First up in this year’s series of Selectors Podcasts one of the rising frontrunners of experimental club sounds, Silvia Kastel.
Born in Southern Italy, now based in London after spending time in New York and Berlin, her experience in electronic music sprung from her studies in sound engineering and the electronic experiments she did. Starting to DJ shortly after, first as a radio DJ and later also in clubs, her go-anywhere mindset has steadily built her reputation for bringing singular club sounds to adventurous dancefloors.
This Selectors Podcast for us is a reflection of those capabilities in the club. Apart from some radio shows, she says, this is her first mix that’s in its entirety club-oriented. That doesn’t mean there’s no room for experimentation, though. In the contrary: the mix offers layers of different genres, tempos and time signatures, while melting together polyrhythms and overdubbing synths on the fly.
“I’m interested in creating an equally trippy and fun experience”, she explains, and included a selection by artists like 33EMYBW, MC Yallah & Debmaster, Lechuga Zafiro and Siete Catorce, who “perfectly nail that balance of dark and colourful synths and unpredictable hypnotic grooves”. The result is a mix that does exactly that — an hour of high-energy twists and turns from one of Europe’s most exciting selectors.