Best New Mixes from February
The list of mixes that we enjoyed during the month of February is here! As usual we picked dj sets, podcast and live recordings for any occasion. There are some mesmerizing downtempo and ambient mixes, eclectic escapades to keep things interesting and of course pure party mixes ranging from deep and groovy to 'tour de force techno' ones. Mixes are listed in no particular order.
Pional - Crack Mix 189
Miguel Barros aka Pional, is an astonishingly talented artist from Madrid. His releases on labels like Hivern Discs, Permanent Vacation, and Young Turks to name a few, have gained support from likes of John Talabot, Âme, Mano Le Tough, The Drifter…Pional never fails to impress us with his original approach to music, whether it’s a DJ mix or music productions. His latest mix for Crack Magazine is such a pleasurable eclectic journey. Make sure to free your schedule for 90min and play it. You’ll need to focus all your attention for the exceptional track selection in this mix.
Francis Harris - Kingdoms Potlatch 004
Scissor & Thread head honcho, Francis Harris started a new label last year called Kingdoms which will focus more on ambient, jazz and experimental music. After a couple of releases from Aris Kindt (a collaboration of Francis Harris and Gabe Hedrick), Brandon Wolcott & Emil Abramyan and Leah Lazonick all we can say is that we are looking forward to each new release of this magnificent label. Every couple of months Francis Harris makes a mix of ambient, jazzy and downtempo music, mixes that represent what the Kingdoms label is all about. These mixes are true pieces of art, the ones that will be enjoyable to listen in many years to come. The 4th installment of Kingdoms Potlatch is a simply remarkable set. It’s a perfect companion for you next car ride or morning coffee.
The Drifter - Cast Adrift 02
Cast Adrift, the new radio show from The Drifter is becoming our new favorite radio show. The second edition of this monthly show on Dublin Digital Radio brings us a more downtempo and ambient mix than the first episode. The story perfectly unfolds with tracks by Lord of The Isles, Zopelar, Iron Curtis and continues into a magnificent and unique music tale that is very pleasurable to spend time with. If you want to hear upcoming Nous’klaer Audio gem or how Roman Flugel treats Acid Pauli’s René and what new Lazaros brings to the table, then Cast Adrift will be your best friend.
Zig Zach - Dekadenz Podcast 31
The art of warm up dj sets is sacred, and many times not presented properly. The mix from one of Singapore’s finest DJs, Zig Zach, shows how the opening set should sound. It was an opening set at the Episode Festival in Thailand and it was executed perfectly with no rushing, slowly building the vibe and groovy enough to prepare people who are arriving to the dance floor for hours of dancing.
Cleveland - IA Mix 266
Andrea Mancini, better known as Cleveland, needs no introduction to Fiction Lab. We’ve been great supporters of Cleveland’s work for a couple of years and we can’t get enough of, in our humble opinion, one of the most consistent ‘music diggers’ in the whole electronic music circus. Lately, we’ve been posting Cleveland’s Radio shows from Red Light Radio where he presents more eclectic sounds. This month we’ll take a break from Planet Cleveland (even though this month’s episode is rad as well), and present you Cleveland’s exclusive mix for Inverted Audio. A mesmerizing one-hour long mix that presents Cleveland’s talent in the best way. We are super excited to host Cleveland at our next party on March 24 at The Paper Box where he’ll play alongside Patlac, for our first installment of Antidote event series.
Grab your tickets here: bit.ly/antidote1
DJ Tennis - BIS Radio Show #924
Life & Death head honcho, DJ Tennis paid a ‘mandatory’ visit to Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space radio while he was in New York last month. As you’re used to it while listening to marvelous BIS series, artists dig deep through their crates to present tracks that are not heard before and are hard to find. Manfredi Romano aka DJ Tennis is for sure one of the best ‘music diggers’ in the industry so whenever he plays nonconventional DJ sets, we listen with a great attention.
C.A.R. - Phantasy Mix 11
Chloe Raunet, better known as C.A.R, is a London based artist who got internationally recognized for her collaborations with Maceo Plex and Red Axes. Her latest mix came around the same time as her new album ‘Pinned’ released via Ransom Note. The mix is exclusive to Phantasy (famous London record label) podcast. It’s a fabulous mixture of offbeat house, astral pop and weirdo rhythms from her record collection.
JD - Vitrina Radio Show #9
Jelena Drenjakovic aka JD is one of the contributors and writers here in Fiction Lab. Besides writing exceptionally beautiful about the music, Jelena is also a fantastic DJ. She recently did a mix for our friends from Sarajevo - Vitrina Concept and took us for quite a ride. With a hauntingly beautiful Giegling style intro, the mix slowly unfolds to percussive heaven with a track from Dorisburg. Keope’s track brings a bit of light and happy mood into the set but just for the moment because Tornado Wallace with his percussive tour de force Zorn Gottes brings you back to a tribal state of mind. We’ll let you discover the rest of the journey by yourself…prepare yourself to be amazed! We are very grateful and happy to work with and be surrounded by such amazing and talented people like Jelena! Go JD!
Masaya - Podcast February 2018
A super talented artist, Claudia Ayala better known in the electronic music world as Masaya, has been a staple of Switzerland’s underground scene for many years now. A residency at infamous D! Club in Lausanne gave her the opportunity to master her DJ skills and become one of the leading DJ’s hailing from Switzerland. Masaya’s ‘Picking Up the Pieces’ LP released via Chapter 24 last year gained support from many DJ’s around the world and has seen remix works done by such amazing artists like Ripperton, Love Over Entropy, Petar Dundov, and Patlac to name a few. Her latest podcast is a beautiful deep and groovy music tale that touches many corners of electronic music with a twist and turns that make it very enjoyable to listen. Masaya ones again shows why she is one the Swiss best DJ’s.
Ame - New Wave Inspired Live at MTN
Kristian, from the mighty duo Âme, played a very cool set recently at Innervisions’ base and record store, Muting The Noise. A little different approach and delivery from one of the world’s greatest DJ’s who usually plays big parties where in most of the cases his sets are filled with upcoming bangers; this time Kristian played a ‘new wave’ style, a style more suitable for surroundings like Muting The Noise. This super trippy set that in moments gets dark will keep your attention until the very end. It’s always great to listen to masters in their work taking a road less traveled and like many times so far Kristian didn’t disappoint
Lux - Smoke Machine Podcast 124
Lux has become one of our favorite DJ’s lately. We are excited when we see a new mix from her popping up in our feed because we know we’ll listen to something fresh as well as tracks that haven’t been overplayed by other DJ’s. This exclusive mix for Smoke Machine Podcast brings us an hour of carefully selected break beat and techno gems featuring amazing tracks by Polo, Forest Drive West, and Alex Coulton just to name a few. Lux continually impress us with her skills, we look forward hearing more from this incredibly talented artist from Leipzig.
Mano Le Tough - Dekmantel Podcast 167
Introduction for one of the Maeve co-founders, Mano Le Tough, is not really necessary. Mano has been one of the busiest artists in the last couple of years, touring the world regularly, and all that thanks to his immaculate production skills and of course innovative DJ style. When playing, Mano doesn’t hesitate to bring some awesome tracks back from oblivion and also to present different and hard to find tracks from what most of the touring DJ super stars are playing. His latest podcast was made ahead of Mano’s performance at the Brazilian edition of infamous Dekmantel Festival which took place during the first weekend in March. In this one-hour long podcast, Mano manages to bring up the party feeling with carefully warming up the vibe in the first half of the mix and taking a listener to quite a ride in the second part of the mix. Mano has done it again.
Upsammy - Hessle Audio Radio Show
As you might have noticed, our new usual suspect here in Fiction Lab is the incredibly talented Dutch artist, Thessa Torsing better known as Upsammy. After being featured in Nous’klaers’s Paerels compilation her first solo EP was recently released via this phenomenal Dutch label. The latest mix from Upsammy is exclusive for French Rinse FM radio and it’s arguably our favorite Upsammy mix yet. A perfect blend of break beat and electro has become her recognizable style.
Tom Trago - Pitch 2018 Preview mix
One of Amsterdam’s best exports, the Rush Hour usual suspect and Dekamantel resident, Tom Trago is about to release a new album on April 2 via Dekmantel records. At this moment Tom is busy with touring and the electronic music circus has taken him to a land down under – Australia where he’s going to play at infamous Pitch Music & Arts Festival (we featured a preview of this festival on Fiction Lab Australia). Ahead of his gig there, Tom Trago made an exclusive mix for Pitch Music & Arts Festival. It’s a very positive groovy house mix, that leaves nice aftertaste upon listening.
Uchi - LT Podcast 038
Lobster Theremin is one of our favorite record labels. This London based label doesn’t hesitate to push the boundaries and take risks with their releases which is essential for music evolving. In their podcast series, Lobster Theremin presents artists that share the same philosophy as them when it comes to music, pushing the boundaries and exploring all corners of ever-evolving electronic music. For their latest podcast LT welcomed super talented Venezuelan artist base in Berlin - Uchi. After her debut release last year on Plangent Records, Uchi played in some of the world’s best clubs including De School, Panorama bar, and Output. This mix was recorded live at Lux club in Lisbon and it’s an amazing peak time techno mix. Put the volume up and get ready for a dark techno escapade.
Lake People - live set at Feel My Bicep
This German producer who also produces phenomenal music under aliases like Llewellyn and Amrint Keen, has been a long-time favorite of ourse. His unique and recognizable style in making different genres of electronic music, ranging from ambient and downtempo to techno and break beat always leaves us in awe. This is the recording of his live set exclusively made for ‘Feel my Bicep’ podcast. It contains many of his tracks from his ‘Phase transition’ LP as well as some other gems that he plays out in clubs when performing.
Zopelar - Dekmantel Sao Paolo Podcast 008
Since the very first release on his own imprint, In their Feelings, Brazilian techno wizard Pedro Zopelar or just Zopelar put himself on international radar and has been supported and recognized by the biggest names in the techno world. His passion for analog sounds is very recognizable in his productions and gives that special touch of ‘life’ to everything he makes. His talent to produce everything form lo-fi house to techno and acid is best heard in this exclusive mix that he put together for Dekmantel festival ahead of his performance there. A truly exceptional live set!
Kim Ann Foxman - Rinse FM Mix
One of the Brooklyn’s finest DJ’s and Good Room resident, Kim Ann Foxman is one of those artists that has an uncompromising style in both Djing and music productions which earned her a respectable spot among biggest names in underground techno music scene. Her latest mix for French Rinse FM is powerful techno escapade that puts you in a party mode almost instantly.
Naveen G - Inflection Pointe
Naveen is back with yet another stunning mix. One of the NY’s finest DJ’s and Cityfox resident prefers to take a listener to quite a ride and present his immaculate DJ skills through 2+hrs mixes rather than ‘1-hour podcast’ type of mixes. This time is no exception, prepare yourself for tour de force melodic techno escapade, perfectly executed by one of our favorite NY DJ’s, Naveen G!
Soukie & Windish - Mixery Plattenkoffer
The masterminds behind URSL label, German duo Soukie & Windish are back with a new podcast! We don’t get a chance to hear this super talented duo that often so it’s always a great feeling when their mix pops up in our feed. This time we have a more housey mix with a couple of mood changes throughout. From deep and dark to groovy and uplifting house. Tracks from Move D, Ripperton, Stimming and Soukie & Windish themselves are good enough reasons to press play and enjoy this 1-hour podcast.