The Stress is the DJ alter ego of Diederick van den Ende. Starting out in 2011, The Stress hosted Sunday afternoon chillwave / electro-pop parties in his hometown Utrecht and started DJ’ing. While the nu-disco wave spread across Europe, The Stress played his first gigs in Amsterdam. It was here that he developed his taste for progressive disco, mixed with queer-, vogue-, house-, internet-, new beat-, and electro-influences.

The Stress is resident DJ for the Amsterdam based queer family UltraSexi and a regular for our parties.

Because of The Stress’ involvement in activism and academia, The Stress solely plays for queer, pride and intersecting causes worth supporting.

Genre-free, highly emotive dance music.

“I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as SONIKKU. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives his new album, Joyful Death. A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of SONIKKU – a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. “This album feels like a transformation in the sense that I’m creating the music I’ve always wanted to make. A fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.” With help from friends and artists he admires on vocals, Joyful Death is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for SONIKKU after his time as a feted DJ. Having moved from Derby to London at the age of 18, Donson worked as an intern (at MTV, Dazed & Confused, SHOWstudio and elsewhere) then turned to DJing (from London to Tokyo, Paris and Berlin) after he was signed to London label Lobster Theremin. Though he continues to DJ regularly at Tottenham’s LGBTQ rave-up Adonis, he has extra ambitions in mind: “I love DJing but I’m more looking forward to developing a live show.”

PRESS LINKS
Bellaunion.com
Wonderland Mag
FactMag
Vice
Boilerroom
MixMag

Like many kids in late 80s/early 90s Belgium, AAGUILAA was captivated by the swirling innovation of EBM and New Beat. But only after experiencing the full-body feeling of italo disco and hi-NRG played over a proper soundsystem he matured his lifetime love for neon lights and for the darker, synthesized side of dance music.

He is resident and programmer at Los Niños but also known as the founder of FFORMATT, our temporary cultural space in the heart of Brussels, now closed.

You can listen to his vinyl & quality music selection on radio stations as Kiosk Radio, Red Light Radio, The Lot, We Are Various, East Side etc.

Playing in bars and basements, from private parties to events in metro stations, including Lisbon, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Vienna etc.

It's in the actual dance floor that one learns the most about DJing. And that's precisely how everything started for Varela. He witnessed DJ and live sets by some of the best in the world, through his work with Lux but also handpicked nights, festivals and podcasts. Good taste has always been on his side.

He has thus developed a super-sharp ear that, together with a sensitivity tuned into the best textures, melodies and beats, were the key to start building his own sets, where the most authentic house - pioneering or avant-garde - can be heard embraced to new beat, prog-house, italo or some of the most imaginative techno. Varela has been sharing his acute and generous vision in LuxFrágil, as a resident DJ for the past 3 years.

The smile of Lisbon and beyond. The most talked about skater.