Vortex Mix ✻ Mike Midnight

New York trio Purelink give us an exclusive peek of what they have planned for the upcoming summer live music season in this weekend’s Sunday Mix. As the creators of Signs, one of the best ambient and dub techno albums of last year, their 80-minute mix shows off their advanced ears for soundscapes and texture, while adding on head-nodding grooves and dubby four-to-the-floor beats.

It’s as dancefloor suitable as it is Sunday sofa ready. “This new year has mostly been spent in our studio prepping new music and live set ideas,” they say. “A lot of these songs reflect the dancier side we’ve been inspired by lately. Hope to see you on a dancefloor soon.”

Sunday Mix: Purelink

The in-demand US DJ unfurls dubby, dance floor poetry.

Where does sentimentality fit on the dance floor? For Liv Klutse, AKA livwutang, the answer is everywhere. The New York-based DJ is guided by a deep desire to stir connection, finding themes and points of correspondence across an impressively broad range of sounds, tempos and eras. 

This emotional intuition lends Klutse's sets a depth few others can match. Her selections can seem unpredictable, rooted in an appreciation for feeling over genre—hard and soft sounds are carefully balanced with surrealism and bursts of nostalgia (for instance, the Lazy Dog bootleg edit of Everything But The Girl's "Tracey In My Room"). But as versatile as she is, a few signature traits colour her style, such as a love for dubwise music and rhythms from across the Black diaspora, alongside a refreshingly introspective energy that invites dancers to find moments of meditation—even during peak time. 

A former staffer at our New York office, Klutse has long merited an RA Podcast. Her slow-burning blends and mystical selections have graced near-enough every major festival and club out there, from Dekmantel and Sustain-Release to Nowadays, where she's been a resident since 2022. Despite this cross-continental touring schedule, she still plays plenty of grassroots venues—testament to her days with TUF collective and Orphan Radio in Seattle, as well as her enduring belief in the power of DIY, community-orientated dance music. 

"How did you come down off life?" James Massiah asks at the beginning of RA.975. Across nearly 90 minutes, Klutse's downright beautiful mix seeks answers to this question, reflecting on hedonism in times of political decay. She's in full-on dub mode, moving through meditative bassweight, glitchy house and flat-out weirdo techno with a deftness we've come to expect from one of the most promising, singular voices in dance music right now. She's got there all on her own terms—and we couldn't be prouder.

@livwutang

Read more and find the tracklist ra.co/podcast/975

RA.975 livwutang

A much loved figure within the American underground scene, California's Baby Leo has been consciously connecting body and mind from coast to coast, finding space for the unpredictable and the awe inspiring, hypnotising dancefloors with wildly eclectic DJ sets filled with energising twists and turns.

An innovator and sonic boundary pusher at his core, the Dripping festival Leo runs alongside Relaxer is a deep underground oasis in the woods of Sparta, New Jersey, and returns for it's third mind excursion this June, with Leo and DJ Plead combining this year for a hotly anticipated back to back. 

@djbabyleo

Q. The mix is truly a wild ride! What sounds or feelings did you draw upon when gathering inspiration for this, and what listening environments could you imagine it being enjoyed in?

A. This is the deepcast right? For this one, we’re going deeper than what I might usually do in a club. Some of these tracks came to me while laying blindfolded on the floor during guided high-dose mushroom journeys. Because this is a space of complete emotional surrender, many of these tracks became permanently embedded in my heart. Awe, fear, reverence, gratitude are all part of the recipe. The ideal listening environment is similar to how you might want to watch a movie - cozy, undistracted, and fully immersed in sound. Perhaps by yourself and hopefully something to return to and discover something new.

Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your heart, and what is it about these tracks that resonate with you so much?

A. I think Untitled (How Does it Feel) by D’Angelo is my favorite song of all time. It feels amazing every time. The way energy builds and boils over is unmatched. I played it backwards.

Q. Your festival Dripping returns to the majestic woods of Sparta, NJ for its third year running in June, and I see you’ve got a special extended b2b set with DJ Plead planned which should be quite the mind-bend! How have you been preparing for that one, and what things might you guys be doing differently this year that you’re excited about? 

A. Preparation hasn’t really begun in any serious way, but we are both anticipating and very excited to play together. Especially at Dripping, I’m typically trying to push the energy forward for a fully explosive impact. I will usually do a lot of preparation for a set like this and plan certain sequences. In contrast, I’ve seen Plead play sets with incredible restraint, patiently working a crowd into complete hypnosis. I guess the thing about a back to back set is that it will take on a life of its own and just go where it needs to go. There will be less planning for this and more intuition, but mind-bending and heart-opening is certainly the goal and we haven’t discussed anything other than that.

Tracklist:

Avartuva nake - Esa Kotilainen
La Symphonie - Cute Heels
Marka - Carmen Villain
Portamento - Stine Janvin
Flusso I - Donato Dozzy
Winded - 7038634357
O Berimbao - Nana Vasconcelos
Polar Sun - Feral
Temples - Anunaku
Doubles - Untold
Drop it On The One - Untold
Wormhole Chant - Vector Trancer
Through The Cobalt Desert - Marco Shuttle
A Touch Of - Piezo
Andnowawordfromoursponsors - Kabeaushe
Shimming - Yor Kultura
Untitled (How Does it Feel) - D’Angelo
Hamburger Lady (Carter Tutti remix) - Throbbing Gristle
Guboo - Lights in a Fat City

MDC.309 Baby Leo

(Full recording) inspired by the Sea of Clouds in Alishan National Park (Taiwan)

𝙡𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 w CCL #14 Sea of Clouds @refugeworldwide

An exploration of microscopic textures across the dub continuum.

https://www.instagram.com/__k_wata

Micro Dubs with K Wata @ The Lot Radio 05-01-2025

Interview: https://truantsblog.com/2025/truancy-volume-353-james-k/ 

Soundcloud: @jamesk_1

With her forthcoming album ‘Friend’ set for release on @ad93rec in September, james K weaves memory and emotional directness into a sprawling map of love, euphoria, and intentful listening.

Music by Conna Haraway, Idoplumes, Terra Utopia, Marco Shuttle, Akio & Okihide, Marina Herlop, Carmen Villain, Konduku, MARMO, Pugilist, Pod & more...

Access the download and full tracklist (TBC) on our Patreon (patreon.com/truants). However if you need anything leave us a nice comment here with @jamesk_1 tagged and either of us will get back to you with an ID! Your support helps cover all our costs allows Truants to continue running as a non-profit and ad-free platform.

james K

Truancy Volume 353: james K

Free

Free (Original Mix)

PreciousGift & HyperSOUL-X - Free (Original Mix) [Out 30th Jul 2025]

THE BEST

Leeds Bleep-techno royalty Ability II aka David Duncan has been on the Wrecks radar for a few years now, the unison dating back to Luca Lozano’s remix of his evergreen anthem ‘Pressure’ in 2017. Since the remix the communication has stayed open and talks of a collaboration started, linking generations old and new.

That collaboration, recorded over a couple of years and a couple of studios, results in WRECKS057 ‘My Definition of Bass’. Four tracks split into two sides, the WRECKS side is taken care of by Lozano and long time collaborator and friend DJ Steve. The two producers live jammed sketches, recorded the sessions and then incorporated original vocals by Ability II, churning out acid wiggles and jacking drum tracks.

Ability then took these versions and then dubbed them out in his crossover style for the I9M side, resulting in two steppers made for the strictly for the bassbins. Echoing vocal layers and new instrumentation takes them out of the usual ‘wrecks wrealm’ and into new, dubbier territories.

My Definition of Bass

Available to Pre-Order

Bassid Mix

http://blowinguptheworkshop.com/project/ccl

A re-imagination of a mixtape I never finished.

I started putting the pieces of this mix together in early 2018, and stopped after a head injury that made listening to music painful. These songs have gotten me through some of my darkest times, I hope this trip can provide you with some solace in 2020. 

Re-imagined, reorganized, re-edited songs, personal recordings, voice memos, bits of books...from “before,” from now. 

Recordings and music from: Amazondotcom, Ash Ra Tempel, ASMZ, Barefoot, Babyfather, Beautiful Pea Green Boat, Beat Happening, Carmen Maria Machado, CCL/Cecu, COH, Cocteau Twins, The Congos, Drome, The Durutti Column, Echium, Faye Wong, Freeway Fusion, Graham Lambkin, Jana Rush, Jake Muir, Jonathan Fitoussi & Clemens Hourriere, Koñca Taniec, Kelsey Lu, Kuedo, M. Geddes Gengras, Madteo, Miles Davis, Mark Van Hoen, Mark Clifford, Nat, Sky High Diamonds, Second Woman, Siete Catorce, Sun Araw, Tricky, Ulf Lohman, Vince Watson, Wilson Tanner

Blowing Up The Workshop

111 ◆ CCL

@mgmldrm & @nenaghnenagh
vortexmelbourne@gmail.com
✻✻✻✻✻

✻ art by Selena Repanis