Mixes Digest #5: 11 Essential DJ Sets

An 8-hour set of ambient techno, plus spooky Brazilian funk, atmospheric boom-bap, and more

Welcome to issue no. 5 of Futurism Restated’s Mixes Digest, the newsletter spinoff of my long-running Pitchfork column. In this issue we’ve got 11 incredible sets from all over the map, for dancing and chilling alike.

A totalizing spirit is in the air this month. Two of the biggest projects in mixland are ambitious, almost intimidatingly proportioned undertakings aimed at preserving the vast sweep of entire scenes under their respective umbrellas. 

One is Het Archief, the newly announced archive of the acclaimed Amsterdam nightclub De School, which closed in early 2024: 880 sets, by my count, stretching back eight years, from the most adventurous and beloved DJs of the era (Call Super, CCL, Objekt, Hunee, Anthony Naples, Ehua, Lena Willikens, DJ Marcelle—you get the vibe.) 

The other is an eight-hour mix—not a playlist, but an actual, intricately woven collage—of classic ambient techno, IDM, braindance, electronica, etc., from the mid-’90s scene around Rephlex, Warp, Skam, etc. 

It’s ironic that two such all-encompassing endeavors should launch at the same time that MixesDB, a crowdsourced database of DJ setlists stretching back decades, should announce its imminent closure. The site’s code is apparently irrevocably outdated, while the ad-based revenue model isn’t bringing in enough money to make upkeep—much less an overhaul—impossible. It’s a depressing state of affairs; losing the site will mean losing an incalculable amount of historical knowledge pieced together by fans and DJs. For dance music archivists, it’s a tragic loss. We can only hope that more initiatives like the aforementioned projects are in the works, to pick up some of the slack.

This week’s Mixes Digest has a banner crop of sets:

• that eight-hour ambient-techno compendium, which really has to be heard to be believed

• a De School Amsterdam techno set, picked more or less at random, that’s giving me major nightclub FOMO

• an eerie, unsettling hour of avant-garde Brazilian funk

• a mid-tempo mood-brightener that I’ve had on in the kitchen all week

• two hours of cutting-edge techno from one of the scene’s most respected tastemakers

• a squirrelly home-listening session from a beloved leftfield trickster

• four hours of classic jungle

• …and much more

This one’s a bonus post for paying subscribers, to thank you all for your support!