Dekmantel Podcast 070 - Lena Willikens

Being a long time resident DJ somewhere teaches you the sort of skills that stand you out from the pack. Cologne’s Lena Willikens is one such special selector who has very much made Salon Des Amateurs in Dusseldorf her own. As well as serving up singular sets there, she is also a key part of the Comeme Records crew with the likes of Barnt. For them she hosts a regular radio show, and for them she has released her brooding, industrially bleak techno sounds. Lena’s influences come from well outside the normal cannon - proto techno, industrial boogie, synthesised disco, outlier house and robot jack all characterise her work, and the set she has served up here. It is one hour of unusual grooves, unsettling atmospheres and metallic textures that are abstract and dehumanised and take you to a raw and visceral place that is hugely intoxicating. Easily one of the best mixes this year so far in our humble opinion!