Reclaim Your City

Clocking in for our last round of the year, and ready to shut 2025 off on a proper high note, here comes SPE:C, Reef and Biofield boss Darwin with two hours of hi-velocity yet cerebral material for the heads. Loaded with the steel-hard fury of future-facing techno wares and breaks-informed combinations of sci-fi atmospheres, alien emotional spaces, and impactful weight in the low end, this mix makes for a proper sendoff party to 2025 so we transition from this long-ass year into the new one with renewed energy and focus. All in on the 4x4 and adjacent pumpers, bass-heavy depth charges and zero-G, dub-leaning stunts, the former Griessmuehle resident and habituée at some of the scene's most illustrious bastions - including our friends of Berghain and Bassiani - dishes out a mind-boggling set packing not just the most massive punch but also a deadeye accuracy in her mixing technique and pristine curation, sure to please lovers of fast-paced and hedonistically havoc-wreaking blends, fully zeroed in on bringing back the true pioneering spirit of techno to the fore. RUFFFFF.

Championing a sound intrinsically deep and leaning towards lo-fi dub techno, St. Odes co-founder and Dial Records alum Ben Kaczor stops by to deliver his first ever RYC podcast. Laying down a mix rife with the slo-churning, micro house-esque jams and eerily contemplative boogie that’s come to define his style, Kaczor treats us to a two-hour jaunt into a fractured headspace, organic and synthetic at once, inhabited by odd creatures and ghostly silhouettes. Evocative and lush, his mix conjures up the most haunting reverb-drenched melodies and esoteric grooves to shape a uniquely engaging, cinematic voyage. Give in to this slo-evolving buildup of dusty ambiences and falsely serene harmonies, as they teem with the kind of held-in magnetic power and subjugating potential to get any crowd wading in a weird, awry sense of XTC.

A sonic explorer connecting the dots between spaced-out abstraction and trippy techno sorties, Shoal has been cruising the scene’s hyperspace for the past ten years with his eyes set on a new horizon of musical possibilities, eager to clear the ground for further audacious expeditions in the uncharted nooks and crannies of atmospheric electronics. Combining spacious and layered envelopes with finely textured, FX-soaked membranes of sound and forward-rushing dynamics, Shoal beckons us on the path of fearless time and space traveling through sound. Immersive and uncompromising, his present mix takes us on a bumpy ride across alien-engineered megastructures and subterranean drifts, in search for the unheard ore concealed at the heart of techno’s paling mainstream veinstone.

For the past decade, Rhyw has been trading monster floor twisters, inherently bold and inch-perfectly engineered to whip up crowds into a frenzy with its UK bass-y chassis and post-industrial bodywork. Blending in rugged percussion with hard steel machine funk and hip-swaying grooves, the Fever AM co-founder keeps on carving out a lane truly his own in today’s oft tepid techno landscape. Aiming to trigger off yet unfelt sensations amongst ravers, Rhyw puts together mixes that defy gravity and genre-bound limitations, sculpting momentums and harnessing the crowd’s NRG like no one else. Sweeping his wide spectrum of influences, from two-step rhythms and Garage culture to classic steely techno punch, through Latin-inflected swing and electroid propulsion, Rhyw’s RYC mix ushers us down a volcanic vent flush with the wildest floor pyrotechnics and straight slapping bursts of untamed audio synthesis. Fiery.

Hailing from Sapporo, Japan, Occa is no typical big room DJ but a master acrobat in sound, expertly pushing the envelope of electronics as a transcending means of expression. Shifting gears constantly between conceptual abstraction and functional architecture, seeking effect in every move and sniffing out substance in any sine, Occa dwells his own sonic continuum, hermetic to stiff norms and creatively hampering conventions. Laser-like and seamless, be ready for a descent into a cyclonic tempest of FX-splattered loops and verbed-out tactile, nimbly moving the cursor between ominous dubs, hi-tech floor destroyers and experimental-leaning detours. A masterclass in sound design, boasting both impeccable curation and mind-bending construction thru and thru, it’s Occa taking over with one of this year’s most hair-raising highlights. HARD.