Else x Dekmantel Soundsystem & Friends

Bitter Babe

Miami based Dj from Bogotá-Colombia

Dekmantel Soundsystem

Gabrielle Kwarteng

Gabrielle Kwarteng’s journey continues to be one of passion, dedication and fate. Born and raised in New York, Kwarteng has withstood shifting sands in dance music to represent a curatorial presence with a deep knowledge of music history, driven by a dedication to regenerating its culture. In an era of everything at once, Kwarteng is a DJ who weaves stories for the dancefloor that often look to the past, while always focusing on possible futures. In an era of sonic singularities, Kwarteng’s flexibility and curiosity is a virtue; her long-awaited debut at Dekmantel Festival in 2023 resulted in no less than three sets across the weekend, each possessing contrasting energies. Elsewhere London’s iconic Fabric have championed Kwarteng on multiple occasions, programming her into their prestigious 25th birthday celebrations alongside the likes of Ben UFO and Ricardo Villalobos. At Berghain, she has appeared with even greater frequency as part of some of the fabled club’s most crucial parties, including CSD, Silvester, as well as smoothly piloting seven-hour closing sets in Panorama Bar. Such reverberations have reached far beyond the club; FKA twigs extended a personal invite to soundtrack her 2024 Met Gala afterparty. Taking place at The Standard, Kwarteng played just a few blocks uptown from the Soho Grand ballroom, where she had once furtively begun her first DJ residency, less than a decade earlier. The roots of this keen musicality run deep. Born in Brooklyn to Ghanaian parents but raised in the Bronx, Kwarteng’s childhood was soundtracked by a mix of first-wave Highlife, Afrobeat and disco. Outside her own front door, in a thriving neighborhood of diverse American experiences, entire sounds and scenes expanded and exploded as pop-culture began to mutate in new ways, both online and off. Crossing to Manhattan for school, the tempo changed entirely as rock, hip hop and experimental music filled Kwarteng’s ears, accompanying her intense study. Juggling academia with the beat became part of life, and she was later presented with the Mixcloud Online Radio Award for Best Eclectic Show, broadcasting on then burgeoning online radio station, The Lot. An early and completely unexpected acknowledgement of an instinct for music that traversed genre expectations, it laid down the foundations for her later move and return to Europe, and a commitment to trusting her creative instincts. Here, Kwarteng has not only become a fixture in established, open-minded musical spaces everywhere from Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Paris, but is equally called upon to establish the energy of new ventures, such as Horst Club in Belgium. Her resplendent selections have made connections further still, on tour in Australia, South America and soon to include Asia. Listening and dancing to Kwarteng, whether in a cavernous rave hall, a sweat-soaked underground club or amid the temporary pleasures of a festival, is an experience that feels at once familiar but always energizing. Fluidly slipping through a mix of heady 80s and 90s US house, disco interpretations that traverse diaspora and eras, and the futurist pulse of physical, emotive techno, Kwarteng expertly matches the requisite energy of contemporary queer rave culture. This understanding led to an invitation to make a storied Glastonbury festival debut at the legendary Block 9, the deepest pleasure center within the nocturnal NYC Downlow, before returning in 2024 for a back-to-back set with Shanti Celeste, this time on the wider scale of the Silver Hayes stage. Wherever she performs, Kwarteng’s expertise serves to not only continue the championing of Black American genres such as house, techno and disco, but equally, to explore the continuum of global dance music as a whole. Having laid the foundations for a unique musical journey, it’s a level of respect that’s tangible on any dancefloor. In these increasingly sacred spaces, Gabrielle Kwarteng’s personal passion translates into collective ecstasy. The dig continues.

Naomi (Berlin)

There are currently few artists who embody the feeling of life, groove and power in house music as authentically as Naomi does. With her skillful craftsmanship on the turntables and her driving sets, she has built a strong reputation over the past years. She hosts her own event series 'nice 2 be nice' at OHM Berlin and has played renowned clubs such as Panorama Bar, Robert Johnson, Public Records and Radion as well as festivals including Loveland, Garbicz, Nation of Gondwana and ZeeZout. She is quickly ticking off her passion & life goals and her tour calendar is growing relentlessly. Naomi is more than just a DJ - she is a source of inspiration and a driving force for all those who want to experience the magic of house music.

Masalo

An inte­gral part of the Ams­ter­dam scene, Masa­lo’s abun­dant cre­ativ­i­ty blends sophis­ti­ca­tion with a sol­id dose of rebel­lious­ness. His sets shift effort­less­ly between house, tech­no, hi-NRG, and dis­co, while incor­po­rat­ing his own tracks and gems from decades of digging. For­ma­tive years at Ams­ter­dam insti­tu­tions like Trouw and Par­adiso placed Masa­lo in the thick of the city’s under­ground dance com­mu­ni­ty. He cites his fam­i­ly as an even ear­li­er inspi­ra­tion: jam ses­sions and a pas­sion for ana­log machines from his father, a love of danc­ing and cul­tur­al influ­ences from his Japan­ese moth­er, and hip-hop and turntab­lism cour­tesy of his broth­er. Extend­ing the fam­i­ly feel­ing, Masa­lo has con­tin­ued to build com­mu­ni­ty through the Brighter Days event and com­pi­la­tion series he runs along­side his long­time musi­cal part­ner Kamma. A pro­lif­ic pro­duc­er, 2017 saw Masalo’s first offi­cial release; a remix of Bassek­ou Kouyate’s Jama Ko, turn­ing the Malian soul bal­lad into a hyp­not­i­cal­ly ener­getic house tune. He then joined the illus­tri­ous ranks at Rush Hour – a label and crew that has been inte­gral to his cre­ative jour­ney – releas­ing his debut EP ​‘New Dance’ in 2019, fol­lowed by col­lab­o­ra­tions with Soichi Ter­a­da, Jamie 3:26, and Palms Trax. His sta­tus as a sure-fire tastemak­er goes beyond the offi­cial cat­a­log, with unre­leased edits like his Acid Dream ver­sion of Oliv­er N’Goma’s ​‘Lina’ and a rework of Prince’s ​‘Rave Unto The Joy Fan­tas­tic’ becom­ing sought-after club anthems. The next evo­lu­tion of his artistry takes the shape of a live show, which he will debut on Dekmantel’s for­mi­da­ble main stage this year. The live set delves into the more elec­tron­ic spec­trum of his sig­na­ture sound — a high-octane jour­ney of lush synths, hard-hit­ting drum pat­terns, and euphor­ic arpeg­gio basslines, blend­ing new mate­r­i­al with nods to his beloved clas­sics. His set-up is called The Trin­i­ty — a cus­tom-made rig, designed and built in col­lab­o­ra­tion with new school archi­tects. Through a ded­i­cat­ed process of build­ing, pro­gram­ming, and mas­ter­ing The Trin­i­ty, Masa­lo impro­vis­es in con­ver­sa­tion with the crowd, ensur­ing no two per­for­mances sound exact­ly the same. Stu­dio ren­di­tions of sev­er­al tracks on The Trin­i­ty will be released by Rush Hour, Safe Trip, and Dek­man­tel in late 2024. Get in touch: chiara@octopus-agents.com

Surusinghe

From DJing, to producing, promoting, labels, and management - there isn’t much that Australian born, London based Surusinghe isn't involved in. Experimenting with bass, reggaeton, broken-beat and techno, Surusinghe keeps her mixes fast and unexpecting.

Verraco

"In the daring sonic fiction of JP López, the Medellín artist collides in his productions and DJ sets techno, latin-influenced tribal, hyper-electronica, carefully crafted IDM and cutting-edge dembow-bass technology with both intensity and precision. Verraco is also one of the heads behind the groundbreaking TraTraTrax, label that has become a key platform for Latinx sound explorers in recent years. With the future classic Escándaloo EP on VOAM out in Summer 2023, RA and Crack Magazine lauded the record as one of the best of the year. In 2024, the Colombian artist's debut on Bristol's stalwart Timedance with 'Breathe... Godspeed' was unanimously acclaimed by the press, with the EP being awarded Pitchfork Best New Music, described by renowned journalist Philip Sherburne as "an essential record for the vanguard of dance music". In 2025, he signed with the legendary UK label XL Recordings for a three-tracker EP. In addition to having important recurring appearances at clubs and festivals such as Dekmantel, Berghain or Berlin Atonal, Verraco also launched his own party in Bogotá also called Escándaloo, which has been sold out on all occasions and has brought to his country for the first time the likes of Skee Mask, Batu, Pariah, Livwutang among others." ~ Outer Agency.