“This series has meant the world to me ever since I moved to Berlin and really began DJing,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “So being invited to contribute feels surreal in the best way. The mix is a celebration of the music that shaped me, tracing a journey from Peru to Berlin and through all the cities I’ve been lucky enough to play along the way.”

The tracks transition from dance-fueled peaks to softer, personal moments of introspection for Kourtesis, shaped by the grief she felt after losing her mother. The mix includes four exclusive tracks that Kourtesis created herself including “It’s You,” “Texas Changing,” “A Brief Look In Your Eyes” and “Los Poemas No Siempre Riman (DJ-Kicks),” which she recorded with Afro-Peruvian group Novalima. Other music from talented producers that we at HighClouds love are also featured on the mix including Jon Hopkins, Daphni (Cariobu), Myd, Axel Boman, Avalon Emerson, Nick León, and many others. Check out the full mix below.

One year after her album All The Time, Jessy Lanza will be the next curator of the iconic compilation DJ-Kicks. Coming with this announcement, the artist has unveiled the first single off of her mix, “Seven 55,” which features London’s producer Loraine James.

“I wrote ‘Seven 55’ about a close friend and his inability to commit,” Lanza stated. “I fantasized about the women caught in his web and wrote ‘Seven 55’ from their point of view. I think it’s important to face a nightmare head on so what better place than Las Vegas to shoot the video for a song about longing and denial. In the video, Winston captures people in liminal spaces in limbo between destinations during their weekend in Vegas.”

Watch the Winston H. Case-directed visuals, check the tracklist and pre-order via Bandcamp below.

01 Jessy Lanza: “Guess What”
02 Jessy Lanza: “Seven 55” [ft. Loraine James]
03 Jessy Lanza: “Wet x3” [ft. Taraval]
04 DJ Spookie: “Twilite”
05 Michael J. Blood: “Lip Biter”
06 Mr Ho + Mogwaa: “Bail-E”
07 Crystal: “Jungli​-​la (Joe Howe Club Mix)”
08 Masarima: “Freak Like U (Club Mix)”
09 Golden Donna: “Foaming”
10 Mafia Boyz: “Teaspoon La Qoh”
11 Markus Mann: “I’m Losing”
12 Jim C. Nedd: “Maleka”
13 Maarten Van Der Vleuten: “Nightshift”
14 Secret Werewolf: “Yage”
15 Grain: “Untitled B2”
16 Gant-Man: “Distorted Sensory [Loefah’s South Side Rmx]”
17 G3: “Drum 2 (Peanut)”
18 Lolina: “A Path of Weeds and Flowers”
19 DJ Nehpets: “Na Na Na”
20 Oyubi: “140yaku”
21 DJ Swisha: “If the Shoe Fits”
22 Jessy Lanza: “Heaving” (ft. Taraval)
23 Tah: “Beat It Up Like (These Drums)”
24 Kanyon: “IDFWS”
25 EOD: “Anubis”
26 The Raining Heart: “Raining Heart”

[su_dropcap style=”simple”]N[/su_dropcap]o, in Belgium, we don’t only have the cold, the rain and the snow. We also have good artists and that is why we present you one of them, every Wednesday, in the Belgitunes section. This week, let’s talk about DJ and producer Mugwump, an artist of the Belgian electronic music scene who cannot be ignored. This artist, who was described as the « Belgium’s underground answer to Daft Punk » by the German magazine Groove, is going to release a digital deluxe version of his debut album “Unspell” on January 29. Perfect time for immersing ourselves in the two-decade career of the artist.

At the beginning, Brussel’s Mugwump is DJ Geoffroy, resident at the infamous Food Club (and djing all over Belgium) in the Nineties, who then started producing club music in the Noughties on prestigious labels such as Kompakt, Gigolo or R&S, to name but a few! But as the artist says it himself, the highlight of his career is not in the past. Little by little, he adds some strings to his bow: at first he was a DJ, then he became producer before starting to organize the famous parties Leftorium. Now, he has set up a full band with 3 other musicians (DC Salas, Raphael Absolonne, Stephane Fedele) and together they’ve been rearranging the music he’s produced for the aforementioned album and the band’s now playing live at major festivals, also writing new material together.

The music is as varied as his ambitions. On stage, it could remind a rougher version of LCD Soundsystem as it mixes indie and electro, techno and disco, with a touch of post-punk. His album “Unspell” reflects, of course, this eclecticism and you can see it with the different artist that have participated to the album: Circlesquare, Luke Jenner of The Rapture, Sami «DJ Morpheus» Birnbach and so on.

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Friday 29 January, the artist will release the digital deluxe edition of “Unspell” via !K7 which will feature the live versions of “After They Fall” (the track with Circlesquare) and “School’s Out » with German band Von Spar. There will also be two previously unreleased studio tracks, “HeadMaster” and “Voetbalkniien”, which is a cover from cult Dutch post-punk hero Ton Lebbink. You can, by the way, see the live version of this last track at Dour Festival just below. You will understand why they are a “rougher version” of LCD Soundsystem. Ok, I admit it, in Belgium we have the rain. But Mugwump is the kind of project that gives you the envy to jump inside the mud during a festival!

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Finally, a remix project should be released in February and of course, two upcoming concerts that you should not miss if you live nearby:

– Festival “Les Transardentes” in Liège (January 23)
– Festival “AB Bota” in Brussels (February 27)

UPDATE: Mugwump just released a live session video of “Voetbalkniëen” that was shot at Reflektor in Liège.
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You can already stream “Unspell” and pre-order the deluxe re-release here.