In a sort of subversive Punch and Judy show of curation, DJIC walks us through metaphors and allegories for today’s news. Jonathan V. Last of the Bulwark introduces an hour of Italodisco, Parcels’ breezy pop-funk, Soviet dancefloor ballads, and raw Detroit electro, presented as a deliberate dismantling of continuity. The mix courts disruption: gear-grinding changes in pace, jarring key shifts, and the kind of rhythmic dislocation that keeps a dancefloor exhilarated and slightly unmoored.
The opening third sets the template. Neon Game’s timely “The State Is Stealing My Life” pivots into Cecile Grandin’s howling reverie, then into Hooverphonic’s retrofitted Italo mix — a chain that makes no attempt at linear storytelling but proposes adjacency as politics.
Later, Montell Jordan’s acapella admonition about “how we do it” crashes into Mizzo’s “How I Do Dat,” a collision comic and cutting, reminding listeners how little actually ever changes.
Midway, the mix reaches a hallucinatory density: folky French chanson, house with gospel inflection, Aryaxz’s digital dystopia, Jenasi’s manic drive. Each turn amplifies the sense that tempo itself is unstable, elastic, even weaponised. That instability is the point: it mirrors the fractured, nonlinear rhythms of online attention, where Soviet synthpop and Detroit techno circulate with equal velocity.
The final third spirals further into contradiction. Reggie Watts sings “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” before Robert Hood snaps back the tension with mechanical precision. Crystal Waters’ acapella, Mojo’s broadcast fragment, and Yuri Shatunov’s sentimental croon all sit within the same frame, presented not as guilty pleasures but as equivalent artefacts in a media ecosystem where context is endlessly scrambled.
This isn’t a mix designed for easy flow or a perfectly locked-groove dancefloor. Instead it embraces volatility — the sudden lurch of styles and speeds, the refusal to smooth transitions into anaesthetic functionality. In doing so, it lands squarely in the present: a messy, exhilarating, and unashamedly contradictory document of how listening actually feels now, when all eras and geographies collapse into the same playlist.
Percival Drift, 2025
Tracklist
A Tribe Called Quest – Youthful Expression (Instrumental)Neon Game – The State Is Stealing My Life (Italodisco 2015)Cecile Grandin – Le Scaphandre BlancHooverphonic – Anger Never Dies (Italoconnection Remix)Robert Palmer – Johnny & MaryParcels – LightenupClaude VonStroke – MetropolitanDennis Ferrer, Reel People & Angela Johnson – Can’t StopFolamour – Ça Va AllerFolamour & Laville – InnervisionBorn To Funk – Souma BanaMontell Jordan – This Is How We Do It (Acapella)Black Milk – Detroit’s New Dance ShowMizzo – How I Do DatYo Speed – Voices Of The TribeAryaxz – cyber city 3008Jenasi & eid55558.55 – TripAnnie Philippe – On M’a Toujours DitDanny Kolk – Summer DayFlauschig – Somebody (Sebb Junior Extended Remix)Terrence Parker – Welcome to SouthfieldCyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Acapella)Yo Speed – VerdeAnalog Hustlers, Heather Collins & JUZ10-TYM – B*****s Love BassDirk Wiertz – Negative Reality InversionParcels – ComedownChris Lake, Sammy Virji & RoRo – 925 (Extended Mix)Kevin Saunderson, Andre Salmon, Dantiez & Half Man Half Machine – AkraliumReggie Watts – God Rest Ye Merry GentlemenRobert Hood – Pattern St.DJ Minx – Do It All NightCrystal Waters – 100% Pure Love (Acapella)Robert Hood – OutlastSession Victim – DawnThe Electrifying Mojo – Halloween RapСаша Чусовитин & Лёша Куприянцев – Звезды Дискотек 2Yuri Shatunov – Vecher VdvoemModern Trouble – Fly To MoscowКомбинация – American BoyNaked Eyes – Always Something There To Remind Me
