Fact Mix 785: Silvia Kastel

Italian experimental producer Silvia Kastel explores rhythms with a “certain duplicity” on a wide-ranging Fact Mix.

On Silvia Kastel‘s debut album Air Lows, released on Blackest Ever Black in 2018, the Italian producer took the steady pulse of techno and club music and fused it with the influence of musique concrete and Japanese minimalism. With her shrouded vocals at its heart, it made for one of the year’s most spellbinding albums.

This disparate mix of styles and musical elements is something that carries over into her practice as a DJ. As a resident on NTS Radio, Kastel’s tracklists are as exploratory as her own music, taking in pop, fringe electronics, no wave, dub and regional club sounds from across the globe. Her latest project, a collaboration with Wilted Woman under the Shakey moniker, is a weird and wonderful combination of digi-dub, jungle and early electronic influences.

For her Fact Mix, Kastel unites tracks from all corners of the experimental club scene, featuring music from Slikback, DJ Plead, Jabes, A.k.Adrix, Hyph11E and Amazondotcom, with an appearance from Nelly Furtado too.

“It was challenging to put a mix together not having played in a club, or in public at all, in over 10 months,” Kastel says. “It’s full of new music that’s kept me sane and inspired in the last months. I find that I gravitate towards rhythms with a certain duplicity to them – simultaneously tight and loose.”

Find Silvia Kastel’s music at Bandcamp. Her latest solo track is available on  Hyperdub and Adult Swim’s compilation, Stimulus Swim.

Tracklist:

DJ Plead – ‘RT6’ [Boomkat Editions]
Nelly Furtado – ‘Say It Right’ [Geffen]
Rrose – ‘Saliva’ [Eaux]
Slikback – ‘TRAK4’ [self-released]
Mans O – ‘No Somos Tan Poco’ [XXIII]
Jabes – ‘Jest’ [Klunk]
JD. Reid x Koffee – ‘Toast’ [self-released]
Siete Catorce – ‘Seeds’ [Subreal]
Ehua – ‘Picaboo’ [femme culture]
Gafacci – ‘Sweetest Taboo Remix’ [self-released]
Gafacci feat. Bryte – ‘Chale’ [self-released]
A.k.Adrix – ‘Settings’ [Príncipe]
Amazondotcom – ‘A Drum to Ward Off Language’ [Subreal]
6SISS – ‘No Isms’ [R&S]
Seven Orbits – ‘Monolite’ [SVBKVLT]
Silvia Kastel – ‘Fable the Raven’ [unreleased]
Sikka Rymes (feat. John D) – ‘Love Di People’ [Bokeh Versions]
Hyph11E – ‘Barnacles (Kode9 Remix)’ [SVBKVLT]
Gavsborg – ‘Don’t Walk Away From Me Jamaica’ [Equiknnoxx Music]

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