Having only hosted its first weekender in 2013, Amsterdam’s Dekmantel has gone on to become one of the most essential festivals in the electronic music calendar. Pulling in a pool of the finest and biggest names in house and techno as well as further afield, one of its key strength thus far has been the Dekmantel team’s ability to retain an intimate, carefully curated spirit within the idyllic setting of Amsterdamse Bos’ woods just outside the city, the site of the festival’s main day programme.
This year’s festival sees the addition of two settings to the official programme with an opening concert set to bring Autechre to the Muziekgebouw Aan ‘T IJ concert hall for a headline set. Meanwhile, with the closure of Trouw at the start of the year, Amsterdam club Melkweg will be the sole site of Dekmantel’s night programme this year which will feature sets from Dopplereffekt, Andy Stott, Derrick May, Omar S, Surgeon and many more. At the main event in the woods, the likes of Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Ricardo Villalobos, Madlib, Shackleton and Helena Hauff are all booked in across the day programme’s three days.
As a precursor to this year’s Dekmantel, we decided to ask a group of acts playing the festival for a selection of tracks that they wanted to share – no rigid theme or restrictions, just music that they felt needed to be appreciated by you lot reading – to form the Dekmantel 2015 playlist, so here goes…
Rrose picks Ludmila Frajt – Nokturno
"A good example of some of the obscurities you might hear in my set on Sunday afternoon. Ludmila Frajt (1919-1999) was the first female graduate in composition in Yugoslavia, and in addition to having an enchanting number of nines in her birth/death years, she composed a lot of wonderful music, both acoustic and electro-acoustic. And I confess I just discovered her a few hours ago, thanks to a tip from a friend." – Rrose
Tessela picks Dungeon Acid – Move
"Sounds a bit like if Four Tet and DJ Qu made a record together and is a lot less dungeony than you might expect from the name. Just the right amount of bongos and acid and a real joy to mix." – Tessela
Tripeo picks PVNV – Solaaar (Shlomo Remix)
"Shlomo in my opinion is one of the biggest new talents out there and this track showcases perfectly what he is capable of. Lush pads and emotive atmospheres build on an irrestistable groove." – Tripeo
Young Marco picks Marumo – Toitoi
"I’ve been into a lot of South African music lately and this one is pretty sure to stay in the bag all summer, perfect sunset scorcher for a hot day" – Young Marco
Palms Trax picks Gene Hunt – Tazz
“This one is off a great double pack called Chicago Service and released via the Lumberjacks In Hell label who are somewhat fittingly based out of the Netherlands. Hard to pick a favourite from it, but if we’re going for something to play in the blazing sun during a festival this one wins out.” – Palms Trax
Call Super picks Modus Vivendi – Modus Vivendi (Fade In Mix)
"Late-night-early-morning elation music. A track that just needs to be played in its entirety at the right moment. An Fcom classic. Probably my favourite piece of work by Ludovic Navarre (though his reworking of Aurora Borealis comes close). Sorry for being a pessimist but it is highly unlikely anything off the new St. Germain record is gonna come close." – Call Super
Objekt picks Anna Caragnano & Donato Dozzy – Starcloud
"No special significance per se, but the Caragnano/Dozzy album has been one of my favourites this year and ‘Starcloud’ is the standout track for me. It’s hauntingly beautiful – I’ve been opening quite a few sets with it recently." – Objekt
Randomer picks Stingray 313 – Armchair Psychiatrist
"This track takes me to some other place when I play it, and not in a cheesy predictable way either. Been playing it in most sets recently." – Randomer
Motor City Drum Ensemble picks Papa’s Got – I Wanna Love
[Removed from YouTube]
"This has been one of my biggest spins so far this year, i literally played it at every show. The cool thing with African disco is that a lot of times it’s very hypnotic and reduced and in this way works well among electronic music. This is a perfect example." – Motor City Drum Ensemble
Dekmantel Festival takes place in Amsterdam from July 30 – August 2. For more information, click here
