Each week, FACT trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don’t have to.

This week, Mutual Dreamer Aurora Halal reminds us why she’s one of our favorite contemporary DJs with her Dekmantel offering, while Durban’s DJ Lag dips into his production vault for a gqom hour.

Philly selector Michael The Lion shows us how it’s really done on the disco dancefloor, Montreal’s CMD brings steel-plated electro and techno, and we hear from the boss of a brilliant young label.

Aurora Halal
Dekmantel Podcast 106

Brooklyn producer, promoter and visual artist Aurora Halal has taken a moment out of her hectic schedule to mix the latest podcast for Dekmantel, which pits US and UK techno figureheads against Canadian wunderkinds. Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman moniker, Denis Sulta’s Atlus project, Joey Anderson and Donato Dozzy all make an appearance, while Marie Davidson and Halal’s Ital collaboration Tower B pop up towards the end. If that wasn’t enough, it’s all engulfed in the same cosmically deep fogginess that has come to define the Mutual Dreaming creator’s numerous productions and live sets.

Tasker
Truancy Volume 167

Nic Tasker is the DJ and digger behind Whities, which landed a spot in our favorite labels list last year on the strength of standout material from Avalon Emerson and Reckonwrong. But he’s also a highly qualified selector, his DJ sets (and NTS show) reflecting an open-minded taste. On his mix for Truants, Tasker gets dark and heady, reaching for gqom, electro, cloudy house and a DJ Sprinkles epic.

DJ Lag
The Wire mix

“Gqom music makes you think of fun, nothing else but fun,” explains DJ Lag to The Wire’s Clare Sawers. The Durban-based producer is one of the pioneers of gqom – South Africa’s phenomenal strain of DIY house that has found adopters all over the globe – and his mix is a buffed-up glimpse of the genres’s urgent, menacing 4/4 battle cry. It’s a blend that kicks off with a track from one of gqom’s UK’s ambassadors, DJ Target, and one that show why Lag’s the don of gqom, folding in a slew of his own febrile productions.

CMD
Jacktone Radio #80

Montreal’s CMD explores the outer corners of techno on her bi-monthly radio show, modular_systems, and she’s put out records on Fur Trade, basic_sounds, Low Noise Productions and her own label. Ahead of her EP on Jacktone this years, she slams out a deadly mix for Jacktone Radio that shows off her excellent taste in tough body music and dark electro. Serious stuff.

Michael the Lion
Discobelle Mix 153

Much less serious but no less impressive is this hour-long journey into disco delirium by Philly selector Michael the Lion (formerly known as DJ Apt One). His high-octane Discobelle mix makes use of plenty of his own edits and productions alongside some disco classics, as well as two new cuts from his forthcoming EP on Soul Clap.