5 tracks 5 places by Nono Gigsta

« During the greatest holocaust the world has ever known, pregnant America-bound African slaves were thrown overboard by the thousands during labour for being sick and disruptive cargo. […] Are Drexciyans water breathing, aquatically mutated descendants of those unfortunate victims of human greed? », ask the notes in The Quest compilation.

"When I recently sailed across the Atlantic both ways, I thought a lot about ocean currents whilst reading about and listening to Drexciya. What if the collapse of the AMOC was an extension of underwater resistance? Maybe I didn’t make it back in time to play pe:rsona but I’ll never hear Detroit electro the same way."

"I use this track to transition from a 135 zone towards 180bpm though “using” it really doesn’t do it justice. The different sections always collect the crowd rather than lose it which is hard to nail in polyrhythmic territories. It hasn’t been released yet but should come out on Kashev Tapes towards the end of the summer.

I‘ve been playing it for months and always get asked for the ID. I once played it at CCL’s beloved Subglow and Teia Strohm, who produced it and is based in Berlin, was on the dancefloor. I’ve spent over a decade in Berlin and I think this is something I liked about its audience: the nerdiness, everyone who is dancing knows as much if not “more” than the person behind the booth. Especially, when the scene became more diverse, much queerer and featured more bass music, the nerdiness felt more endearing."

"I listened to and played JUL before moving to Marseille, where I recently relocated. I travelled all around the world with Ugo’s T-shirt that features the artwork of JUL’s 2023 album La Route Est Longue, “The Road Is Long”. It’s quite a treat to now walk around here and hear him being played at every other corner of a street.

He’s produced over two thousand tracks so there’s quite a bit to go through anyway. (Meanwhile I’m tediously spending weeks on that lil homemade nono edit which I might only play out twice …) This one is from his last (double!) album, TP sur TP, and is trademark JUL. If you’re not familiar with French rap, I suggest you start with “Zou Bisou”, his collaboration with Theodora."

"This was a 2025 anthem for many of us. Sometimes it’s hard to find bass tracks that are uplifting and/or playful… Movements checks both whilst being appropriately deep. Honestly,
no one does it quite like Mia Koden.

She’s the ultimate producer and DJ that comes to my mind when I think of the Tweak sound system. We each played on it at IOTA festival last summer, and there is something about her sound, the unique warmth of it, that really fits the system. It will be an honor to play after her at Memori."

"I first heard KUNTARI at Unsound and they’re typically the kind of band whose energy and musical range is best experienced live. The duo named their genre “Primal-core” and perhaps this snippet gives you an idea of their visceral universe. Sometimes I wish my DJing was dynamic like their playing, that it had this level of carefully orchestrated chaos.

KUNTARI is originally from Bandung, an Indonesian city located about a 3-hour drive from Jakarta. I imagine it could be a stop on my tentative flight-free journey from Europe to Australia. I feel there is a soul in places that we can sometimes connect with through music. "