Reclaim Your City 709 | Wala

KSR boss Gianluca Caiati aka Kaiser steps into our weekly podcast series with a powerhouse two-hour round of clinical groovers and heavy-duty bass bombs. Championing a sound that goes straight for the jugular, the Italian DJ and producer dishes out mixes that blend fierce Detroit-typical salvos with sheer Berlin-built muscle, going all in on floor-focussed weaponry and no-nonsense club narratives. For lovers of streamlined 4x4 buildups and sleek, reverb-drenched workouts, this one has Caiati zeroing in on the dubbed-out side of operations, unleashing maximal firepower with every bar. One heater after the other. 

This week’s mix comes courtesy of Japanese DJ Yusuke Harada, alias YSK, a particularly deft merchant of deep-diving techno grooves and layered, abstract-leaning sonic explorations. His rapid-fire mixing style, exacting and dexterous, takes us on a journey down mesmeric dub-scapes and intricate mazes packed with hi-NRG cliff-hangers and unsuspected crossroads. Running the voodoo down with remarkable consistency and unfailing precision, YSK is yet another instance of the Japanese scene’s ability in shaping some of the most skilled and discerning DJs around. Be ready for a massive two-hour deluge of brooding sines and claustrophobic atmospheres, wreaking the kind of mastered chaos from which you won’t come out unchanged. 

On the rise towards wider recognition and duly so, Swedish DJ and producer Joline Scheffler - whose path may cross that of RYC in other ways soon *wink wink* - has been making waves with her highly dynamic, exhilarating take on classic techno motifs, pushing grooves that bridge the gap betwixt entrancing cavalcades and more intimate sonic explorations. Dexterously swinging the pendulum from immersive 4x4-spoken poetics to verbed-out refraction, through more spacious, cosmic-leaning developments and a proper pictorial sense, opening up portals onto new dimensions and sensations with every bar, Joline excels at crafting these unsuspected epiphanies and fulgurations that can be enjoyed as intensely both on and off the dance floor. A master of translating emotion through signals, who keeps affirming techno’s never-ending power of transcendence and subjugation. 

Dwelling the deeper end of the spectrum, Amsterdam’s own brooding vibist Nawaz clocks in this week with a raw, uncompromising entry. Adepts of menacing sub-bass onslaughts and cutting-edge minimalism will find in Nawaz’s contribution the perfect companion to their next couple of hours. Dynamic and nuanced, structured yet chaotic, his mixes explore the darkest, infra-visible layers of audio synthesis, with a clear focus on the tantric, hypnosis-inducing effect of loops and repeated motifs. Enter a realm of complex sonic architecture and intricate envelope interplays, each membrane throbbing with a life of its own that echoes far and deep into the psyche long after the lights have gone off. 

Belgian up-and-comer Wala punches in this week with two hours of elegantly stripped-back techno grooves and velveteen atmospheres. Clad in soft, fuzzy envelopes, his music summons the finest of immersive Basic Channel-ian dubs and sensual Detroit house churners, dishing out cinematic sequences rife with minimal, reverb-soaked drifters and slices of deep-diving, hypnagogic abstraction. Emotional and articulate, his sonics fuse the elegance of classic, progressive 90s rollers with the future-proof vision of state-of-the-art electronic research - evolving at the fringe of full-fledged floor-busting potentiality and skirting the conceptual, off-kilter side of house and techno that keeps the scene afresh with a renewed - and much needed - call for undomesticated innovation and self-affirming gravitas. Surgical. 

A serial crafter of deep-diving floor narratives whose magic innervates Brussels' Metropolis Sunday parties, Belgian DJ Sonhan has cemented his position as a surefire groove manipulator, consistently dishing out mixes that span the gap between heavy-duty techno, jagged psychedelics and chiseled dub freqs. His debut mix for RYC conjures up a similar headspace, unrelentingly sinking us down a smouldering corridor of soulful electronics and pumped-up peak time ascensions. An experience of heightened depth and intensity, unfolding with a finely balanced mix of seamless cinematic savoir-faire and dazzling fire at heart. 

A mainstay of Belgian bastions Fuse and TRAUM, Antwerp-based talent Phemia punches in with two hours spanning the broadest techno scope, from sunken dub atmospherics to velvety minimalism. Through rattling 4x4 narratives and jagged, polymorphic sines, Phemia entices us down the path of multisensory elation, summoning the finest of brooding post-industrial folds and elegantly stripped-back, Detroit-style chug. The result is a positively dynamic, highly immersive trip for your synapses that'll have you hold your breath with every transition and reach for your inhaler as soon as the drop lashes down. Fierce and playful, lock in for a proper eruptive mind-bender. 

Melbourne-born, London-based vibist Fergus Sweetland punches in this week with a two-hour jaunt into his playfully jagged and diverse headspace. Responsible for some off-kilter belters on the likes of NRBK and HAYES, the Australian DJ and producer brings his fun-loving approach to our waves with a choice selection of versatile techno grooves and genre-busting edits of his own concoction. Tailored to lift spirits and bodies alike, his mix shall rejoice all lovers of the kind of unbothered musical cross-pollination and essential playfulness that misses from the more ascetic strains of techno orthodoxy. Bending genres, tempi and minds at once, this one goes particularly hard in its own idiosyncratically witty, debonair, killer way. 

Championing a sound both high-octane and propulsive, Dotdat has established himself as one of India's leading techno acts with releases for acclaimed international imprints including Symbolism, Truncate, KSR and more. Tapping in Goa's all-engulfing psychedelia, Dotdat pushes wild uptempo grooves that go straight for the crowd's jugular with its feverish mix of heavy-duty pound, hypnotic buildups and immersive tribal-esque patterns. An epic-sized, trance-inducing tapestry of frantic grooves and intricate polyrhythmic outbursts, Dotdat's RYC contribution unleashes absolute controlled chaos upon us. No surrender. 

Stepping up with two hours of entrancingly deep and immersive techno folds, emerging French DJ Maemm beckons us onto a riveting sonic voyage spanning dubbed-out scapes, eerie atmospheres and eruptive rhythmic interplays. Exploring the confines of polymorphic abstraction through reverb-soaked environments and shape-shifting architectonics, her mix pays tribute to the complex, transcendental nature of techno music. As she cuts a path of thought-provoking instruction with every bar, the groove remains the main focal point in her trampling, mind-expanding quest towards this souls convergence that gives any dance floor the kiss of life. Deep dive mode activated.