Techno News

Parasole's music fits the bill for cutting-edge electronic music. Infrared Vision is a display of his love for polyrhythmic drum patterns, post-club sketches, twisted dance floor gems and classy, big room-ready tunes.
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Few words of the artist:

''When I started to conceptualize my album I had a few end goals'', explains Parasole. ''I wanted to string my own style through Infrared Vision, so it would be familiar to the people who like my music. In tandem, I strived to produce a fresh voice sonically and experimented with a few new production techniques. I also grabbed ideas outside of techno and house, because I didn't want to be influenced by anything new. I was listening to a lot of jazz, hip-hop, Nine Inch Nails and Prince for example.''

Parasole took his time to write, produce and record Infrared Vision, dividing the process into three steps. ''First I wrote the album in words, pinning down ideas and track concepts on a notepad. Subsequently I transferred my ideas to my gear. Due to a heavy tour schedule I sometimes brought gear with me on the road, to continue my sketch process on the hardware. I then recorded it at home and at Phil Moffa's studio in New York. When the music was fully finished the album morphed to its final version. Phil Moffa laid down the final mixdown at Butcha Sound Studios, while Marco Spaventi handled the mastering.''

Canadian born, Berlin based producer Aquarian debuts on Dekmantel Records’ UFO imprint with Mutations I & II, a series of two EPs following his debut album The Snake That Eats Itself and his collaborative records as AQXDM. The series marks his return to club focused solo material for the first time since 2017.

Originally written as inflection points for his typically boisterous and genre collapsing dj sets, Mutations deftly splices the foundational DNA of his earliest productions — electro, hardcore and broken beat techno – with new and vital influences.

Mutations I: Death, Taxes and Hanger finds Aquarian gleefully contorting mid-2000s dnb tearouts, wrong footed IDM and progressive trance euphoria into thrilling new shapes. Fast techno, hi-tek jazz, amphetamine-addled filter house and breakcore join the fray in Mutations II: Delicious Intent as he pushes intensity levels past breaking point. Whichever the touchstone, the results are clear: distinctly modern, highly-propulsive body music with an unapologetically emotive core.

Sirocco is the second EP by Bruxas, the psychedelic, beat-driven, tropical, house group consisting of Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskovic, featuring the percussive talents of Jungle By Night's Tienson Smeets. Sirocco features the combined talents of cult retro artist Gardner, and the percussive fortitude of Mauskovic, delving into the world of exotic, cinematic, Balearic-sunshine, that cruises leisurely throughout, and is layered with phazed-out, tropical synths. It's a sound for the summer. Good vibes only please.Following up from last year's Más Profundo EP, Bruxas return with Sirocco, an EP named after the Mediterranean wind warmed up by the sun drenched Saharan sands. Lead track 'Sirocco' washes over like a sea current of dreamy, tribal, synth-wave, flowing and ebbing in mixed colours of a psychedelic haze. It teases of something grandiose, which later appears in the form of a club version. Remixed for some secret island hideaway orchestrated by DJ Harvey, 'Sirocco (Club Version)' builds on the resplendent melodies and driving percussion of the original, adding some foot-tapping, devilish keys and retro-progressive synth lines to add subtle, summery tension and flare. 'Hermes' meanwhile drives along at a casual 100bpm, with a cumbia-styled Casio line, and a jaunty, leisure-like, Latin-groove, and fiesta feel. The final track on the EP, 'Maria's Holiday' has another up-beat, Casio-styled groove, set alongside a poolside party, with bongo-beat rumblings and a disco rhythm. It's the soundtrack to a summer cocktail party, to watch the sun slowly set on a tropical fiesta.Bruxas is the collaborative project between Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskovic who joined forces while playing in the support band for the 70s James Brown-meets-Black Sabbath act, Witch. Gardner — having firmly established himself as a credible force within the psych-rock community with two solo LPs and a psych-rock sound — and Mauskovic — whose catalogue includes acts such as Altin Gün, and The Mauskovic Dance Band — teamed up in Portugal with their shared love for library music, and 70s psychedelia, naming their new creation Bruxas — Portuguese for Witch. With a featured appearance booked in at Dekmantel Festival, also featuring Tienson on percussive duties, be sure to note that this will be a big year for the retro-party boys.

Dutch psych-musicians Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskovic create a new take on no-wave, post-disco with their debut LP as Bruxas, Muscle Memory. It’s their third work for the Dekmantel label, following up earlier EPs Mas Profundo (2017) and Sirocco (2018). Immersing themselves in a world of bohemian synth, the duo ex periment with vintage machines and cosmic effects, swimming in rhythmic grooves and psychedelic tones. It’s a style that reflects their respective musical backgrounds, and long partnership, one in which that has strengthened their collaborative, musical muscle memory. After playing together in the revival tour for Zamrock band WITCH, Gardner and Mauskovic struck up a partnership centred around poolside antics, cocktail hours, and a mutual love for late-60s, German kosmische musik. Through their particular style of alchemy, the duo embarked on a quest to craft soundtracks to imaginary, forgotten moments.

‘Cógelo, Rápido’ plays out like a pseudo-disco-noire thriller, while ‘Mountain Cruise’ strums to an upbeat Jodorowsky beat, and then ‘Minitrip’ accompanies the listener through psychedelic planes of existence. Unsurprising then that there is a little bit of Patrick Cowley in this record. A pioneer whose own Muscle Up soundtracks also lent themselves to leftfield synth explorations.

Outside of Bruxas, Gardner and Mauskovic have both found success with their respective careers. Gardner, with his unique take on experimental synth work, and Mauskovic’s rhythmic post-punk, solo-project The Mauskovic Dance Band. Together as Bruxas, they found a synergy full of youthful exuberance that looks to recapture a vintage left-of-centre, wave-scene aesthietc. Recorded on a minimalist setup, Muscle Memory is full of improvisation and psychedelic sound experimentation, proving that with time the subconscious can take over, creating patterns within music that the conscious mind would have otherwise been unable to perform. What one would call, true Muscle Memory.

art by the excellent Mr Stefan Glerum

French wielder of exotic machine music Epsilove debuts a full EP of sensuous, melodic electro on Dekmantel. Formerly one-half of Syracuse, Isabelle Maitre depicts a vision of daring, yet euphoric vocal-led, dreamy electro that oscillates with sturdier, warehouse sounds full of heaving 808s, and experimental qualities.

‘Time is the longest distance’ preaches the qualities that brought Antinote’s Epsilove to the distinguished status she has today. It is the sound of chic dancers, shuffling-together leisurely under neon lights, pressing against each other along to nostalgic acid basslines, interstellar synths, and dreamy, cinematic vocals. Rich with harmony, emotion, and cold-wave sensuality. ’Sea Snakes’ pulses faster under a Drexciyan dream-state, painting kaleidoscopic motifs, as the 808 rattles out multi-paced tempos, driving levels of uncompromising Detroit velocities, through to Lynchian-mirror-world listlessness. It’s an acid-acid test of colourful, pulsing electro.

On the remixes are fellow Parisian’s Ali Bobo (Bruits De La Passion) and Shelter (Bigwax Records), who rework ‘Time is the longest distance’ into something more sinister, reflecting the dystopic IDM aesthetics of early Rephlex Records with playful, darkened electronics. The more elusive pairing of French producer HAJJ (Dawn Records) and Lastrack (BFDM) meanwhile, team up to turn ‘Sea Snakes’ into something that harkens towards the world of Warp-like experimental and progressive contemporary post-trap, and breakbeats.

"À dix mètres sous moi, l'eau invisible. Entre l'eau et la brume, pas de frontière, la brume aussi lourde que l'eau, l'eau aussi irréelle que la brume. Passage dans un autre monde, transition par une osmose où toute forme ancienne est désagrégée et dissoute.” Raymond Abellio, Heureux les Pacifiques (1946)

1x each customer !
Surprise re-issue of this near mythical 12"! It seems nearly everybody missed it the first time round... DEKMANTEL & MAGNETRON team up and do the right thing and polish up the old girl to 2015 standards. Expect to hear this absolutely everywhere this summer!

Experimental work from Mathew Jonson (Cobblestone Jazz)
"Worthwhile albums tend to be as much about the process of making them as they are about the end products themselves. One can almost hear formal, technical, even philosophical questions being asked and answered on them in order to arrive at something personally and politically new for the artist. "A Box Full of Magic," at once sprawling, cosmic, and psychedelic in the best of ways, follows in this album-making tradition. It is a record steeped in off kilter percussive time, live recording, occasionally summer cloud-paced tempos, and lush, emotional, melodic instrumentation. "A Sunrise On the Front," the final track of the record (and a composition crushing in its beauty), encapsulates much of this: recorded live on a Rhodes, the melody gives voice to the paradoxical sense of hope even during the pathology of war. Such conceptual ambition fits perfectly well within the capacious vision of Mathew Jonson's Freedom Engine, a project whose very name seems to explore and allow for the conceptual paradox and complexity of approaching freedom through the engine of technology. In a fundamental sense this tension between freedom and machine informs much of the album proper. Desiring to break out of his old ways of production and the boxes that went with it, the album abounds with fresh fascinations in things like the sound of mathematical equations, quirky time signatures, and experimental phrasing through intuitive timings to unlock a sense of magic, play, and spontaneity. There is, likewise, an interest in the liberating potential of deconstructing old sounds to make new ones, as Jonson applies techniques like innovative noise gating on classic drum samples to create space age percussion. At other moments, on "The Very Strange," for instance, air itself is sampled in field recordings to create unnatural percussive patterns. As is often the case with Jonson's work, an encyclopedia of machines and synths are employed in the making of 'A Box Full of Magic," but what is perhaps new here, and in keeping with the dialectic he traces between freedom/engine, is that there is a non-mechanistic, spontaneous impulse at work in the recordings. While it is not a live album, it has an at times spiritual and organic inclination despite or perhaps because of the way his panoply of gear--Prophet 5, cs60, VCS3, et al--attempts to capture dream-like tonalities that can reach poetic heights on a track like the aforesaid "Sunrise" or morph into an almost diabolical, Lynchian dimension on "An Evil Charm (Where Is the Forest)." But while it is tempting to get lost in the trees of synth-arcana with Jonson's work, we should not lose sight of the forest here: With its openness to new ideas which in turn generate an album teeming with them, "Box Full of Magic" helps to expand the sonic vocabulary of contemporary dance music.

Mathew Jonson lives and works in Berlin. He has been experimenting with electronic music since 1986. "

It is often said that the best art comes out of adversity, and so it is that producer Frits Wentink, photographer Erik Madigan Heck and actress Tilda Swinton have collaborated on Safe Passage, a fascinating audio-visual project born out of loss. Consisting of classical, choral, and electronic music in three movements, the gatefold album will be presented by Dekmantel with a 40 page booklet of additional photographs and paintings, as well as digital only remixes from Matthew Herbert, The Soft Pink Truth, BvDub, and East of Oceans.

Dutch producer and renowned innovator Frits Wentink helms the Will & Ink and Bobby Donny labels, builds synthesizers and beautiful controllers, and puts out always experimental, left of centre house music that pushes at the boundaries. This project initially started out as him attempting to musically illustrate the photography of American visual artist Erik Madigan Heck. The internationally renowned Heck is known for a lavish and experimental use of colour that has won him the prestigious International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award as well as make him a regular contributor to high profile media such as The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Midway through the project, Eriks mother was hospitalised due to breast cancer complications before also contracting Covid-19. By her bedsides and as a means to ease her passage, he repetitively played the first portion of the score, and then, once she passed, he decided to commemorate the music's function as a soundtrack for her transition to afterlife by naming it Safe Passage. The involvement of Academy Award–winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton has lent the music an extra dimension of spirituality: throughout the album, she interjects whispered fragments of Heck’s poetry, blurring the lines between one phase of music and the next.

The music has three movements across two sides: Side A, Safe, has a sense of hope and reflection as it undulates from minimalist string and brass arrangements to ambient and dissonant classical piano. Side B, Passage, then depicts the start of the transition into the afterlife as the voices of a choral madrigal ensemble gradually diverge, then break down entirely before a grand tonal expansion leads into a frenzied crescendo of choral vocals, hardened dub techno and anxious rhythms that convey the violence of the soul’s exit from this world. Finally, a cathartic Epilogue resets and bids farewell with the gentle sounds of a piano.

Because of the global on-going loss of life as a result of Covid-19, Safe Passage has become a soundtrack in which many people will find solace as they remember the sad transitions made from this life to the next during this unprecedented time in history.

Berlin based Adam Marshall and Christian Andersen collaborate as Graze. In the latest installment of our UFO series, the Dekmantel Records offshoot dedicated to experimental and futuristic electronic music, the Canadian veteran producers serve up a 50/50 lethal/dreamy drum trax package. Many have applauded the versatility of Graze, and their Xup EP is yet more proof of their original minds.Xup' is an abstract 4/4 jugular, beating out devious percussive patterns and rattling hi-hats over a grizzled and arpeggiated synth mortar-fire. 'Vast' on the other hand is an esoteric slow-burner, a hallucinatory trip to the depths of analog synth paradise and a perfect intro, outro or home listening gem. On the flip, the hyper-lean gearshift of 'Tryptch' pumps energy through off-kilter and plunderphonic basslines, while 'Shadow Play' is a classic piece of breakbeat bliss including a celestial synth arrangement that makes a perfect soundtrack for slow-speed sci-fi rides.

If heavy industry is a thing of the past, no-one told Identified Patient. For the past few years, he has been a one-man factory: by day, assembling component parts of acid, techno and all varieties of wave (dark, cold, minimal) on the production line; by night, a DJ dynamo pulsing with so much energy he could power a small city. His style is the kind of churning, lithe, fractured machine funk that could make Trent Reznor weep with envy – mean but clean, sinister and stomping but crucially, never overconfident or overblown. After two show-stopping performances at the parent festival last year, Signals In Snakes marks Identified Patient’s first Dekmantel release, for the technoid UFO sub-label.

Opener “The Drip” lives up to its namesake, slowly lowering elements into the field of play with partner in crime Sophie Du Palais. No prizes for guessing what exactly might be dripping through this fetishistic slow burner, so we’ll let your sordid imagination run wild. “Let Me Do It” takes the pent-up anguish and lets rip with the mood of unearthed electrical wires sending sparks flying, an upscaling of intensity that continues on “Chantal Chant.” Envisioned as the moments of tension before a gladiator fight in ancient Greece, the acidysound is that of barely restrained militant chaos. Our battered fighter’s swan-song, “Lucy’s Comeback,” marshals the dark undercurrents of bass and brings us to a close. Giving a new lick of shiny paint to a well-weathered industrial exoskeleton, Signals In Snakes is one to unify the cold-blooded villains and hot-blooded lovers all summer long.

Nerve Deposit is the new EP from Identified Patient on Dekmantel’s sub-label UFO. The record is a lysergic stew of industrial, electro, breakbeat hardcore and synth-rock, with the purpose to get under your skin and set your nerves tingling. While extending his signature sound, the Dutch producer upgrades his process and marshals a new complexity from his machines. The result is five tracks which stalk shadowy hallways but never lean too far into the darkness, at once menacing and lively. With a laboratory’s worth of sleazy synths, bubbling effects, raking textures, plunging bass and rhythmic left-turns, Nerve Deposit suggests we are in the court of a Professor, not a Patient. Tantalisingly, the best feels yet to come.

Electro, disco-chic, doused in gooey pop, sultry silk, and retro synth-boogie. Dekmantel welcomes the good time vibes of Canadian selector, and retrotastic, vibe-poppin’ producer Jex Opolis. Cult figure, obsessive Discog-er and Good Timin’ boss, the Brooklyn-based, Canadian has etched out a global reputation with his exotic taste of lo-fi, party productions, with this — his Dekmantel debut — not straying far from the formula. On Earth Boy, the hit making powerhouse turns up the synth furore to maximum, with electro and Italo all blending together, in a powerful melee of beachtime house, and crushing sunset disco. Leftfield soul that’s not just for the diggers, and the perfect introduction for his summertime debut at Dekmantel’s galant showcase festival in Amsterdam later on this summer.

Title track 'Earth Boy' pays homage to the classic electro of the early 80s, with its 123bpm rolling breaks, and throbbing synth basslines. It’s as if Drexciya has a disco-baby with Spacer Woman. With its cliquey stomps and robot pulses, and nods to the wave-style records that empties so many of Jex’s sets, 'Earth Boy' is classic future disco. 'Desolation' is bridled with greater depth and emotion, with Italo-pomp and a certain rhythms digitales flare. Braver souls may embrace the vocal mix when it comes to playing out, with its compassionate overtones and soft celled-bassline. Its time to brush aside the winter hue, and say hello to those good-time blues, and frolic along to the jetset, neo-Balaeric house stylings of Jex Opolis.

One NYC's brightest drops a beauty of a double LP on Dekmantel. Awesomely dope! TIP!
Spring 2014 will see Dutch label Dekmantel release the debut full-length album from New Jersey producer, DJ and Inimeg Records boss Joey Anderson. Entitled After Forever, the album is the natural next step for a producer who has turned out plenty of deep and intriguing techno EPs for labels like Latency, Deconstruct Music and Syncrophone over the last couple of years.

Having been championed by the connoisseur likes of Levon Vincent and DJ Qu before the rest of the world cottoned on, Anderson's style has proved to be truly idiosyncratic, where near bottomless techno grooves get run through with haunted piano lines, shadowy synth work or elegant drones. There are barely ever any claps or snares, instead just plenty of deeply hypnotic kicks and plenty of noir tension.

'Every track on the album has its own take on my personality, my mentality musically and my vision of off-dancefloor music,' says Joey. 'I find it very difficult to create something for people just to like. I'd rather pay attention to making them get close to the album and uncover the ideas within it. Being my first LP, it's dedicated to my two daughters, Akatriel and Auset.'

As well as two tracks that were released on Anderson's previous Dekmantel EP, the album offers nine new cuts and kicks off with 'Space Between Curtains'. Haunting, saddened piano keys linger in the air above metallic synth sounds for the emotive duration of the track. Then there's the teary eyed, end-of-the-world yet optimistic vibe of 'Space Colors Ideas'. After that various intimate moods are explored, from heavy and ominous on 'Maidens Response' to celestial and cautiously uplifting on 'Archer's Ceremony' via 'Amp Me Up', which sees Anderson's spacious and atmospheric style suck you in with its weird, gurgling machine noises unravelling above an unchanging drum track.

It's an album that demands and indeed warrants close inspection, and is the sort of work that really transports you deep into another world far away from here. With After Forever, then, Joey Anderson confirms he crafts moody and atmospheric techno like few others.

Mr Anderson taking a fresh twist and releasing more excellence on Dekmantel. Big TIP!

Limited Edition including a bonus 7".
The art of omission is a craft New Jersey native Joey Anderson masters like few others.
After releasing his acclaimed debut album After Forever in 2014 and the 1974 EP earlier this year, Anderson returns to the Dekmantel label serving up the signature sound we love him for. Invisible Switch is the perfect example of what Anderson can do with very little, catapulting him to one of the finest and most original techno and house producers to date.

What's left to explain about Juju & Jordash The longtime Dekmantel affiliated duo (Gal Aner, Jordan Czamanski) helped shape our club nights, festivals, label and other music endeavors to what they stand for today.
In other words: without these jazz trained cats, there wouldn't be a Dekmantel. It's with great anticipation that we announce Dekmantel release #8 (!) from these utterly talented musicians. DKMNTL026 is a club friendly yet sophisticated four tracker that is as abstract as it is deep, and as elegant as it is effective. Raw, energetic stuff for your peak time bag!

Well, what about Tuesday Israeli hybrid house and techno masters Juju & Jordash return to Dekmantel Records with yet another outstanding release. Their relentless work ethos makes you wonder if these guys sleep at all. Maybe that's what Tuesdays are for DKMNTL 043 is a three-tracker and a fine display of Gal Aner's and Jordan Czamanski's next-level, improv based way of painting records. 'Monday Mellow' is a dubbed out, twisted and subtly emerging house groover, while 'Wednesday Something' continues the journey with a dense electronic jazz-tinged stomper. 'Thursday, Heavy.' demonstrates their full range, combining eerie melodic synth excursions with a jagged bassline - an out of this world, destructive yet classy house bomb. As always their intergalactic excursions are superbly executed. Let's give them some rest on those Tuesdays.

Dekmantel's first-ever release sets the standard higher than an Amsterdam tourist, thanks to the multi-talented Israeli duo Juju & Jordash.

Nearly 10 years on since his last solo LP, Berlin techno icon Marcel Dettmann arrives on Dekmantel with an expansive album captured in a flash of inspiration.

In many ways Fear Of Programming is a reflection on the artistic process – the critical hurdles one has to overcome, the constant strive for originality, the ability to capture inspiration in its pure moment of inception. Bar the closing title track (and we all know Marcel loves a surprise closing), these 13 tracks came together during a period in which our hirsute host was able to immerse himself in studio practice and set the intention to record an album’s worth of material every single day. From the resulting mass of work there were many options to choose from, and Fear Of Programming stood out as one of the most complete statements on Dettmann’s approach in the here and now.

Unconcerned with an overarching concept, it was the work in the studio which drove the musical direction. No labouring over knotty arrangements, no painstaking mix downs – just honest expression, a moment caught, a groove locked, a stroke of synth sent pirouetting over a cavernous bed of texture. The results are varied, and while you might well hear plenty of bruising machinations in line with the techno Dettmann has made his name on, there are plenty of other shades expressed across the album.

Ambient sojourns, beatless epics and angular electronica have equal footing with strident, floor-friendly workouts. Standout piece ‘Water’ offers an icy ballet of swinging minimal and drip-drop melodics fronted by Ryan Elliott on lesser-spotted vocal duties, urging, ‘give me a sign, just a little something to let me know that you’re mine’. It’s playful, but still underpinned with the sincerity that comes with Dettmann’s work.

Running on instinct, Dettmann presents an honest version of himself in the here and now, speaking through the sonics and not over-thinking the results. His decades of experience helming a thousand techno parties speak for themselves, while his evolution as a musical entity through collaboration and his own BAD MANNERS label demonstrate his appetite for change. Indeed, the working method which resulted in the album also spurred him on to create a live set beyond his well-established DJ practice. Without resorting to a conceited overhaul, Fear Of Programming opens up the idea of what Dettmann represents in the modern techno landscape.

Dopplereffekt, L.B. Dub Corp, JASSS, SHERELLE and Interstellar Funk on remix duty...

Dekmantel return to Marcel Dettmann's celebrated 2022 LP Fear Of Programming for a remix package featuring five of the biggest names in contemporary club music. Dettmann's unmistakably sleek, focused production style is the perfect springboard for all kinds of imaginative interpretations that touch on techno, footwork, electro and ambient.

Donning his L.B. Dub Corp alias, Luke Slater kicks off the A side by paring 'Suffice To Predict' down to its fundamentals and rebuilds a taut, punchy version out of the component parts. SHERELLE explores a sweet spot between techno and footwork in her natural 160 BPM zone on her angular, reverb-heavy version of 'x12'.

On the B side, Dopplereffekt supplement the cascading arpeggios of album closer 'Fear Of Programming' with their inimitable strain of dystopian electro. Interstellar Funk turns album centrepiece 'Water' into an atmospheric techno voyage shaped out by melancholic pads and fluttering leads. JASSS takes 'Fear Of Programming' further out through billowing clouds of ambience and dislocated vocal impressions, arriving at a bold and pensive closing statement to this heavyweight clutch of remixes.

San Francisco's Matrixxman back on Dekmantel...full info to follow

Dekmantel regular Matrixxman returns with the third, and final instalment in the Sector series, Part III: Polyphony. In this triptych, the producer from San Fransisco sets out to highlight the key components behind the sounds and style of techno, exploring the range within the confines of a particular limitation. Following Parts I and II, which looked at Rhythm, and Acid, Charles McCloud Duff charters the realm of Polyphony with four, meticulously produced techno tracks, expanding his repertoire of cult, dancefloor music.Polyphony refers to the simultaneous combining of many notes in a musical sequence. In electronic music, this specifically refers to the role of the synthesiser - such as the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, which can produce different pitches simultaneously. Polyphony has been an integral characteristic of the genre's sound for over a quarter of a century, and can be heard in many key records, living a the sonic forefront of these four tracks. 'Sector Series: III Polyphony' provides an exercise in melody and polyphony. Throughout the EP, swaggering rhythms are inter-washed with a sea of multi-melodious, reverberated notation. 'Initiation' resonates with the grandiosity, and harsh claustrophobia of early Underground Resistance. 'Access Granted', drives hard with pulsing effects, with a dystopic, rhythmic cacophony of euphony. 'Desert Planet' plays around with a differing tempo, imagining a more fantastical vision of music, echoing back to earlier Plastikman productions, using a vast sonic spectrum to conjure up a colour palette of alien imagery. 'Horizon' rounds things off; a track that builds on minimalism with a progressive composition, allowing the polyphonics to drive the track, harnessing the adept production qualities that Matrixxman has come to be recognised for.

Synergising their respective studio prowesses and harnessing their accomplished hardware artistry has helped establish Neon Chambers as a modern symbiosis of atmospheric, contemporary club sounds, and multi-rhythmic machine-driven sonics, the two producers have set out on the beginning of a new era of electrifying, astute sound design, and breathtaking modern electronic music.

The duo’s debut EP, One is a whirlwind of crushing modern sonics, that is equal parts jagged rave, progressive dub-fuelled two-step and night time-ethereal IDM. Throughout all five-tracks, the producers wield a wicked awareness of state-of-the-art sound design, that makes each kick cerebral, every bass-sound an epic vibration, and every synth a futuristic cacophony of finely-tuned noise. The sounds are an amalgamation of everything that has made each artistic unique in their own right, while correspondingly helping create something new. ‘Apollo’ is a prodigious working of melodic synthesis, with delicate, and rolling breaks, while ‘Cascade’ moves into a more grandiose, heavenly territory, befit with trance-like, precision synthesis. ‘What it takes’ brings on board a more UK, post-dubstep sound, albeit one with more craft, and sonic mastership. ‘Your Touch’ toys once more with atmospheric rolling breaks and solemn vocal samples, while ‘Helles’, the closing track, is an excursion into more compelling, auditory realms.

Neon Chambers is the new project of UK producer Sigha, and French artist Kangding Ray. Sigha, aka. techno producer James Shaw comes from a steadfast background in abstract and grounded techno, with previous works on Token Blueprint, Avian and his own Our Circular Sound imprint. Kangding Ray, aka. David Letellier, has made a career for himself with genre-breaking and experimental sonic adventures that have taken him across such era-defying labels such as Raster-Noton, and Stroboscopic Artefacts. In 2019, he also started his own imprint ara for more bespoke, avant-garde releases. The duo came together to create Neon Chambers to further extend their analogous ambitions, and create bigger, and more daring live and audiovisual performances.

Berlin-based Palms Trax continues adding to his run of quality efforts with the forthcoming release of his High Point On Low Ground EP: impressive effort number two for the Dekmantel imprint.
Serving up three retro-futuristic killers, Donaldson parades his ability to touch on the many different corners of contemporary house music, whilst delivering heavyweight dancefloor standards. The title track blazes a beaten-up vocal snippet over stanked-out synths, stretched to a breaking point across a low-riding bass line. A stabbing Moroder-esque bass line dominates 'Cloud City', whilst 'Paws' equals pure and raw broken-beat bliss with a pinch of acid.

Berlin-based Palms Trax continues adding to his run of quality efforts with the forthcoming release of his High Point On Low Ground EP: impressive effort number two for the Dekmantel imprint.
Serving up three retro-futuristic killers, Donaldson parades his ability to touch on the many different corners of contemporary house music, whilst delivering heavyweight dancefloor standards. The title track blazes a beaten-up vocal snippet over stanked-out synths, stretched to a breaking point across a low-riding bass line. A stabbing Moroder-esque bass line dominates 'Cloud City', whilst 'Paws' equals pure and raw broken-beat bliss with a pinch of acid.

Parrish Smith makes his Dekmantel debut on the label's sister-techno imprint, UFO, with a blend of avant garde electronics and industrial.
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With the 'Sex, Suicide & Speed Metal EP', Dutch producer Parrish Smith works outside of the realm of genres and tempos, creating his own unique template of saturated, electronic post-punk, having won accolades from the likes of Nina Kraviz, and Ron Morelli along the way. An analogue purist at heart, Parrish Smith has already amassed a cult following with regular appearances on Red Light Radio, in which the anarcho-experimentalist broadcasts sessions of heavy industrialism, breakbeats and body music.

Parrish Smith's music brings together classic analogue gear and a love for the fusion of aggressive industrial sounds. With title track 'Sex, Suicide & Speed Metal', Parrish Smith channels his inner Alan Vega, with some screaming guitars, and 65bpm machine-crunching body beats, lurching into a sultry space of slick wave music. 'Mute' jacks up the feeling of tempo, rife with energetic drum machines, pulsing synths and retro-fitted vocals, similar to the sound of something Daniel Miller might have released himself back in the early 80s. 'SKINS', delves further into the mechanical, with a grinding bass that bleeds through the track's entirety, while 'Fall into sin' sees him explore the world of deconstructed, gothic-pop yet further. Parrish Smith will be DJing, and performing live as Volition Immanent at this year's Dekmantel Festival, to fulfil the festival's charter of provocative, and intoxicating, energetic beat-filled music.

Jondo's Little Princess EP sees Cologne's finest producer/DJ debut Dekmantel with a 4-track set of expansive atmospheres and reconstructed club tunes, alongside double bassist Maxwell Sterling and Australian producer DJ Plead.
Each track draws elements from the bass music trajectory, but effortlessly reassembles them in song-like arrangements that work just as fine in any headphone or home listening scenario.

The A-side has Jondo and Sterling team up for two dynamic pieces called "Dunkelziffer I" and "Dunkelziffer II". Whereas A1 serves drumless, RPG-like atmospheres reminiscent of Sterling's long-time collaborator James Ferraro, A2 is a full-on club joint packed with icy synths and complex rhythms that slowly eases into comforting ambient. On the B-side's "Whowhuwho", Jondo creates a powerful piece of instrumental-grime-turned-quasi-jungle with DJ Plead. For his remix, Russian techno prodigy Moa Pillar warps the already minimalist lead synth into an even more sparse yet effective dancefloor weapon.

Just as his celebrated DJ sets, the Little Princess EP proudly exhibits all of Jondo's musical roots – but instead of sticking with one style, tempo or formula, he innately trusts the music to let it take us into unexpected territories, time and time again

Next up for the brand new DKMNTL UFO series is Rohan Walder aka Randomer, who has been causing a stir with his uncompromising, bass heavy cuts on labels like Clone, L.I.E.S., Hemlock and Numbers. The Londoner graces our new platform with his signature sound that blurs the lines between big boned

Earlier this year, Dekmantel announced the signing of Robert Hood for a new project titled Paradygm Shift. Over the course of three different EPs, which will eventually evolve into an album, the Detroit but now Alabama based legend presents Paradygm Shift. Hood: "The idea behind Paradygm Shift is similar to a shift in our focus. We can become so complacent, we are so comfortable with our surroundings, I think this is the time for electronic music to find a new mindset
Volume II serves up two more killer techno floor bombs by the never disappointing originator. 'Master Jack' is a classy and deadly effective cut that gets its strength from a simple, yet biting stack of funky chords, while pulsating bass lines and rattling hats are holding it together. More fast-paced action can be found on 'Magnet', a no-nonsense, minimalist stomper you can store in your peak-time section. Refined techno action times two, but what did you expect

Paradygm Shift, the first Robert Hood album to be released since 2012. A staggering record of techno dynamite sees the Detroit legend excelling at what he does best. The record serves as a milestone for the Dutch label Dekmantel, celebrating its tenth anniversary, with the label's 50th release.
Paradygm Shift is return to the distinguished style that defined Robert Hood's music in the early 90s. It is the older, and more mature brother to Hood's classic Minimal Nation, highlighting his more evolved, technical craftsmanship, It is an album of crisp, smooth and delicately orchestrated techno that is quintessentially minimal in focus, and grandiose in sound, juxtaposed with electronic funk, wrapped up in blisteringly urgent, and honest, pulsating techno.
The LP is the culmination of a three EP series released on Dekmantel. 'The idea behind it is just a shift in our focus. We can become so complacent; we are so comfortable with our surroundings. I think this is the time for electronic music to find a new mindset." Robert says about the record's concept. "I felt it necessary to reiterate Robert Hood as an electronic music artist who is bringing minimalism back in the forefront, and not to get lost in the melody. I want to get back to the simple repetitive programming that I'm known for, and to me it was returning to that, and shifting the listeners' focus.'

Like his DJ sets, Paradygm Shift gradually warms up into a rolling hypnotic, succession of pious rhythms that make up 'Idea'. The orthodox template never brakes, but evolves as the album proceeds. It is beholden of a man born of playful discipline. 'Solid Thought' points to a heightened sense of purity, 'Magnet' is unabashed and unflinching in its ruthlessness, while 'Pneuma' is the record's only soulful link to Hood's recent Floorplan past. As the record draws to a close, penultimate track 'Pattern 8' plays out as a beautifully synthesized, hymn that points towards to an earlier period of machine-driven, soul music.

Paradygm Shift is the perfect marriage, cementing the Detroit-Dutch relationship further. Although this will be Robert Hood's first LP release with Dekmantel, the marraige between the two stretches back over seven years. Since DJing at Paradiso for the Dekmantel crew back in 2010, Robert Hood has been a regular fixture for the clubnights and festivals ever since, while also contributing remixes to Juju & Jordash's Deep Blue Meanies EP. 'I could tell these guys were hungry for electronic music. Dekmantel is about making things happen, and so like minds think alike,' Hood says about their history,

Speaking about the record project and signing, the team behind Dekmantel stated: "Just like a lot of Robert Hood fans, we're most enthusiastic about his older, minimal material. After all, it's what made him famous in the first place and was an important ingredient in the early Dekmantel days. His Paradygm Shift music appeals to this period but has a modern feel too it, which makes it very exciting.'

Beyond the Mikrosector, passed the Love Quadrant and over the Intersect lies another reality that exists in contrary to our own. This is where we now find Mr. 8040, the Space Dimension Controller, on a planète contraire, a world very much like our own, but one that runs in opposite to the norm. Here he toys with intergalactic Detroit funk and sequenced machines, creating celestial signals of minimalistic, atmospheric boogie. It’s a new course of interconnected, cinematic electro that exists outside of time and yet is apt for moments of timelessness.

Within the world of astrophysics there are select scientists out there that believe space-time gradually loops in on itself. Within this infinite realm of time and space, we can find ourselves once again living our past lives. It’s in this eternal domain that the Space Dimension Controller returns once more, applying his knowledge from the planète contraire to his absorbing palette of C-beams, moon-lit orchestrations, and graviton beats. Matured from his time cavorting through the core of the unknown, the Space Dimension Controller’s sound becomes more focussed, filled with the knowledge of the worlds his visited.

On the A side, Mr. 8040’s strain of progressive and unequivocal deep-space disco lends towards his studio competence, creating lush melodies that will have even the geysers of Enceladus erupting in time along with the symphony of syncopated drum machines. On the flipside, the prodigious Jack Hamill, aka. the Space Dimension Controller, flexes his machine savviness once more creating a timeless electro-funk rhythm for a timeless, time-travelling pioneer.

The hyper talneted Stellar Om Source (NOT NOT FUN, RVNG, NO 'LABEL) blowing up new styles on this one!

"If there is one thing that leaps out from Stellar OM Source’s music, it is the sense of a highly active mind at work. There is an indivisible feeling that a real person is behind this dynamic flurry of tones, waves, vibrations and modulations. On I See Through You, the first full Stellar OM Source release in over four years, the spark that first LP piqued the interest of so many listeners is glowing stronger than ever.

In the 2010's, Christelle Gualdi carved a name as one of the most essential live electronic musicians around, dazzling dancers and home listeners in kind with her bombastic, acidic hardware jams. Circumstances outside her control forced a stop for the Stellar OM Source project. It was touring, including two shows in the summer of 2019 at Dekmantel Festival and Listen! that Gualdi credits as year highlights, which proved to be the integral jump-start to the engine.

Inspiration came rushing back thanks to the human connection of performing. Seeing a younger generation connect with her put fresh charge into the circuitry of her gear. All this accrued into new material on the road, and thus I See Through You was born.

The spirit of 2013’s cult favourite Joy One Mile is alive and well on I See Through You. There is once again immediacy, urgency and lust. But Stellar OM Source stepping into a comparatively more poppy and playful mode on these four tracks could also throw some. Fundamentally she says, it comes from a similar place, and ends with an enmeshed and positive outcome. Gualdi credits both “1995 rave” and “the clarity, bass and breath” of hi-def hip-hop productions as being twin northern stars for her to follow.

The artwork comes from friend and highly respected photographer & director Pierre Debusschere, whose work similarly flits between arresting close-ups and, well, the widescreen luxe of Beyoncé videos. “I’m definitely not a purist anymore,” Gualdi laughs – and with club-ready impact meeting human warmth, this shows in abundance.

“Night Alone” wastes no time in getting the listener up to speed. Is that an LFO sample running through “Night Alone”? Is this a lost Metro Area classic? Is that Stellar OM Source taking a diversion into searching Ibiza-rousing vocal for a moment, or did we imagine that in a heat haze? Where are the kicks? Oh there they are. How many elements are buried and revived within just over five minutes?
It’s hard to tell. Before we know it, “Lost Codes” is up and away, keeping pulses racing. A pitter-patter of baby kicks feel like a pre-tremor before a welting electro-Italo lead crashes into play. With fizzing energy, rasping synths and a frisson of danger, fans of Unit Moebius and The Hacker will be doing somersaults of joy.

“White Echoes” wastes kicks off the flip side with low gurgles descending briefly like a UFO reverse parking into the spot SOS had vacated. Soon, 303s are twisting like Chinese burns while warm chords offer a salve. The mood maintains on “Wild Palms”, the only song on this record not to feature additional mixing work from Peaking Lights’ dub-wise sensei Aaron Coyes.

True to form, the B2 is all Stellar: elements switching up and out, with all the fun and frenzy of capital-L Live action. Kick drums and bassline darting back and forth like a synchronised swimming routine, all elements in concert. The momentum of a runaway mine cart that you can’t help but strap yourself to. I See Through You is one for the dancers who have given Stellar OM Source the motive to move forward once again."

Territroy, the Greek duo of Panagiotis Melidis (Larry Gus / DFA Records) and Stathis Kalatzis (formerly Mr. Statik), release their first album Skulls & Plants on Dekmantel's UFO label. A collection of experimental and spacious deep techno, psychedelic ambiance and compelling drums that draw you into a unique world of rhythmic sound and expect in DJ sets from Lena Willikens, Helena Hauff, and Vatican Shadow.

As starting point for their music the duo points at the AGET Heracles Cement Factory Plant in Volos, Magnesia. The factory is a metaphor that processes the land itself, ignites it in a cancerous way then dumps it into the sea and the atmosphere. It's a combination of all possible scenarios of optimism and negativity, the essence of trying to do the best for everyone, but accidentally killing everyone in the process. That contrasting duality is mirrored in Territroy. What ties them is a constant rhythmic element that is persistent and comes from growing up in Greece and absorbing the rhythmic specificities of Southern Europe and unique Mediterranean attitudes.

Barcelona’s Tunik follows up on last year’s A New Dawn with a distinct turn to the dark side as he pays tribute to the iconic, vampiric creature of the night, Nosferatu.

The horror theme on the title track is a natural fit with the Argentinian artist’s schlocky strain of EBM-styled electro-techno, but the music is no joke. Boxy drum machine jack and a suite of darkly seductive synth lines strike the perfect note between vintage flair and modernist impact, and the macabre mood lingers over the rest of this trip through gothic club music.

Whether it’s the Twilight Zone creep around the edges of ‘Slave’, acid blood raining down on ‘W72’ or the undead getting busy with the grungy bass and dry snare hits on ‘Sorrow’, Tunik has got exactly what you need to send a shiver down the dance floor’s spine and raise the temperature in the room, all in the same heartbeat.

Zoom is Thessa Torsing's first full-length album as upsammy. Since 2017, she has developed a signature style in front of listeners eyes and ears: hers is a mesh of airy tones, tender melodies and highly technical drum patterns which wrap around the body of the song like colourful thread around a metallic spindle. Zoom, a refinement of her sound and an expansion of its ambition, is evidently electronic yet seems to float some way off beyond the glow of a screen. Zoom is upsammy's most comprehensive release to date, something she remarks is "a closer and truer look into my work right now"

Across the 11 tracks on Zoom, which has early support from Ben UFO, Lena Willikens, and Call Super, are moments that sharpen your focus then throw you off guard. On "It Drips," a chunky beat conjures the image of a stomping machine. Not so – within seconds a gentle frosting of notes begins to emerge atop the song before a lead melody yawns into view. This technique recurs on "In A Shade", where buzzy static around the margins of the track and a robust low-end are merely the sediment for the song to grow into another form altogether. Using only an Analog Rytm drum machine, Ableton, some modular kit and field recordings to achieve such a wide palette of sounds, the album reflects the excitement of its maker throughout the production process.

The title is an invocation for people to look a little closer at their surroundings and replenish their stock of wonder: "People can be consumed by really big or 'fantastical' things in life, but don't see the small things that have great emotional, artistic or even spiritual value." The packaging of the release contains reminders of the everyday – from associated imagery, a poster, text and videos, all compiled, photographed, and executed by upsammy, to a limited clear vinyl pressing as part of Dekmantel's physical release.

Following 2020’s debut album ‘Zoom’, upsammy returns to Dekmantel with a dualistic four-tracker called ‘Bend’, incorporating familiar sonic palettes and novel paths carved out in times of isolation.

Where Zoom channelled upsammy’s conceptual depth, Bend leans into artistic intuition, juxtaposing the floral and martial, propelling along her signature sound of textured electronica. Lilac chimes rise and fall along the melodic Flutter and Metallic, while the sinister creeps from Spat and Worm’s spacious cracks. All in all, Bend discloses upsammy’s versatility yet again, ever-shifting as the ambiguous modernity she continues to wander - an artist able to shift through the complexity of modernity with rare grace. Early support comes from Ben UFO, Lena Willikens, and CCL.

Following celebrated compilations from Motor City Drum Ensemble and Young Marco - and with the second edition of its limited-capacity festival in Croatia right around the corner - Dekmantel's Selectors series now continues with an edition curated by Marcel Dettmann
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Although he's now known as one of the world's most celebrated techno artists, even Marcel Dettmann had to start somewhere. Long before he ever held court at Berghain (or its predecessor, Ostgut), he was just another young boy in Eastern Germany, one whose earliest encounters with capitalism involved spending every penny he could scrape together down at the local record shop. In those days, it wasn't techno that got him excited, but new wave, post-punk, industrial and EBM acts like Front 242 and Depeche Mode

It's music from my childhood,' says Dettmann. It's still relevant and still inspires me.' That inspiration can be heard across this edition of the Selectors series, as Dettmann has put together what he describes as a pre-techno compilation.' Much like the previous Selectors editions, the compilation is not a mix CD, but a collection of tracks hand picked by Dettmann from his own vinyl archives. Freshly remastered - and occasionally reworked or re-edited by Dettmann himself - the songs here are undoubtedly vintage gems, but they also represent a very personal journey into Dettmann's past.

It was a great opportunity to dig deeper into my own musical outlook,' he explains. The tracks come from a time before Marcel Dettmann became a DJ.' Simply put, the songs here are some of the building blocks upon which he's built an incredibly storied career, and now he'd like to entrust them to future generations.

Vakula has been a Dekmantel label member ever since the very early days. The Ukraine based producer now drops his album Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa on the label.
'This album is about cycles, repetition and interaction', says Vakula, whose Cyclicality between Procyon and Gomeisa is the third of a series of albums and reflects a dashing experimental record that evokes the endless and captivating potential of electronic music. It creates a mesmerizing journey through various music genres, exhibiting a singular sonic experience, whilst he works through a process of improvisation and refinement.
Once again the mastermind proves to be capable of creating complex, yet diverse musical pieces beyond genres and trends. The result: an audio adaptation of his fascinating mind. 'There are two parallel processes that come together in my work: me writing music and working on the sound I want to achieve, and the energy from outside that flows and transforms into thoughts, correlations, and actions.'
The track titles relate to the source of Vakula's inspiration and connect the dots between his obsession for the vastness of our universe and electronic music. ''To wonder about the universe and to dig into mythology and scientific research discovering at least some of its secrets is what keeps me endlessly motivated as a producer.''

Gigi Masin, Vakula and Roman Flügel line up on this first 10 Year Anniversary 12" for Dekmantel... 9 more of similar quality in the pipe. NOTE: Each EP comes in an unique full-color printed inner-sleeve, housed in a glossy outer-sleeve with logo punch out. Shinkwrapped, stickered and pressed on 180g vinyl. TIP!


Five years after their first event, Dekmantel Records saw the light of day. Over the course of 2017 the label will release ten EPs from artists that are close to their hearts; artists that have shaped Dekmantel into what it is today and producers who never fail to inspire them.

On this first EP in the series, Italian musician Gigi Masin makes his Dekmantel Records debut and delivers the first instalment, bringing his deep listening signature sound to the label: 'Maja' is a sublime and spaced-out juncture of jazzy ambient and foggy electronics. On the flip, the ever-brilliant Dekmantel family member Vakula delivers a Kraftwerk-esque house meets electro jam, while Roman Flügel tops things of with a springy and loose, asymmetric rhythm cut.