kinetic mix 033: ophélie "Little pockets of hope and resistance"
An hour of bass-heavy music from the refuge worldwide resident
Welcome to our newsletter sharing our latest mixtapes, merch & events curated by Dj wiggles 🌀
Summer is FINALLY here & we hope you’ve all been enjoying it.
We’re back with our 33rd mixtape, this time from Berlin based refuge worldwide resident ophélie, who brings us an hour of bass-heavy music spanning from chuggy downtempo to fast n feel good footwork - with everything in between.
If you’re heading to glasto (we’re extremely jealous), then cue this one up for the car journey tomorrow!
𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 / 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬 / 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞
Ophélie / she/they / Berlin
𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐱
To be honest, I have found the world to be particularly dark this last year. When I thought about a concept and vibe for this mix, I struggled to go towards a happier direction, as it felt in contradiction with how I’ve felt recently. I have naturally leaned towards deeper, maybe more melancholic and dubby sounds for this one.
I am nonetheless amazed by all the great people around me fighting day after day for a better and more just future for everyone, it gives me hope and comfort, and that’s also reflected in this mix by lots of brighter, more hopeful moments.
It was actually a very soothing and cathartic experience recording this mix, thank you so much for inviting me <3
𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜?
I’m from a place where there weren't a lot of clubs, or wasn’t much happening musically, so a lot of my first experiences with live electronic music were with warehouses, raves, or traveling to Spain close-by to go to afters or parties.
As someone who can be very obsessive about the things I’m passionate about, I just had to know everything, and was making tons of lists about labels, artists, releases, spending hours looking for tracklists on Mixes-db (soon RIP 😢), looking for parties and clubs on RA, and also started collecting vinyls, that I was always too shy to play in front of people.
Going to London and especially Fabric and Plastic People, as well as Freerotation also had a huge impact on me, and opened me up to a whole new world of sound.
Even though this music thing was objectively what was taking the most space in my life, through which I met most of my friends and found most of my jobs, for the longest time I just couldn’t imagine djing in front of people (even my friends), or even try to get better at it. I was thinking about it a lot, but just always felt it wasn’t for me, that I wasn’t really good at it, and wouldn’t manage to get better. I really had to push myself (and still have to tbh) very hard to get out of this mindset.
𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐰𝐝𝐞, 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
Aw thanks, really appreciate that <3 with radio sometimes it’s hard to know if people are actually listening, so I’m always so happy to hear someone say that they’ve been enjoying the show!
It will be 3 years of Therapy Dog next October. I started doing shows on Refuge before that, but started Therapy Dog in October 2021. I’m not sure there was too much of a concept to be honest, but I love dogs and mental health is something I have struggled with and find important, and I’m yet to find a quicker fix to being a bit down than petting a cute dog!
I like inviting friends and artists that I like on the show, and try to adapt to their style. If I’m doing it on my own, I’ll try to go with a specific theme. This show brought me so much joy over the last few years, always so nice to get to play some b2bs with friends or dig to find new music, as well as some regular time to practice and experiment outside the club. It also taught me to be a little more confident speaking on air, which I would never have been able to do before that.
𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 & 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬?
I’ve been producing on and off for quite some time, but same as with djing, it’s also something that I thought for very long I couldn’t really get good at, so I wasn’t really bothering and putting much effort in it. At the beginning of Covid, I had more time to dive a little deeper into it.
I’m not sure I have a very clear approach to it, as most of the time I have an idea and I’m trying to do something and it ends up being something completely different. I’ve learnt to accept it haha. But I definitely want to get better at it, and have a better understanding of what I’m doing and have more control over it. I’m putting a lot of effort into this at the moment, and it’s rewarding seeing some little progress happening.
I’ve recently gotten into modular synthesis, which I’m obsessing a little bit over at the moment, and I spend hours making weird sounds on VCV Rack while waiting to have enough money to get my own little system. I’m also very much into granular synthesis, generative sounds and weird sound FX which I always add tons of in my tracks
𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 / 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨?
So many haha, it’s hard to say! I really like exploring clubbing around the world. I’d love to discover the scene in Pakistan, where I’m trying to go with my friend next winter. I would also have loved to experience the very early days of FWD>> in London, and of course Paradise Garage.
𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐮𝐩?
Imaginary Friend always <3 it’s always the cutest vibe. But there’s also so many cute new parties in Berlin, Engineering Reverse, subglow, bruits…
𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 (𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞) 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?
I went to play (and party) in Ankali in Prague last month for their birthday, and it was such a cute and warm vibe and amazing venue with a great soundsystem too. It was a weekender, so it was happening all weekend, which are often my favourite kinds of parties. I love parties that go through night and day, and have an outdoor area, cause you can choose your favourite time to go, and you have enough time to really get into the vibe.
Unfold birthday in FOLD in London in March was also a great time, always love to go and spend the whole day there
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐱 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨?
It’s actually yours (Dj wiggles closing kinetic at ormside projects) that I’m listening to right now while writing this. Sounds great :)
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨?
KRM & KMRU - Disconnect
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝?
A beautiful Oracle Cards’ set of Persian poet Rumi, and the book of Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭?
𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐉𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫?
There’s a lot that I enjoyed! I think the most special one for me was to play Atonal last year, a festival that has massively influenced and inspired me over the years, and seeing myself on this lineup was really something I would have never dreamed of. I’m really grateful for that.
Playing PLU Summer Camp and Floorless Festival was also super cute last summer :)
𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐱?
Ufff that’s a very hard one, the first that comes to mind is Surgeon (ambient set) at Freerotation 2014:
Also CCL for Blowing Up The Workshop:
kinetic mix 033: ophélie "Little pockets of hope and resistance"
Incase you missed it…
Our latest radio show with Nessiel + Dj wiggles is now available to listen back to
listen back to Dj wiggles closing set at our ormside party last month
Our 32nd podcast with Gillan
That’s it for now. We’ll be back with more news soon! Catch you soon <3