The Top 7 Mixes of March 2020
This month felt like a year–let DJs like Juliana Huxtable, Roza Terenzi, and Teki Latex help kill the time.
In this column, we shine a light on seven mixes that deserve your attention this month. From superstar DJs to underground operators, from peak-time heat to home-listening treats, there’s something for all ears.
With nightlife on pause until further notice, March’s roundup looks set to be the first in a series of quarantine mixes–in fact, with the world’s DJs now confined to their bedrooms, expect a deluge of homemade mixes in April’s roundup. We’re sweating at the thought, honestly.
In the meantime, this month’s picks include the hyperactive heaviness of Juliana Huxtable, an all-original set of nu-club belters from Ireland’s Lighght, and a barrage of ridiculous pop edits from Lisbon’s Ketia, and mixes from L. Zylberberg, W00dy, Teki Latex & Nick Dwyer, and Roza Terenzi.
Before we begin, a few bonus bookmarks for those isolated hours: here’s a freshly unearthed Arthur Russell 1985 live set, a soothing Tranquility Mix from Optimo’s JD Twitch, and why not make the most of that extra time in bed with this mix designed to encourage lucid dreaming?
Roza Terenzi – Gop Cast 031
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Melbourne’s Roza Terenzi turns in a glowing session for São Paulo party collective Gop Tun as she gets ready to release her debut album, Modern Bliss. Just like her own deeply groovy productions, this one retains a certain poise even at its sweaty peaks: baggy breaks to loosen your hips, soaring pads to sharpen your mind, rolling techno to get you levitating. Roza invites you to let go – but without spilling too much of your drink in the process. Her vintage selections include Aaron Palmquist’s ‘90s techno, recently reissued by Nathan Micay’s label, and early trance by Young American Primitive.
W00dy – FACT Mix 749
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A singular artist working at the wacky intersection of club, pop and DIY synth-noise, W00dy is one of the most exciting exports from Boston’s basement techno scene – check out 2019’s My Diary for brain-scrambling evidence. Their FACT mix is as eccentric as you’d expect, finding quirky routes between diverse genres (digidub from Kromestar, squelchy IDM from Porter Ricks) and flagging up worthy heroes of the US underground like Mukqs, Dreamcrusher and Cube. Prepare to feel queasy, yet stimulated.
Teki Latex & Nick Dwyer – Teki and Nick’s Mixtape Quest Adventure
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A meticulously conceived and executed mixtape courtesy of Sound Pellegrino boss Teki Latex and video game music expert Nick Dwyer. The source material comes from Dwyer’s vast collection of soundtracks, from the famous (Chrono Trigger, Pokemon, Streets of Rage) to the virtually unknown. Teki selects his own favorites and weaves them into hip-hop acapellas (Migos, Ruff Ryders, OutKast) and a smattering of club tracks and remixes – listen out for exclusives from Ikonika, Kode9, Jammz and more. An absolute tour de force from two true obsessives – check out the minisite to dig deeper.
Ketia – Discwoman 90
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“My tits? Non-binary. My dick? Non-binary. I am human,” says a mysterious voice over the twinkling piano of ‘Hymn’ by Moby, the opening tune on this cracking mix from Discwoman affiliate Ketia. The Lisbon DJ, known for playing at local party Kit Ket, goes for the jugular with an onslaught of pumped-up piano bangers and hardcore silliness, gradually making way for increasingly ridiculous pop tunes: t.A.T.u, Black Eyed Peas, Cardi B-gone-electro, Sean Paul gone hardstyle. It’s ultra-cute and it goes hard.
Lighght – Unreleased Production Mix on Rinse FM
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For sheer tenacity, you can’t beat an all-original production mix. Lighght is an experimental club producer from Cork, Ireland (a current hotspot for such music) who dropped an album last year on his own Shadow Gazing label. For his guest mix on object blue’s Rinse FM show, he simply banged together an hour of his own tunes – all of them unreleased – and showed off some serious range in the process. If you’re into the very weirdest material from global club labels like Nervous Horizon or Hakuna Kulala, you need this in your life.
Kristen Gallerneaux – Coral City Camera Mix #008
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“Ghosts, synthesizers, and computer junk” are just three of Kristen Gallerneaux’s many and diverse interests – as a writer and sound artist, her research also stretches to mathematics, telepathy and folklore. But ghosts are definitely crucial to her latest output, which finds her dredging up all manner of silted sonics in a mix for Coral City Camera, which isn’t a magazine or a party but an underwater camera streaming live from an urban reef in Miami. Watch the tropical fish drift across your screen as you sink into spectral sounds from Mars89, Madteo, Shinichi Atobe and Low Jack.
Juliana Huxtable – Recognise Mix for DJ Mag
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A new mix from Juliana Huxtable is always cause for celebration. The Texas-born, Berlin-based avant-DJ has been a crucial influence on the new wave of experimental club DJs thanks to her freeform selections and radical approach to the decks, from pop edits to fierce gabber. Her Recognise mix for DJ Mag finds her in slamming techno mode, throwing in squealers and smackdowns from the likes of Clouds and Demdike Stare and showing off her hyperactive control over the decks. “I tend to get bored easily and one thing I love about DJing is [that] technically, you can always be doing something,” she explains.
Chal Ravens is a freelance writer based in London. Find her on Twitter.
Additional graphic design by Ekaterina Kachavina.
Published March 31, 2020. Words by Chal Ravens.