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.

GAY DREAMS DO COME TRUE

Planningtorock – aka Jam Rostron – is a Bolton-born Berlin-based singer- song writer, composer, producer and director with three critically acclaimed studio albums of left-field dance to their name – not to mention various collaborations, opera's, film scores and remixes. A selftaught, non-binary, genderqueer musician, they’ve spent a decade plus queering sound and vision as Planningtorock.

Planningtorock debuted in the Noughties with 2006’s Have It All [Chicks On speed], finding artistic community among fellow DIY outliers and gender outlaws such as Peaches and The Knife. Their sound – tense, spellbinding dance music with classical flourishes, unexpected brass and pitched-down vocals that have become Planningotorock's signature have earned them a dedicated following.

W, Planningtorock’s critically acclaimed 2011 debut on DFA, revealed a visionary and politicised producer. It offered up deeply queered art-pop – 2 0 1 4 ’ s All Love’s Legal (“a masterclass in left-of-centre dance music”, Mixmag), released on Rostron's own imprint Human Level with banner-ready slogans (‘Patriarchy Over And Out’, ‘Let’s Talk About Gender Baby’), revealed their ability to combine pop-oriented music with a political message.

Plannintorock's new album Powerhouse is their most personal record yet: emotionally-charged, biographical anthems drawn from Rostron’s lived experiences as a non-binary genderqueer artist, experiences around family, identity and music itself. Recorded across Berlin, London, New York and Los Angeles, Powerhouse is a celebration of liberation, a groove-filled record that sees Rostron consolidating power both personal and artistic into queer pop.

Hantrax is a the solo project by Antwerp based composer, performer, and pianist Han Swolfs (1984).

Renowned for his live electronic performances and imaginative piano stage productions, his shows are kinetic, atmospheric, hypnotic, and cinematic.

A multi-faceted musician who is both enigmatic and kind, Hantrax traverses music categories with whimsical ease from classical to jazz to sharp electronic music.

Dubbed ‘The Illustrious Prince of the Antwerp Underground’, Hantrax creates transformative music championed by connoisseurs and barbarians alike.

As a DJ, producer and artist based in Kampala, Uganda, Authentically Plastic’s sound is necessarily political. Dubbed “Demon of the Nile” by conservative Ugandan media & politicians, Authentically Plastic has never shied away from disrupting norms & expectations.

Read and see a lot more on ableton.com

Best album of 2022 on Bandcamp

In Kampala’s underground scene, Nsasi is known for his agile style of playing. This Enfant Terrible of the deeply conservative, picturesque town of Jinja, Uganda; earned an early reputation for blunt refusal of authority. Once excommunicated from a seminary in his childhood, Nsasi looked to his icon, the scandalous 1980s pop sensation; Tshala Mwana, as an inspiration for how to live & perform dangerously.

Nsasi’s daring sound embodies both a nostalgia for traditional rhythms/ sound palettes, and an affinity for hyper-modern, disruptive compositions. Making jumps between disparate sounds is a dominant part of Nsasi’s repertoire, which propels the listener through drastically different tempos & genres. This creates an open space of chances, in which skittered fluxes of acid could collide with Kiganda percussion, or with East African Trap. A fluid, compelling style.

Mixmag

PanAfricanMusic