Techno mix series unveils new album by Russian DJ
With previous releases by the likes of Carl Craig and John Talabot, the DJ-Kicks mix CD series has been a showcase for many of dance music’s most talented artists. On Jan. 26, the series would drop their latest mix by DJ Nina Kraviz, allowing club fans to finally take in the artist’s phenomenal skills behind the decks in an album format. Spanning the musical spectrum from hard-hitting techno to effervescent electro, Kraviz offers up a set filled with variety and pulsing with life.
Something of a classicist in her dance music taste, Kraviz tops off her mix with an a cappella cut of Egotrip’s 1990 deep house record Dreamworld. From there, she segues into the self-produced “Mystery,” a hypnotic epic of propulsive hi-hats, strange-sounding hoovers, and erotic whispering. A few tracks in, things really begin to get interesting with the song “Truth,” a relatively obscure cut from 90’s drum n’ bass producer Goldie, with effects laden vocals courtesy of David Bowie. Subsequently, Kraviz goes back to basics with her own “IMPRV,” a shimmering and stripped back four-to-the-floor techno track sure to get heads grooving and bodies moving.
Through the album’s middle stretch, Kraviz keeps things at a slightly more deadened pulse with a selection of ambient house and techno tunes: for instance, “Prozimokampleme,” another Kraviz original featuring a continuous throbbing beat, mumbled vocals, and a haunting synth wash – evocative of Kevin Saunderson’s dark Detroit techno classic “Just Want Another Chance.” Kraviz’ set peaks once more before it valleys, however, with the joyous Kraftwerk-isms of Freak Electrique’s “Parsec,” allowing a little light in before the mix’s predominantly somber atmosphere settles in for Kraviz’s final suite of tracks.
In a recent interview for Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, dance music pioneer Nile Rodgers was quoted as saying that a DJ set “masquerades as a day of life” – its shifting tempos and moods a metaphor for the gamut of feelings one experiences in their quotidian existence. With her DJ-Kicks mix, Kraviz has offered us a day of life, complete with a compelling narrative arc and a breadth of different emotions.
