Kyoto-born, Berlin-based DJ, producer and artist, Alex Kassian has become a firm favourite of ours over here at Phonica over the past couple of years. His sophisticated, lush and organic sounding productions have been picked up by labels such as Paramida’s Love On The Rocks and Alex Bradley’s Utopia Records in recent years. His most recent release, Leave Your Life, was released in 2021 via Pinchy & Friends, and we can safely say it was one of our most-played, and bestselling, records of the year.

Together with Hiroaki OBA, Alex is also one-half of Opal Sunn, who have been operating their own imprint Planet Sundae since 2017, through which they self-released a number of EPs, catching the attention of and support from dance music luminaries such as Andrew Weatherall and DJ Sprinkles.

Check out the full feature & interview over at offtherecord.net

Full Feature

Phonica Mix Series 93: Alex Kassian

Recording of Luca Lozano & Mr Ho's set at Dekmantel Ten

Pre-register for Dekmantel Festival 2025 here: bit.ly/4fyWKXc

Luca Lozano & Mr Ho at Dekmantel Ten

Whatever Jennifer Loveless (@jenniferloveless) turns her attention to, she always looks to find real human emotion. The Berlin-based, Australian-born multidisciplinary artist works across a wide musical realm as a DJ, producer and top-line writer who also scores for the screen. In the club, she is all about big energy, warmth and colour as she flits between future sounds and euphoric nostalgia all while dropping plenty of big tunes on labels like Sex Tags UFO, Planet Euphorique and Future Classic.

Over the last decade-plus, she has proven herself adaptable in the DJ booth and just as able to lock in a heady crowd at Panorama Bar as she is making her mark on festival stages like Horst. Across 90 minutes in this week's mix, Loveless draws on all of that experience to lay down a silky smooth trip that touches on deep techno and lush electronic minimalism before delving into more menacing atmospheres, jacked-up house and feel-good sunrise sounds.

Dekmantel Podcast 480 - Jennifer Loveless

Echoes hum, bodies moving.
This is true spirit of Breakfast Club, unfolding.


Ogazón: "This set felt like a homecoming — warm, familiar, and charged with energy. The familiar faces and unwavering support are something I don’t experience anywhere else, and that drives me to perform at my absolute best. But the real magic? Locking into an effortless groove from the very start while playing alongside a legend like Marcel. That was the cherry on top: a true highlight I won’t be forgetting anytime soon."

Marcel Dettmann: "Playing at Breakfast Club in the early morning is always a unique experience — the people there are musically open, ready for experimentation, and come with a certain expectation: they want to be taken on a journey. What made this set special was the combination of Ogazón and me. I think we had a great feel for the moment, for the groove and the tension. The energy was electrifying."

Marcel Dettmann b2b Ogazón - BFC ADE 2024: RADION Saturday

@bennet_bb
This week's mix is from Bennet. With a unique selection through the spectrum of house he carefully approaches his sets with a deep sensitivity and groove-driven peaks. 

Bennet lets the amazing records breathe and create their own highlights. A spring morning where the windows hug the rising sun and the smoke creates suprising patterns.

Track Highlight
One track that stands out for me is ‘Inda’ by Comodo, an alias of Marco Carola. It’s a driving house tool that brings a celestial note to the dancefloor, but over and over subtly explodes in with its driving baseline and always transforms it into a naughty affair.

Bennet...IsBurning #165

Ryan Elliott playing house and techno.

https://www.instagram.com/ryan.r.elliott

@ryan-elliott



Faith Beat presents Ryan Elliott @ The Lot Radio 04-11-2025

Hannah Holland & Josh Caffé at Le Soleil Rouge, Horst Arts & Music 2025

Jennifer Loveless steps up to the Phonica mix with a charged hour of sculpted house — poised between deep groove and melodic resonance. 
Born in Toronto and musically forged in Melbourne, she relocated to Australia in 2012 and quickly became a central figure in the country's underground electronic scene. Now based in Berlin, her fluid DJ style — steeped in queer dancefloor energy and late-night catharsis — has lit up some of the world’s most respected booths, from Panorama Bar and De School to Body Movements, Maricas/Mxricas, and Boiler Room’s Discwoman showcase in Sydney.
As a producer, her discography speaks in rhythms both personal and expansive. The debut Hard/Soft (Pure Space, 2020) blended meditative percussion and fragmented spoken word; 1.5m (Planet Euphorique) offered a pandemic-era pulse of emotional urgency. In 2021, the Water EP (Butter Sessions) landed with immersive, club-primed textures and was hailed by Resident Advisor as “career-defining.” Its 2022 follow-up Around the World expanded that sound with driving drums and psychedelic tones — its standout tracks appearing in DJ sets by Jayda G, D. Tiffany, and more.
Loveless’s mix here flows like her best sets: deep, intuitive, and full of movement. Sensual grooves fold into one another — not showy, just sharp. A warm, high-fidelity hour from a DJ who knows how to guide the floor from dusk to afterglow. We had a brief chat with Jennifer about the mix and what she has coming up:

Phonica Mix Series 133: Jennifer Loveless

Nikiller - NOW

Eris Drew is one of those artists who seemed to blow up over night, but who had actually been hard at work for decades. A long-time residency at Chicago's Smart Bar brought her to international attention, and her own Motherbeat parties at various places around Europe furthered that reputation. It is there that she manages to cook up pure, unadulterated dance floor love and euphoria with hi-energy selections and a unifying sense of oneness that is put together with her own so called “orchestration” mixing techniques. An inquisitive musician and innovative recording artist, she has also just put out her debut solo EP on Interdimensional Transmissions and runs T4T LUV NRG with partner Octo Octa. 

This week's mix is all of the above and more: a throbbing, impulsive and full bodied experience that serves up the most bumping house grooves but run through with the warm ambient glow of a post-rave comedown. The music feels at classic but also thoroughly contemporary: it will make you pump your fist in sheer joy, but also sends warm waves of euphoria through your body. This is the sound of the Motherbeat.

Eris on her mix:
"In a recent interview for DJ Mag I talk about my connection to the song “Secrets of Mediation” by Dutch producers Alex Dijksterhuis (Jamez) & Gaston Steenkist (Dobre). At Chicago raves in 1994 and 1995, this track revealed to me that modern dance music contains archaic ritual elements such as trance-inducing resonances, penetrating sacred drums, and language transformed into glossolalia. My DJ mix for Dekmantel is inspired by my formative dance experiences and by the intense extended sets I play at psychedelic raves such as Motherbeat and No Way Back. The mix includes bass music, progressive, breaks, house, techno, and minimal, all of which I collage, drop and scratch to put us into a tunneling trance."

Full tracklist here: dkmn.tl/270-ErisDrew

Dekmantel Podcast

Dekmantel Podcast 270 - Eris Drew

An uplifting ode to queerness and love.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/769

@octoocta

RA.769 Octo Octa

Resident Advisor