Midweek Mixes (Dekmantel Hör Special!) (20/09/23)
A run-down of some of the mixes and radio shows that have been soundtracking my existence – from the box-fresh to the tried-and-tested – all guaranteed to brighten up your week.
I’m sick and have been using this time wisely/masochistically by watching the Hör stage streams from this year’s Dekmantel festival. I already felt completely alienated looking at the clips from last year’s festival yet for some reason that wasn’t enough to satisfy my curiosity, so I’m back for more. (On the internet, sitting in bed, in my pants.)
Of course I haven’t watched all of every set, I’m not a lunatic. But here are some impressions of what I have seen, in the style of Balance Beam Situation’s classic Great Moments In Beam Falls.
Nice of Parrish and the Hör broadcasting team to give us an insight into the DJ POV, à la ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ or unarmed Goldeneye.
Music: punishing industrial acid techno breaks with operatic overtones? I’m actually fully into the live vox 44 mins in — props.
Verdict: otherwise panic-inducing.
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Music: fab 3-4 deck techno mixed carefully by someone actually listening to what they’re doing. There’s dynamics in it from tough to rolling to dreamy to dubby to funky. People dancing rather than just bouncing around. The one ‘drop’ in the whole set, where D. Dan transitions into the first broken track of the final 15 minute sequence, is a pay-off fully earned. He barely lets go of the mixer once during the whole set and it’s beautiful to watch and hear.
Verdict: sick shirt, sick DJ. New fan here.
Once when going into Glade Festival, circa 2008, the person in front of us in the queue happened to be wearing a neck brace. After going through the security check, as they walked away they took the neck brace off and started swinging it around their head — it must have had their stash in it. I wonder if the lady celebrating in this clip used her crutch for the same purpose. Or maybe it was a ruse just to skip the long queue into the stage.
Music: commendably varied on paper, but pretty obnoxious to listen to.
Verdict: I can’t decide if applauding the drops in the tracks you’re playing is charming or cringe. Maybe a bit of both.
DJ Stingray
No snark here, just bro love.
Music: it’s DJ Stingray.
Verdict: the above intimate moment takes place as DJ Stingray is playing 154bpm hard as nails techno and I think that’s beautiful. But it’s just not home listening is it. It’s got me like the one guy in sunglasses here, rocking himself gently amid the mayhem.
Ikonika lives up to her moniker (there’s a limerick in there somewhere) with both that look and this heartfelt karaoke moment to ‘Kiss It Better’.
Music: hip and booty shaking Amapiano and UK Funky. The epic one at 44 mins sounds like an Ikonika original I haven’t heard before, and she mixes out of it into that big Ronnie Loko remix I’ve been playing this summer.
Verdict: half the crowd grooving and the other half visibly bemused. Job well done.
ISAbella b2b Gabrielle Kwarteng
And the Norma Jean Bell Award for Baddest Bitch In The Room goes to Gabrielle Kwarteng with the glass-of-wine-to-filter true combo.
Music: the beginning of this set is intriguing and exciting, with spacious, unpredictable percussion-led tracks creating a real mood. Gabrielle’s deft mix into Pangaea’s still killer Loleatta Holloway edit bodes well. Then 21 minutes in ISAbella plays a tune with a huge breakdown, rave stabs, diva vocal, cymbal rushes, snare rushes, everything-rushes and a massive drop. The crowd goes crazy but for me it’s over.
Verdict: from that point on it’s like a duel where the weapons are all of the above plus sirens, organ basslines, piano chords and whistles, and nobody wins.
Illustrative footage of livwutang’s sixth sense that, even mid-transition, tells her that her agent is behind her doing ‘content’.
Music: moody, sexy, at times austere (e.g. Mike Parker) and at times absurdist (e.g. ‘Paris Hilton’) percussion-heavy house, techno and bass, woven together artfully. You can see people grooving and getting lost in the music. Pure class.
Verdict: liv’s nails are green cos Hör belongs to her now.
Happy to see that Dekmantel was a tube guy-accessible event.
Music: uniformly rushy tracks spliced together with loops and triggered with hot cues to achieve a simulacram of euphoria. It feels more like a programmed live set than DJing and there are no dynamics whatsoever.
Verdict: in the absence of counterpoint, the initial hit of euphoria quickly fades, first into mundanity and then a bit of a headache.
Hör presents its new series: “Dropping your gear down the back of the stage and then finding it again — a mini-drama in eight parts”.
Music: the euphoria is again pretty relentless, but at least there is a human touch in Octo Octa’s wicked turntablism and some occasional tension and release in the selections — no surprises my favourite moment is the soft touch transition into the skippy UK garagey number 19 minutes in, which provides a moment of depth.
Verdict: I found myself being impressed by how long Octo Octa was letting some of the records play while doing the vinyl tricks, only to realise that actually the longest she lets any of these tracks play out for is 4 minutes, which shows you just how rapid-fire everyone else’s contributions have been and, as a result, how much my attention span has degraded over the hours I’ve spent watching these today. Nevertheless, it’s inspiring to see someone really using the vinyl and the vocal and musical elements of tracks to generate energy and drive and surprise. The bit at 40m30s is brilliant.
Hands down the cutest man in dance music.
Music: first there’s Olof’s utterly charming vocodered intro: “Hello. How are you feeling? How are you doing? I’m so happy to be here. (pointing) I’m so happy you are here. I made some new tracks and I’d like to play them for you. (reverb) I hope you like them.” The deconstructed rave-meets-Chicago tune 27 mins in is a stroke of genius; the deconstructed version of ‘Inspector Norse’ 12 mins in is not.
Verdict: Olof is essentially doing a live set too but there’s variety in the off-kilter grooves, playful references and interesting juxtapositions he’s programming. It’s a much less hectic set than the one from Pumping Velvet and I actually prefer it for that reason.
Nothing hurts more than this.
Music: i’m really into the chunky disco-y tech house vibe of the first half of this set, but then the further into proggy/trancey/euro/organ territory it goes in the back half the more I feel like it’s become the same as everything else that’s gone before.
Verdict: It makes total aesthetic sense for closing this stage, but by the time we get to Big Ang’s Robin S update I’ve mentally checked out.