Dekmantel Podcast Series dekmantel

French-Canadian @mariedavidson_official never sits still for long. She is a Montreal native who has also lived in Berlin, and is one of the scene's most revered live acts but also transitioned into DJing with spectacular results. She makes it all from minimal wave to techno to electroclash whether working solo, as part of the Essaie pas duo, or alongside L'Œil Nu on Ninja Tune. Her own vocals often feature heavily in her work and as well as direct club material she has excelled in the long-player format with several standouts over the last decade.

All of that creative genre abandonment is embodied in this week's mix, which is as punchy as they come. Lashings of squealing synths and hyper-speed electro-tech kick things off with real intent and the intensity never drops: there are dark punk bangers and synth-heavy k***t cuts next to pummelling deep techno punishers, more lithe disco and wave sounds and lashings of trance euphoria. What a ride.

@dj-koolt has been pivotal to the rise of his native Uruguayan scene ever since he started spinning in the 90s. Rooted in Montevideo, he made it one of the most exciting places to hear minimalist dance music. Its spiritual home is Phonotheque, the club he co-founded a decade ago and where he lays down his forward-thinking sounds to a devoted and hardcore fan base.

The scene Godfather goes big for us this week with a two-hour deep dive into his sound. It perfectly showcases his silky transitions and ability to tell stories on the dance floor. Acid, breaks and techno are the foundational sounds but they are embellished in signature style with plenty of spaced-out designs, a sense of gritty industrial futurism and plenty of avant-garde electronics.

For @fafi-abdel-nour, music is a means of building community. The Syrian-born, Amsterdam-based artist looks to make a better future through human connections. He does so with his own LHBTQIA+ club night concept BUTTS at OOST in Groningen where he plays a free-spirited mix of records with real soul. They come from across the genre spectrum and mix up the old and the new, always with love as the messages and ecstatic sensations in high supply.

Fafi has a way of effortlessly winning you over with his smooth grooves, and that is evident right from the start here: balmy house sweeps you up and douses you in positive cosmic vibrations and that sense of warmth never dissipates through faster, jazzier house, thumping euphoria and nonstop neon grooves. Every slick transition turns up the temperature a notch and takes you ever closer to real dance floor nirvana.

"Genre: Not Applicable" says one of Bogatá-born DJ and producer @bitterbabe's online bios, and she's not wrong. She mixes up and blends global club styles from Colombian guaracha to Venezuelan raptor house with high energy and rich percussion on labels like TraTraTrax and is a member of the ECO and Latitudes collectives. She is focussed on amplifying electronic artists and labels across Latin America while herself being on a near-constant tour of Europe's finest clubs. After a long time entrenched deep in the Miami scene, she recently made the move to Berlin.

On this week's mix, Bitter Babe takes you on a wild ride through her unique rhythmic world. Everything she plays is defined by big drums, but how they fall and where they take you is always a thrill. You'll recognise hints of jungle, there are nods to techno and flashes of rave intensity but mostly these are contorted in between sounds that captivate mind and body with equal intensity.

Born and raised in New York but now transplanted to Berlin, @gabriellekwarteng has quickly become a Panorama Bar regular known for her eclectic radio shows. The move to Europe widened the scope of her DJ sets which tend to be high energy and punchy with plenty of techno, while on the airwaves she is likely to serve up a mix of boogie, Afro-disco, and neo-soul. That broad approach no doubt stems from growing up in the musical melting pot that is the Bronx, but also from childhood summers - and later a year studying abroad - in London. Add in a desire to champion the classic Black American genres and you have the foundations of the Kwarteng sound.

All this is reflected in this week's mix which traverses global genres with effortless enthusiasm. Hefty bass cuts and weighty rhythms build into acid-tinged workouts, sounds of the diaspora spread across the course of 70 minutes and energy levels drop even when the mood changes. It's a great snapshot of a DJ at ease with worldly sounds and the ability to thread them all together into a communal dance floor experience.

London-based Tash LC funnels the sounds of Africa and the Diaspora into everything she does. From radio show host to DJ, label head to party promoter, she shines a fresh light on myriad scenes, subcultures and selections. In the club that might be a mix of Kuduro or Gqom, while on the airwaves you're as likely to hear tasteful Afro-jazz. Her own club nightsB oko! Boko! and Club Yeke - the latter of which also became a label - have championed the sounds of the global underground and earned Tash LC a deserving reputation as a top-level tastemaker.

She crams some 40-odd tracks into this week's most lively of mixes. It's an adventurous trip that spans Kylie Minogue edits and leftfield club cuts, and weaves together jungle atmospheres from Donkey Kong with soul-drench rhythms. This is music for the dance floor, the back garden and the car. It is always sunny, has an effortlessly uplifting energy and fills the airwaves with positivity.