Dekmantel Ambient / Experimental

Making a welcome return nine years on from his last outing on Dekmantel, Makam offers up a generous helping of wayward grooves that take his curious spirit even further into unmarked territory. With a strong dub sensibility grounding his rich tapestry of percussion and instrumentation, Guy Blanken follows his own path to arrive at an album that embodies house music as a launchpad for experimentation. Blanken says himself he was determined to approach his first Makam productions in years from a place of total freedom Its not a single direction, but rather a landscape of sounds, moments, and textures. TARP feels like a new beginning, a free project that just had to happen naturally. The steady pulse of the club remains a guiding principle boldly manifested on heads down roller Static Shade, but even in the lilting organic loops and tumbling percussion of Forgive there is a funkiness thats beholden to continuous movement. At times the direct thump of 4/4 disco juts out as a call to dance, not least on Flying Birds and La Tuna, but elsewhere the rhythms are more slippery. Dub In Loen plots a delicate path through dub techno and Lummel Spirit casts off into pattering Balearic bliss. The pervasive dub mood of the record comes to the fore on expertly crafted stepper Diagonal Rain and crooked album opener Clear Skies. Jackie B lands as a love letter to quintessential deep house, and yet still theres a left-of-centre charm that gives the track a personality that is pure Makam. Exuding warmth and imagination at every turn, TARP is the perfect example of how to make a groove-oriented album a rich home listening experience. There are ample moments primed for the spectacle of the dancefloor, but the mellow hue and broad sweep of approaches make Makams welcome return utterly compelling from end to end.

Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12 boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isnt rigid some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages but like a Mobius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, its not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control. At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loops disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Widen the lens and youll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick Leon, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more). All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, its that union which lends the core festival its strength.

With a soaring, emotionally-charged sonic signature all his own, Sam Goku returns to Dekmantel for his latest four-track EP, Bliss Drift. As Sam Goku, over the past few years Robin Wang has edged into the beating heart of the contemporary house and techno scene with a rejuvenating sound that reaches from peak time maximalism to immersive introspection. Across a run of acclaimed albums and EPs including 2024's Radiants on Dekmantel he's balanced the heavyweight impact of his rhythms with mesmerising melodies and swirling atmospheres. It's precisely this blend he brings to Bliss Drift, writing and recording from the heart and accurately capturing what he describes as a sense of blossoming "a renaissance into something new yet familiar." Make no mistake, this is music to make you move. 'Rhythm Drift' and 'Bliss Drift' lead on rock-solid rhythms as springboards for Goku's ascendant tones. Airy, mysterious pads and sampled choral voices meet with glistening chimes that soften the tough edges of the drums a quintessential demonstration of how to make a tender banger. 'Warm Soils' strikes a deeper, more meditative note enriched with haunting flutes and a heads-down roll to the percussion, while 'Infinity Keys (Sina's Song)' lets rich layers of melodic sequencing dictate the pace in a poised demonstration of techno composition at its most expressive. Catching the mood as the Northern Hemisphere heads out of the winter months, Goku's unique energy hails a return to the light via four distinct twists on the house and techno tradition.

With a soaring, emotionally-charged sonic signature all his own, Sam Goku returns to Dekmantel for his latest four-track EP, Bliss Drift. As Sam Goku, over the past few years Robin Wang has edged into the beating heart of the contemporary house and techno scene with a rejuvenating sound that reaches from peak time maximalism to immersive introspection. Across a run of acclaimed albums and EPs including 2024's Radiants on Dekmantel he's balanced the heavyweight impact of his rhythms with mesmerising melodies and swirling atmospheres. It's precisely this blend he brings to Bliss Drift, writing and recording from the heart and accurately capturing what he describes as a sense of blossoming "a renaissance into something new yet familiar." Make no mistake, this is music to make you move. 'Rhythm Drift' and 'Bliss Drift' lead on rock-solid rhythms as springboards for Goku's ascendant tones. Airy, mysterious pads and sampled choral voices meet with glistening chimes that soften the tough edges of the drums a quintessential demonstration of how to make a tender banger. 'Warm Soils' strikes a deeper, more meditative note enriched with haunting flutes and a heads-down roll to the percussion, while 'Infinity Keys (Sina's Song)' lets rich layers of melodic sequencing dictate the pace in a poised demonstration of techno composition at its most expressive. Catching the mood as the Northern Hemisphere heads out of the winter months, Goku's unique energy hails a return to the light via four distinct twists on the house and techno tradition.

In a continuation of his devotional celebration of the dance, Shed arrives on Dekmantel with Rave Echoes a supple, mesmerising album of angular techno caught between the heat of peak time and the time-blurred hours after the club. Few artists have nailed the intersection of the intellectual, emotional and physical in techno as evocatively as Rene Pawlowitz. For more than 20 years and across scores of aliases the Frankfurt/Oder-born, Berlin-based trailblazer has pushed a distinctive strain of machine music in thrall to the functional demands of motion without ever sacrificing subtlety, space, intrigue and expression. While his vast catalogue of work touches on many different moods and energies, on his Dekmantel debut Rave Echoes he shrouds eight forthright workouts in a blanket of misty melancholia to evoke the enchanting afterglow of the party. "It's not nostalgic," Pawlowitz explains. "It's about that feeling that remains for a day, a week or even years after celebrating a rave. I still have that feeling for about 30 years now. This record tries to describe it." The vaporous pads that soar over 'Password (Techno Mix)' certainly come charged with a bittersweet sentiment. Meanwhile the rhythmic locomotion comes on like the rumble of the first train back after leaving the club. The insistent bell loop up top rings out like the hook of the last track that rang out over the soundsystem. It's a sensation familiar to anyone who has spent their last drop of energy at the altar of dance, where exhaustion meets with satisfaction and disorientation as you recalibrate back into the real world. This approach dreamlike atmospherics and rugged propulsion takes on many guises across Rave Echoes. It's submerged and restrained on 'Loot 25', speckled with sharply sliced breaks on 'Everybody' and scattered across a sparse, steppy soundscape on 'Rave Predator'. Emotive, swooning strings collide with tough, squashed breakstep drums on 'Double Scoop' and 'Taking You Home' thrusts with urgency even as Pawlowitz softens the spiky transients to make space for pure rave romanticism. There is even space for 'Rave Echoes' itself the last groove before your eyes finally close, as the beat slows to a weighty trip hop roll and the ambience blooms out into a dense blanket across the frequency range. Bursting with the nuanced production, rugged UK-school soundsystem pressure and Berlin-school techno momentum that makes him such a celebrated producer, on Rave Echoes Shed offers a perfect impression of those wild, indescribable sensory overloads that leave their mark on anyone devoted to the dancefloor.

Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12 boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isnt rigid some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages but like a Mobius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, its not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control. At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loops disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Widen the lens and youll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick Leon, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more). All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, its that union which lends the core festival its strength.

Tapping into the otherworldly frequencies of the UFO series, UK-born, Lisbon-based prodigy Rene Wise arrives on Dekmantel with an assured demonstration of his position at the cutting edge of real techno. Andrew Shobeiri appeared in the cut and thrust of the scene fully-formed around 2017, instantly bringing his Rene Wise alias to top-tier labels with a razor-sharp combination of functional minimalism and mind-warping flair. There's no grey area fluctuation in his hypnotic, intentional sound this is deep, captivating techno for the long haul, music to submit yourself to. True to his sound, Rene Wise makes his presence felt on Dekmantel UFO with a varied spread of sounds, leading with the melancholic charm of the melodic sequences weaving through 'Johnson's Theme' before sinking into the engrossing folds and low-end rumble of 'Granite Skin'. There's a lighter atmosphere at play in the vaporous impulses that mark out 'Flow' before rolling into the rhythmic urgency and strafing bleeps of 'Kanga'. This is the Dekmantel UFO experience as expressed by one of the leading lights in modern techno an artist who understands the psychoactive power contained within the subtleties of production and pursuit of the ultimate loop.

Tapping into a shared affinity for early trance as in short for transcendental Function and Nastia Reigel come together on Dekmantel with Devocion. Bridging the past and the future, this partnership draws deeply on brooding, melancholic early-90s sounds and supercharges it with the immensity of modern techno. The project began when Nastia Reigel shared a series of discoveries with David Function Sumner records rooted in the rave-leaning edge of the era, spanning labels like R&S, FAX and EXperimental. He responded that this was precisely the music he had been absorbing while coming up in the thick of New Yorks club and rave scenes and beginning his journey into DJing. The excited exchange of deep digs around this niche of dance music history naturally led to a conversation about collaborating on music in this vein, and Devocion is the result. Familiar genre touchstones are everywhere, from the plaintive bleeps and understated breakbeat roll of 'Eternity' through the sad-eyed arpeggios strafing on the edges of 'Reverence' and on to 'Flowstate's blue-hued acid lines and 'Orion's sky-scraping gated pads. But Reigel and Sumner deploy these strongly coded elements with poise, feeding into a richly rendered production that feels anything but old-school. The emotive streak is wielded with care, spelling out the mood without losing the steely, shadowy sensibility that tracks through their respective catalogues. In a perfect demonstration of honouring the past while embracing the present, Devocion EP lands as a distinctive artistic statement on its own terms.

Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12 boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isnt rigid some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages but like a Mobius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, its not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control. At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loops disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Widen the lens and youll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick Leon, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more). All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, its that union which lends the core festival its strength.

Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12 boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isnt rigid some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages but like a Mobius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, its not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control. At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loops disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Widen the lens and youll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick Leon, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more). All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, its that union which lends the core festival its strength.

In a sharp-angled, fiercely inventive reflection on the nature of club culture and digital fatigue, Simo Cell and Abdullah Miniawy reunite to deliver their new album, Dying is the internet, to Dekmantels UFO series. French producer Simo Cell has blazed a singular path from his dubstep-influenced origins to become a leading light in contemporary leftfield club music, twisting up adventurous rhythms and flamboyant production in pursuit of a perpetual freshness for the floor. Egyptian singer, poet, producer and composer Abdullah Miniawy has become equally omnipresent in the past 10 years, straddling the arts world and leading with his piercing Arabic lyricism while maintaining an eternally curious spirit that leads into open-ended, experimental music from the abstract to the propulsive. Following up on their 2020 EP for BFDM, Kill Me Or Negotiate, Miniawy describes their sharply focused new album as a playful prophecy about the triggers of a new global revolution. Cell considers the title, Dying is the internet, to be a mantra about how the internet lost its soul, becoming less about sharing ideas and more about surviving in a digital business ecosystem. Deliberately at odds with the reel-ready two-minute attention span of the average social media surfer (i.e. everyone), the pair set out to make an album that takes its time to reveal nuanced ideas and expressions. Rather than one-note despair for the modern malaise, Cell and Miniawy offer a philosophical reminder that this present moment in the human experience is a temporary phase, no matter how overwhelming it feels. Dying is the internet finds Miniawy experimenting with auto-tune across the record, while Cell has developed his voice design chops and compositional instincts, moving closer to fully realised song structures without losing the fundamental clubbiness of each track. The result is a cohesive, wildly original kind of heavyweight dance music that slings out hooks left right and centre, from Miniawys laconic trumpet looming through low-slung Reels in 360 and Travelling In BCC to the persistent handclaps that bring Living Emojis to life. Miniawys poetry explores the power of insistent, repeated phrases in a break from his more typically structured form. Kenyan powerhouse Lord Spikeheart adds extra snarl to stripped-back, slow-burn opener I See The Stadium, but otherwise Dying is the internet is purely the work of Miniawy and Cell casting their considerable chops out into unexplored territory. The results are electric, bound together by a consistent economy of sound that burrows into a shroud of bass-heavy minimalism barely masking Cells incredibly detailed studio flex. Even the beatless flourish of the Miniawy-produced Tear Chime comes loaded with physicality a sensory rush at the mid-section of the album bookended by some of the most idiosyncratic club music in recent memory. Both Simo Cell and Abdullah Miniawy have already proved themselves as fearless innovators across different fields. The strength of their partnership lies in their ability to make space for each other while letting their distinctive sonic identities ring loud and true. Dying is the internet has immediacy and physicality to translate over a soundsystem, but its intricacies are purpose-built for repeat visits and contemplation, unveiling hidden dimensions the deeper you dive into it.

With a soaring, emotionally-charged sonic signature all his own, Sam Goku returns to Dekmantel for his latest four-track EP, Bliss Drift. As Sam Goku, over the past few years Robin Wang has edged into the beating heart of the contemporary house and techno scene with a rejuvenating sound that reaches from peak time maximalism to immersive introspection. Across a run of acclaimed albums and EPs including 2024's Radiants on Dekmantel he's balanced the heavyweight impact of his rhythms with mesmerising melodies and swirling atmospheres. It's precisely this blend he brings to Bliss Drift, writing and recording from the heart and accurately capturing what he describes as a sense of blossoming "a renaissance into something new yet familiar." Make no mistake, this is music to make you move. 'Rhythm Drift' and 'Bliss Drift' lead on rock-solid rhythms as springboards for Goku's ascendant tones. Airy, mysterious pads and sampled choral voices meet with glistening chimes that soften the tough edges of the drums a quintessential demonstration of how to make a tender banger. 'Warm Soils' strikes a deeper, more meditative note enriched with haunting flutes and a heads-down roll to the percussion, while 'Infinity Keys (Sina's Song)' lets rich layers of melodic sequencing dictate the pace in a poised demonstration of techno composition at its most expressive. Catching the mood as the Northern Hemisphere heads out of the winter months, Goku's unique energy hails a return to the light via four distinct twists on the house and techno tradition.

Dekmantel Techno (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic)

Dekmantel Ten is a mirror of Dekmantel Festival. The 7x12 boxset includes seven records that mirror the seven stages to be found at the 2024 event, their 10th edition since 2013. The tracklisting isnt rigid some of the musicians gathered here have in fact played at most of the available stages but like a Mobius strip looping round, or a cat-and-mouse game, its not hard to discern a symbiotic relationship. Split seven ways, DKMNTL100 is a testament to the art of curation and the importance of quality control. At artist level, Dekmantel Ten finds room for several artists including Karenn, Jeff Mills and Marcel Dettmann who played at the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013, and are by now impossible to detach. The Loops disc contains names whose stories have dovetailed alongside the festival, concluding in memorable headline moments: Young Marco, Palms Trax and Alchemical Sisters, aka Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Widen the lens and youll find history from across the landscape: the laboratories of professorial techno (Dasha Rush, Steve Rachmad, DJ Nobu) and gilded halls of house (Steffi, Luca Lozano, Bufiman); varied soundsystem icons (Kode9, Adrian Sherwood, DVS1) meeting limelights of contemporary Amsterdam (upsammy, Identified Patient, Zohar); as well as the modern conduits channelling decades of outernational vibrations (Nick Leon, BADSISTA, Animistic Beliefs, Veracco and a great many more). All 44 artists presenting exclusive material are indispensable into the Dekmantel story to date, and no doubt make up future developments over the horizon. That goes for the areas, too: Because while the seven stages found at Dekmantel Festival are individually resonant enough that they could become splinter festivals in their own right, its that union which lends the core festival its strength.

With a soaring, emotionally-charged sonic signature all his own, Sam Goku returns to Dekmantel for his latest four-track EP, Bliss Drift. As Sam Goku, over the past few years Robin Wang has edged into the beating heart of the contemporary house and techno scene with a rejuvenating sound that reaches from peak time maximalism to immersive introspection. Across a run of acclaimed albums and EPs including 2024's Radiants on Dekmantel he's balanced the heavyweight impact of his rhythms with mesmerising melodies and swirling atmospheres. It's precisely this blend he brings to Bliss Drift, writing and recording from the heart and accurately capturing what he describes as a sense of blossoming "a renaissance into something new yet familiar." Make no mistake, this is music to make you move. 'Rhythm Drift' and 'Bliss Drift' lead on rock-solid rhythms as springboards for Goku's ascendant tones. Airy, mysterious pads and sampled choral voices meet with glistening chimes that soften the tough edges of the drums a quintessential demonstration of how to make a tender banger. 'Warm Soils' strikes a deeper, more meditative note enriched with haunting flutes and a heads-down roll to the percussion, while 'Infinity Keys (Sina's Song)' lets rich layers of melodic sequencing dictate the pace in a poised demonstration of techno composition at its most expressive. Catching the mood as the Northern Hemisphere heads out of the winter months, Goku's unique energy hails a return to the light via four distinct twists on the house and techno tradition.