DJ-Kicks: Dam Swindle

Dam Swindle drop the next instalment of the revered DJ-Kicks compilation for !K7 on November 20, with the Amsterdam-based duo becoming the first Dutch contributors to the long-running series. Fresh from celebrating the 100th release on their evergreen Heist Recordings label and continuing to shape Amsterdam’s club culture through RadioRadio, the pair bring together music from Osunlade, Eli Escobar and musclecars alongside five exclusive productions of their own. Lead single ‘I Want You’ featuring Allysha Joy lands October 7, followed by ‘Keep On’ on October 28.

Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets’ contribution to the acclaimed mix series distils everything that has defined Dam Swindle over the past 15 years: house music with heart and soul. Across 74 minutes, forgotten gems and new Dam Swindle productions form a mix that is as much a statement of their taste as it is a snapshot of where they are now.

Recorded in their studio beneath Amsterdam’s Volkshotel, the five new Dam Swindle productions were selected from a 30-strong stack of demos, each made with a particular part of the sequence in mind. “It was close to writing a whole album,” says Smeets.

The new material sits alongside a deliberate curation of forgotten and overlooked gems. Rather than reaching for the obvious, the duo went digging for tracks with the ability to connect instantly on the dance floor. Classic US house favourites rub shoulders with local talents including Makèz, D Stone and Nachtbraker, who composed the bespoke intro and outro, threaded with fragments from Dam Swindle interviews.

Fifteen years into their story, Dam Swindle have developed a deep understanding of what makes a dance floor move. DJ-Kicks brings that instinct into focus: the music that shaped them, the records that still move them and the sounds carrying them forward.