When Amsterdam electronic music festival Dekmantel created their Selectors stage, the idea was to allow artists like DJ Harvey, Donato Dozzy and Floating Points to show off their DJ skills and act as playlist curator. Later expanding into its own festival, Dekmantel has recently decided to export the Selectors brand with an eponymously named series of compilations, and on their inaugural release, Detroit's Danilo Plessow (aka Motor City Drum Ensemble) puts years of obsessive crate digging to use, assembling a superb eight-song mix of nearly impossible-to-find tracks.
Pulling together white label releases from '90s Detroit techno and Chicago house (DJ Slym Fas's "Luv Music," House of Jazz's "Hold Your Head Up"), '80s new wave funk (Risque III's "Essence of a Dream," Ahzz's "New York's Movin'") and '70s disco (Licky's "African Rock," Bill Deal & the Rhondels' "Freak 'n' Freeze"), Plessow keeps the entirety of the compilation feeling celebratory and anthemic. The selection of the nearly lost gospel/disco track "Don't Mess With the Devil" by St. Louis pastor Raphael Green shows just how deep Plessow is willing to dig to give his mix a unambiguous feel and personality. Selectors 001 mimics Motor City Drum Ensemble's own high-revving energy.
(Dekmantel)Pulling together white label releases from '90s Detroit techno and Chicago house (DJ Slym Fas's "Luv Music," House of Jazz's "Hold Your Head Up"), '80s new wave funk (Risque III's "Essence of a Dream," Ahzz's "New York's Movin'") and '70s disco (Licky's "African Rock," Bill Deal & the Rhondels' "Freak 'n' Freeze"), Plessow keeps the entirety of the compilation feeling celebratory and anthemic. The selection of the nearly lost gospel/disco track "Don't Mess With the Devil" by St. Louis pastor Raphael Green shows just how deep Plessow is willing to dig to give his mix a unambiguous feel and personality. Selectors 001 mimics Motor City Drum Ensemble's own high-revving energy.