This month’s roundup of DJ mixes covers a range of styles and moods. New Yorkers Volvox and Aurora Halal respectively channel dark, foreboding forms of techno. Kornél Kovács moves in pursuit of the giddy rush of New Year’s Eve at 140 beats per minute. Powell mashes keys over industrial records. And on NTS Radio, Cherrystones pays a two-hour tribute to the late Jaki Liebezeit, the Can drummer and all-around force of nature whose surname—“Lovetime,” essentially—couldn’t have been more apt.
Volvox – RA.549
Uneasy times call for uneasy music, which makes New York’s Volvox just the DJ we need right now. The New York-based, Brazilian-born DJ is a member of the Discwoman crew and the co-founder, alongside John Barera, of the Jack Dept. party (and now label of the same name). Her contribution to Resident Advisor’s podcast series is a headlong tumble through grinding acid, touch-tone squeal, and relentless drum programming. AAAA’s “Functional Acid” sums up the mood, though “functional” barely begins to describe an approach that treats dancers’ bodies like a dog does a rag doll. The weirder she goes, the better it sounds: By 11 minutes in, as an ethereal voice goes soaring out over minor-key 303 churn, you feel like your heart might explode in your chest—whether from ecstasy, paranoia, or a little bit of both.
Kornél Kovács – NYE Mix
Uneasy times also call for jubilant music, and Kornél Kovács pretty much knocks it out of the park with a set intended as the soundtrack for unhinged New Year’s Eve parties at home. The Studio Barnhus co-founder dives right in with Devin Dare’s “Best,” a 2014 edit of 1979 tune by Andraé Crouch that barrels along at about a million miles an hour, and from there he plunges on into ghetto house from DJ Deeon. Before you know it, orchestral stabs are popping over a breakneck-tempo 2-step groove, and the room is awash in bubbly. Fast, irreverent, and giddily absurd, the whole thing is a ball.
K-Hand – Moogfest Mix
K-Hand and her Acacia label have been cornerstones of Detroit’s techno and house scene since the early ’90s. A clear influence on Daft Punk’s loopy, filtered style, she’s a master of rough-cut sample play, infectious disco snippets, and tough, percussive club cuts. In advance of her appearance at Moogfest this year, she turns in an hour-long set that carefully balances enveloping atmospheres and finely chiseled drum work. Cycling through disco, house, and a touch of dark techno, she refuses to stay in any one place for too long, but moves so stealthily you never notice the rug being pulled out from beneath your feet.
DJ Voices – Level Mix for NOLA
New York’s DJ Voices—aka Kristin Malossi, a member of the Working Women DJ collective, a resident DJ on the the Lot Radio, and head of booking at Brooklyn’s Sisters, where this mix was recorded—goes ridiculously deep in a lush, quick-stepping set for the Level Party’s upcoming third anniversary event. Skipping drum grooves thread flickering disco accents, pianos pump and wriggle, and a flute solo even rears its head (via Freil’s “West of Motebe”). Peggy Gou’s “Six o Six” adds a dash of acid and voice, while the insistent whistles and loping talking drums of West Tribe’s 1995 cub “Awa Ni” evokes the golden era of New York tribal house. Nineties-centric and unstoppably positive in vibe, this mix is perfect for house parties, but it’s just as good heard through headphones on the subway, where it brings an extra degree of invincibility to your step.
Sapphire Slows – Beat Bouquet
“I made this mix as if making a bouquet for myself,” writes Japan’s Sapphire Slows of her “Beat Bouquet” mixtape for Radio Cómeme. “So I picked up each record/music in my bedroom like choosing fresh flowers in a local cozy florist.” It makes for one hell of a psychedelic still life: Lena Platonos’ eerie “Lego” glistens like some kind of slime mold before sliding into a spritz of strings and AutoTuned squawks. Kosmische pioneers Moebius & Plank are in there somewhere, while Forma’s glinting “Sane Man” testifies to krautrock’s contemporary endurance. She’s not afraid to tip into dissonance, making for passages of almost sickly-bright neon hues. But she’s also happy to strip things back to basics with cuts like Deardrums’ percussive “Mami Wata.” The whole set brims with character, and the dramatic finale—which goes from Wata Igarashi’s corkscrewing “Mood of the Machines Part II” into Kara-Lis Coverdale’s “Ad_renaline”—is particularly inspired. (For more Sapphire Slows, check her recent mix for Edwin Europe, which traverses similarly unconventional terrain with equal aplomb.)
Sissel Wincent – Jazzpod 067
Sissel Wincent’s excellent Illusion of Randomness EP last year was full of insidious pulses and desolate squeals, and her Jazzpod mix hits the same terrifying notes: jackhammer kicks, textures of metal and wood, and the marriage of gabber and IDM. For all its severity, though, it’s hardly devoid of beauty: about halfway through, the airy digital synths of Anastasia Kristensen’s “Spring Ballade” bathe everything in a warm pastel glow—a calm sense of well-being that carries through almost until the very end, when Celyn June’s “Teeth, Like Perfume” shudders like the final rumbles of a dying world.
Powell – OB-6 Hybrid Melon Magic 01
In his first NTS show of the new year, Powell—the puckish electronic producer and proprietor of Diagonal Records—promises “a new look” for 2017: “more chilled out, more in control, a little bit more coherent—maybe a little bit more boring, even,” he says, early in the set, noticeably slurring his words. Fortunately, things are rarely boring with Powell, and they certainly aren’t here. Armed with turntables, Oberheim OB-6 and SEM Pro synthesizers, and an Elektron Octatrack sampler, he muddies the waters of a traditional DJ set, slathering his selections in dark drones and queasy throb. His picks are pretty much what you might expect: techno from Abe Duque and Ø, industrial from SPK, sardonic headfucks from buddies Russell Haswell and Prostitutes, plus, naturally, a few curveballs. Tobias Bernstrup’s “Nylon (Hi-NRG Mix)” is unrepentant Eurodance cheese, and somewhere in there, there’s even a snippet of a live recording by crust punks Discharge. Coherent? Not really, but then, what would be the fun of that anyway?
Aurora Halal – Dekmantel Podcast 106
Aurora Halal’s set for Dekmantel looms like thunderheads before a storm. It’s techno through and through, all rolling grooves and ominous synths, with the occasional kiss of acid (like Plastikman’s “Plasticine”) to lighten the atmosphere. Late in the hour, breakbeats cut through the murk, a change in energy you can feel rattling through your bones. She wraps things up with her own “Just Tell Me,” a melancholy tune that looks to the synths of Autechre’s Amber for inspiration; the sky turns golden.
Cherrystones – Jaki Liebezeit Special
NTS DJ Cherrystones pays tribute to the late Can drummerJaki Liebezeit with a two-hour selection of his best work, by turns skeletal and painterly, dubby and driven. Throughout it all, he displays a command of the groove so rock-steady, it seems to bend the fabric of space-time around it.