that she starts to feel no longer makes sense. 

Witt shares critical opinions about the underground scene's capacity to be a utopia and place of belonging in an increasingly hostile world, arguing that there should be more gatekeeping in place to protect a scene that's threatened by capitalism and the mainstream. She also interrogates what she calls "woke identity politics" in Brooklyn, the lack of change that came from the Black Lives Matter movement, empty calls for political protest that dominated the early days of the pandemic and why, despite everything, she's chosen to stay in Brooklyn for good. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula


EX.769 Emily Witt

@kia-sydney is @mixmaganz's July Cover Artist.

In just over an hour, one of Australia's most exciting talents presents a mix made up entirely of new and forthcoming material on her equally influential @animalia-label.

Tracklist:
1. @okegmusic - 'Spirit' (Forthcoming)
2. @sub-basics - 'Signal' (Forthcoming)
3. @okegmusic - 'Veil' (Forthcoming)
4. @sub-basics - 'Lobby' (Forthcoming)
5. @zaraolsen - 'Whirl' 
6. @sub-basics - 'Residual' (Forthcoming)
7. @o-utlier - 'Pulse' 
8. @andy-martin - 'Skye Spirals' (Forthcoming)
9. @aedis-aedis - 'Ortogon' (Forthcoming)
10. @o-utlier - 'Ionic'
11. @sub-basics - 'Proportion' (Forthcoming)
12. @shoall - 'Median'
13. @aedis-aedis - 'Vaen' (Forthcoming)
14. @www-coloursound - 'Sierra' (Forthcoming)
15. @andy-martin - 'Afrofuturism' (Forthcoming)
16. @shoall - 'Temporal Blend'
17. @www-coloursound - 'Locus' (Forthcoming)

Kia: Mixmag ANZ Cover Mix 06 (100% Animalia)

A queer icon steps up for RA.998's B-side.

The RA Podcast began with RA.001 in 2006. Since then, it's spotlighted the best and brightest in dance music every week, without fail. As we approach our 1,000th episode next month, we're switching things up, pairing artists whose sounds complement one another and, in doing so, zeroing in on the forces shaping the past, present and future of electronic culture.

This week, we shift lanes to Roza Terenzi and Kim Ann Foxman, two artists who strike a rare balance between reverence and reinvention. Both are key figures in queer clubbing circles, deeply informed by the halcyon days of '90s and early '00s club music yet fully committed to pushing it forward.

Each artist has carved out a distinct path. Roza Terenzi started out in Perth, Australia, before making a home in Berlin in 2020, while the Hawaii-born Foxman made her name in New York by way of San Francisco in the early '00s. For RA.998, they've contributed separate mixes, to be enjoyed together as two parts of the same whole.

Foxman takes the B-side and makes her RA Podcast debut. As a vocalist for Hercules & Love Affair and a sought-after producer in her own right, the New York-based artist blends club heft and melodic flourish with a distinct pop sensibility shaped by '90s dance music. (She got her first job making smoothies at an all-ages club in Hawaii while Deee-Lite performed live behind her.)

Like Roza Terenzi, Foxman draws from across eras. Her contribution to RA.998 is warm, expressive and emotionally tuned, unfurling a palette of house, breaks and trance laden with bright pads, bold hooks and an ear for atmosphere. Listen out for the Whitney Houston sample and you'll know what we mean. 

While Foxman and Roza Terenzi embrace a fun, vibrant musical style, their work is grounded in intentionality. They're invested in honouring the cultural and political roots of dance music: Foxman has long advocated for a more inclusive, community-driven club scene, while Roza Terenzi was among the first artists to begin pulling shows this summer as a matter of political principle.

Both sides of RA.998 show how the sounds of past eras can be reimagined to move seamlessly with the present. Hopefully you'll even feel a jolt of inspiration to get yourself to the nearest dance floor, ASAP.

@kimannfoxman
Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1003

RA.998 Kim Ann Foxman

Mike Servito's closing set from 10:30am until noon at No Way Back, May 25, 2025, Day 2 of Return to the Source at Tangent, Detroit. 

"Mike Servito is an artist intertwined with his Detroit origins. No matter how far he travels and how long he lives elsewhere, the essential imprint of this city remains in everything he does.

If you asked where this mix was recorded, I would say "Detroit" without hesitation and if I thought about it for a bit, I would guess that it was most likely one of Mike's legendary closing sets at No Way Back at Tangent Gallery. The level of care and reverence that go into these sets is very evident in this mix from start to finish. The track selection moves effortlessly from past to future playing with darkness and light, depth and joy, tension and release. It's a remarkable demonstration of taste and skill but also a paean to Mike's personal artistic history that calls to the creative power center that Detroit comprises. This mix provides a true glimpse into Mike's long-term dedication to the art of working in tandem with the dancefloor, creating a shared journey where the challenge is to let go and just trust the DJ." 
– Michelle Erfer, Beyond Booking / The Bunker


Buy Cassette

IT.podcast.s14e05: Mike Servito closing No Way Back 2025

Part 2 of a magical night DJing b2b with my good friend Terry Donovan. ❤️

Terry has been a resident at Birmingham's House of God nights since the beginning alongside me, Neil 'Sir Real' Spragg and Paul 'Damage' Bailey.

Unfortunately there's no tracklist for this set, it was lost in the mists of time. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out, or maybe enjoy you can the mystery....

Surgeon b2b Terry Donovan at Globus, Berlin 2024-06-15 part 2

Usually known for his wild and eclectic house selections, Kasra V switches gears for us with a rare techno set. Clocking in at 59 minutes this mix is driven by rolling drums and tribal rhythms: it’s fast, playful and irresistibly sexy – still groovy at the core but with a rawer edge built for the floor. Turn it up!

@kasra-v 

Harmony Rec. podcast | Kasra V

Boris Live at SLAMBIENT 
Queer Nightlife Community Center (QNCC), Brooklyn
October 5th, 2025

Boris Live at SLAMBIENT

United We Stream x Basement NY 2020: Mike Servito

Tracklist:
Underground Resistance - Code Red - UR
Underground Resistance Cyberwolf - UR
Kush Jones - DOPPLER - Strictly For My CDJZ 
L.A.M. - Hostile Bacteria - Hardwax
The Vision - The Protector - Tresor
Subtractive Synthesis - Touch Tone - Synewave
Parralax - Sickle Cell - Ipcress Communications
Thomas Brinkmann - Susi 1 - Ernst
Mike Ink - Orange - Profan
The Freeek - Martian Leaders O.e - Electrocute
The Advent - Music Is Life - Cultivated Electronics
Vinyl Countdown - Forest Fire - NTA
Teste - The Wipe - Plus 8
Terrace - The Scream - Eevo Lute Muzique
Timeblind - Deep Box - Communique
Underground Resistance - Riot - UR

Video: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/096905-073-A/mike-servito-a-new-york-city-basement-club/

“What struck me most about those who rioted was how long they waited—the restraint they showed. Not the spontaneity, the restraint. They waited and waited for justice, and it didn’t come. No one talks about that."

- Toni Morrison

EX.769 Emily Witt

Resident Advisor