Small talk with Basic Chanel

memòri : Let’s start with a trip down memòri lane: what is your earliest memory of falling in love with electronic music?

Basic Chanel : Oh it’s got to be when I was in secondary school and my friend’s older brother was showing us early 2000s UKG and grime. I remember getting home from school and immediately putting on Channel U, being completely lost in the music videos from that time and being obsessed with the likes of Chipmunk, Wiley, Skepta, JME, Devlin etc. We would all hang out in the parks and make our own music videos for these tracks. There were also ice rink parties in Romford where they would turn the rink into a nightclub with crazy lighting and sometimes put foam on the ice whilst you skate (insane, I know, but that’s growing up in Essex for you) whilst playing tracks like Princess Superstar’s Perfect (Exceeder) and Eric Prydz lol. I think this part of my life was the first time I connected with electronic music properly. It all felt so fun & free & a little bit silly. It wasn’t until 2014 that I reconnected with it in a club setting, going to fabric for the first time for a LTJ Bukem takeover for playaz - now that changed everything for me.

memòri : After 9 years running the Untitled909 blog, how has your approach to music curation evolved?

Basic Chanel : I don’t think anything has changed in terms of my approach to curation. The reason why I started the website still remains true and that was just to simply write about music I love. The digital world has been my safe space since I was a teenager and has always been a way for me to channel & share the things I love so this has been a really lovely extension of that. The only thing that has changed is that at the end of last year I started inviting writers to contribute to the platform once a month which has been a nice way to feature new voices as well as share artists or scenes that I may not have known before but trust the journalist’s taste to talk about something or someone they love/obsessing over.

memòri : What makes you choose an artist for your mix series?

Basic Chanel : Being a fan first and foremost. I don’t really accept pitches for the site (unless I’m already following the artist) as I only feature artists that I really connect with and love what they’re doing and what they have to say either with or surrounding the music. There’s no restrictions on sound & scene with 909 which I really love and as you look through the mix series or interviews, you can kind of see a reflection of the different rabbit holes and obsessions I’ve been down over the years.

memòri : How do you balance being both a curator/journalist and a DJ? Do these roles inform each other?

Basic Chanel : Sometimes they go hand in hand really well, other times I can find myself being overwhelmed with all of the different music I’d like to play from digging & music I’ve featured on the site that I feel like I haven’t really managed to crack the code with how to channel this into my DJ sets yet but it’s an ever evolving journey that I’m so excited to be exploring & I have so much more to learn. I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to my love for telling stories, building narratives or helping others share their stories and these three roles are all great ways of doing that. It’s the reason why I do what I do.

memòri : How do you balance between planning a set and leaving room for spontaneity?

I used to plan my sets a lot but I’ve realised that most of the time it doesn’t work because you need to leave room to react to the environment you’re playing in, especially when you’re playing for parties you’ve never been to before. The beauty comes from the improvisation too. So now I only plan the first few tracks to give myself a moment to settle into the space & set and maybe have a playlist of suitable closing tracks. I’m still figuring out the best way to organise my music that allows for this kind of spontaneity in the easiest way but that also requires a lot of time that I don’t have right now.

memòri : You've written extensively about "low-end psychedelia" in France - what initially drew you to this sound?

Basic Chanel : This came from a Bandcamp rabbit hole. When I started digging more into deep techno and psychedelic bass music I was coming across a lot of labels and artists that were based in France. I started noting these down in my Notes app as I started to realise that there was a new scene or movement happening here. All of the music I was discovering during this time was out of this world and I was so curious as to why it was all happening in France, and most notably, outside of Paris, like surely there was a reason this is happening now? And that’s how the feature came about, connecting the dots between multiple generations and different cities across France.

memòri : Could you map out the key artists and labels defining this movement?

Basic Chanel : There’s so many! I’ve listed most of them in a directory on Untitled 909 but some that come to mind are Christian Coiffure, Jan Loup, Bambi, Hewan Aman, Virtual Forest Records, Blue Night Jungle, useless seconds(:p), Azu Tiwaline, Beatrice M., Solma, Trois-Quarts Taxi System, Carin Kelly, marino2, Forest, Comic Sans Records, Souzo, Vardae… there’s just too many!

memòri : How does the French approach to this sound differ from what's happening in the UK?

Basic Chanel : I feel like the UK scene is a lot smaller compared to France but I’ve recently been going down a DnB focused wormhole from the early 2010s with records on Exit and old Bristol labels. Some of Skeptical’s records from that era sound like the psychedelic DnB that we hear today - it blew my mind how alike it sounds but yet I don’t think it’s a reference for the artists who are making this style of music now? I haven’t dug into it too much yet but it’s on my radar for a piece this year. A lot of the French influence has been from the connection between minimal, techno and dub whereas the UK feels like it’s predominantly existing with the deep techno scenes at the moment. There are some parties that have been connecting the dots really well across the spectrum like Osmura, kinetic, and Terra Obscura. However, I will say that the French sound is a lot more colourful and maximalist in its approach versus the stripped back moodier sounds that come from the UK. It’s really fascinating to look deeper into each country’s take on it!

memòri : How does your approach change when playing ambient sets versus club sets?

Basic Chanel : Both are very intentional and are played from the ambient but I think with ambient, because the crowd are listening so much more deeply and the sets are usually played in a very specific setting, you are more conscious of the mood and environment. With my ambient sets, I play emotionally deeper as it’s the way I initially connected with ambient. I prep these sets with a journey in mind of how I want the listeners to feel and where I would like to leave them by the end of the set. My favourite ambient settings to play in are at the end of the party when everyone is coming back down to earth and are in need of some grounding. It’s a moment for connection & reflection on the party that has just been and a way to unwind before heading home. It’s an incredibly special feeling to be able to soundtrack those moments. These sets are a huge release for me usually that I end up crying during them. I am beyond excited to soundtrack one of the sunrise moments during the festival this year!!!

memòri : Which ambient artists have particularly influenced your understanding of the genre?

Basic Chanel : Jake Muir, Ana Roxanne, Mary Lattimore, Mu Tate, everyone that releases on 3XL and West Mineral, KMRU, Green-House, Fuubutsushi, julianna barwick, Claire Rousay, and zakè, Pan American to name a few.

memòri : How do you maintain tension and narrative in slower-paced, beatless music?

Basic Chanel : A lot of layering with textures & effects. I always reflect back on this Mix Nights session with Sybil a few years ago where she delved into her approach to ambient sets and I learned so much about how to create different sections of the sets to fit particular moods, how to mix ambient whilst it’s different BPMs, etc. It stuck with me & from there I’ve learned about what I enjoy the most about ambient sets and it’s the comfort that certain sounds give you as well as the ability to get lost in within the set and be bathed in the music - it’s so healing! The drone-y soundscapes of zaké and Multicast Dynamics do that quiet well and I ended up playing a lot of their music in my ABYSS ambient set because it was perfect for that setting, on that sound system to listen to all encompassing ambient music that gave you a hug as it grounded you. The mixture between the light and dark, loud and quiet, there’s so much contrast within ambient that it’s really interesting to play around with the juxtaposition of sounds and how that makes you feel.

memòri : What excites you most about electronic music in 2026? Any new trends / discoveries your are excited to dig in ?

Basic Chanel : Continuing to explore the different scenes and sounds that exist within low end psychedelia across the world and the context behind them. I’m excited about the endless possibilities of discovery and Discogs really feeds into this hunger to want to know about every nook I can find.

memòri : Which emerging scenes or sounds should we be paying attention to?

Basic Chanel : I’ve been really lucky to visit and play in Uzbekistan for the last two years and what Sublimation are building across the country is incredibly special. The scene is super emerging right now, they hosted one of the first electronic music-focused festivals in Tashkent a few years ago and have been running parties in the country for a while now alongside hosting workshops, panels and events to make it more accessible for the younger generation to interact with electronic music. Seeing how that’s grown in the last two years alone is super inspiring, I’m forever in awe of the team behind Sublimation and their commitment to fostering a scene in their country.

memòri : What aspects of our scene would you like to see evolve or change?

Basic Chanel : More room for dialogue. Less headliner culture and huge fees that end up pushing artists that exist within the middle ground out. More value & support for independent grassroots initiatives. More diversity - it’s crazy to see how line ups have been moving backwards to feature predominantly men. Working more as collectives and communities rather than this individualistic culture that we see more and more of.