Eris Drew is one of those artists who seemed to blow up over night, but who had actually been hard at work for decades. A long-time residency at Chicago's Smart Bar brought her to international attention, and her own Motherbeat parties at various places around Europe furthered that reputation.
It is there that she manages to cook up pure, unadulterated dance floor love and euphoria with hi-energy selections and a unifying sense of oneness that is put together with her own so called “orchestration” mixing techniques. An inquisitive musician and innovative recording artist, she has also just put out her debut solo EP on Interdimensional Transmissions and runs T4T LUV NRG with partner Octo Octa.
This week's mix is all of the above and more: a throbbing, impulsive and full bodied experience that serves up the most bumping house grooves but run through with the warm ambient glow of a post-rave comedown. The music feels at classic but also thoroughly contemporary: it will make you pump your fist in sheer joy, but also sends warm waves of euphoria through your body. This is the sound of the Motherbeat.
Eris on her mix:
"In a recent interview for DJ Mag I talk about my connection to the song “Secrets of Mediation” by Dutch producers Alex Dijksterhuis (Jamez) & Gaston Steenkist (Dobre). At Chicago raves in 1994 and 1995, this track revealed to me that modern dance music contains archaic ritual elements such as trance-inducing resonances, penetrating sacred drums, and language transformed into glossolalia. My DJ mix for Dekmantel is inspired by my formative dance experiences and by the intense extended sets I play at psychedelic raves such as Motherbeat and No Way Back. The mix includes bass music, progressive, breaks, house, techno, and minimal, all of which I collage, drop and scratch to put us into a tunneling trance."
Tracklist:
1. Friends of Mathew – The Calling (Pulse-8 1991)
2. Delta Lady – Swamp Fever (DJ Wink's Build Up) (Hard Hands 1994)
3. PJ – Elysium (Stickman 1995)
4. Eris Drew – So Much Love to Give (IT 2020)
5. Tata Box Inhibitors – Plasmids (Touché 1994)
6. Tramaine - In The Morning Time (A Cappella) (EMI 1985)
7. Felix Leifur – Brot 6 (LeGaffe Tales 2019)
8. Madd African – Dance Li’l Sistuh (Freshly Squeezed 1994)
9. Disk – Bright Past (Whiteloops 2019)
10. Unity 3 – Age of Love Suite (Zener 1993)
11. Porter Brooke - Exit 14th Street (Groundwork 2019)
12. Woosh! – Sometimes (Brainiak 1992)
13. Biotrans – Frehnor (Stickman 1995)
14. Trancesetters – Secrets of Meditation (First Impression 1994)
15. Orbital – Chime (Friend of Mathew DMC Version) (DMC 1991)
16. Henry Greenleaf – Half Under (Par Avion 2018)
17. Underworld – Long & Dark (Dark Train) (Intercord 1994)
18. In Full Effect – Feel It Now (Two Thumbs Records 1993)