Reclaim Your City 653 | Stranger

Half of boundary-pushing production outfit Voices From The Lake and co-founder of Spazio Disponibile, Neel is an Italian producer with a keen ear for complex, enveloping sonics; his ample, elegant pieces of music sitting right at the junction of beatless abstraction and intricate webs of electronic pulsations. Boasting his works’ most dynamic side, Neel’s debut transmission on RYC ushers us into a smouldering pit of molten steel and glassy membranes. Playing with echoes and latency as he builds his own multi-sensory experience out of eclectic fragments, Neel transports us to a zone where movement and inertia rule in concerted harmony, and your suddenly weightless body feels eventually free from today’s iteratively chaotic burden. Uplifting. 

Responsible for a handful exquisite platters on the likes of Dial Records, LARJ, Figures’ sub-division LF RMX and his own imprint, Intergalactic Research Institute for Sound, Georgia-born, Berlin-based sound explorer Irakli lands his new transmission for RYC: a mix giving full vent to his ever innovative and shape-shifting approach to floor narratives. Always going the unsuspected route with no compass to guide us back onto the normative boulevard, Irakli takes us on a bumpy ride across jagged proto-technoid topographies, fractal-like foldings and mind-expanding new horizons of musical possibilities. The result is - as per the man’s high-flying standards, an ode to techno’s core values of innovation and fearlessness, developing the kind of pioneering mindset we miss so much these days. Electrifying. 

Boss of Madrid’s seminal imprint Semantica, Spanish DJ and producer Svreca steps in the series with a monster two-hour jaunt into his multi-faceted techno headspace. As ever busy pushing the club sound’s envelope with great loads of heavyweight kicks and trenchant snares, Svreca has us all kitted out for a breathtaking dive into gravityless territories and cragged moonscapes. Flush with hair-raising momenti, unsuspected plot twists and climactic rollercoasting, his mix shifts the focus constantly betwixt textural magnification and rhythm-enslaved abandon, having you wading into the instant’s XTC to most mesmeric effect. A rough, Indus-minded masterclass from one of the finest to ever do it. Rampage mode on. 

A gifted, sure-handed groove manipulator, Alienata has been carving out a niche for herself as one of the scene’s most reliable DJs in both actual floor impact and mixing skillset. Also curating the ever consistent Discos Atónicos, which she founded in 2017, she keeps on delivering sets that combine a wide array of styles, from dark disco to acid, through D-town electro, industrial and IDM outbursts with equal poise and gusto, time and again. Expert in chiselled transitions and pristine track selections, the Spanish born DJ builds her mixes like one creates mosaics, building a cohesive whole out of disparate rhythmic elements and tempi, while she snaps ankles and flips brains by the dozen along the way. Yet another faultless mix from a DJ whose palette and perspective here surface in all their abrasive, unadulterated glory. Jet propulsion activated. 

Championing a sound both rugged and trance-inducing, Porto-based Brazilian producer Marcal clocks in this week with two hours blending future-proof warehouse rave material and claustrophobic 4x4 maneuvers. Hot on the heels of his latest ’Nature of the Future’ EP on Donato Dozzy and Neel’s imprint Spazio Disponibile, Marcal takes us on a mind-bending ride down raucous sine-scapes and brooding, verbed-out atmospheres, constantly pushing the envelope of techno as can be experienced these days. Resuming its course as a means for transcending our (currently much gloomy) zeitgeist, techno here gets back on its revolution-friendly tracks, finding its second breath as a metamorphic tool for blazing new paths and routes towards a better, more intelligently designed world. There goes a mix that summons the very finest of Marcal’s boundary-pushing vision and killer knack for crafting memorable and emancipatory floor narratives. Brace yourselves. 

Paris-via-Berlin based DJ and producer Arkan onboards the series this week with two hours fully embracing his deep, hypnosis-inducing mindset and definite knack for shaping streamlined floor narratives. Responsible for a handful surgical transmissions on the likes of Figure and SK_Eleven, in addition to running his own imprints Autonome and Drawner, the French artist keeps carving out a niche for himself at the junction of purely pragmatic, gravity-defying grooves and a certain orientation for experimental-leaning submersion, tailored to maintain techno's intrinsic relevancy and boundary-pushing character when so much material feels stuck in the emulative loop and not caring one bit to opt out the lame-ass continuum. One to keep the adrenaline rushing badman-style, and all brains in the room just as duly, unflinchingly stimulated. 

Amsterdam's one and only Deniro returns to the series with a two-hour treat spanning his fast-paced, hi-res techno headspace. Up with the cutting-edge wares and laser-focussed grooves, the TAPE Records co-founder and RYC alum has us drifting across hi-tech machine funk scapes and jagged analogue reliefs, constantly in search for the next mind-expanding thrill. Known for his impeccably chiselled signature cuts blending the finest of future-facing techno with an experimental-leaning approach to production, Deniro turns in a monster transmission, rife with the hypnotic hoodoo and typically entrancing buildups that've made him the surefire agent of techno he is today. A gigantic ride packed with climactic eargasms and unsuspected cliff-hangers. Lock in, zone out. 

Wrapping up July with a ballistic transmission, Berghain and Khidi resident Hayden Payne aka Phase Fatale punches in with two hours of genre-busting material, ebbing and flowing between surgical rhythmic assault and shape-shifting oneirism. Responsible for a handful of memorable platters on the likes of OSTGUT TON, Jealous God and his own imprint, BITE, Payne delivers a masterclass in laser-like DJing and ambient-scaping, pushing back the limits of techno as a vessel for emotional introspection and wordless communication. Taking us on a captivating ride across slow-evolving, finessed sonic reliefs, mind-expanding grooves and machine-told musings of the soul, Phase Fatale dazzles and subjugates. True to his ever high-flying standards and impeccable touch, a mix that shall leave you gobsmacked. Don’t sleep. 

Local player Mitchel Polderman alias Stranger steps in the RYC mix series with a two-hour pumper of a set epitomizing the very trademark character of his productions: hard-hitting, dynamic, unfaltering. Trading heavyweight floor-busters via his own labels Self Reflektion, Paling Trax and Perspektiv, or through the likes of Monnom Black or Clergy, Stranger has cemented his reputation as a surefire big-room puncher, serving up frantic, utilitarian peak time grooves and hi-impact warehouse ordnance like one goes for a walk in the park. Expertly mixed and proper XTC-inducing, Stranger’s mix vouches for the mad sound quality flowing in the veins of our beloved city. Reclaim. 

Boss of the seminal Belgian techno imprint, Token, and absolute legend of the game, Kr!z returns to the series with a propulsive monster of a mix, ready to take you into the zone, halfway some demented inward dive and trance-inducing dance floor occultism. Boasting the kind of corrosive punch and textural maestria that’ve come to define his style, both elegant and tendinous, Kr!z dishes out a mind-altering treat of a sonic journey, packed to the rafters with spine-tingling climaxes and chiselled crescendos. As the true master of the craft he is, Kr!z unfolds his narrative like a sonic origami of sorts, preserving each twist and turn from easy spoiling and maintaining the kind of tension throughout that keeps you craving for that next bar like some mystic revelation. Thrilling as it gets.