The blossoming of ’90s Chicago and Detroit’s legendary scenes along the ’00s minimal techno movement found Kostas Athanassiadis, aka XDB, spinning records during his early DJ years. With perception and curiosity, he pursued a career in electronic sound while hosting his radio show and working at a record shop in his town of residence. Those initiatives brought discoveries that, evidently, resonated well with his acquired taste of the genre, as presented in his various performances and productions. For the latter, from the Jackintosh EP on Metrolux Music in 2006 to his sole full-length, Inspiron, on Dial in 2020, he counts almost twenty more releases as of now.
Shaped by old school sounds, XDB persistently dived through his decades of activity into many electronic music territories. That not only broadened his sonic horizons but also gave him some long-lasting favourite cuts, for which we invited him to share them on our DJ Picks series. Across minimal beats, timeless house grooves, and fiery electro tunes from 2013 and backwards, his selection features some soulful and funky creations with annotations from his DJ experiences. The following ten records are demonstrative of what’s in his collection and what you should expect when XDB is in town.
XDB: My favourite track by Kuniyuki Takahashi. I’ve never been to Sapporo, but I’ve heard great things about the sound system at “Precious Hall.” It’s on my bucket list to pay them a visit in the near future, hopefully.
XDB: Canadians Marc Leclair, aka Akufen, is well-known for his minimal stuff. This track has a more dubby housy vibe and fits exactly to what I like most when playing something in between house and techno. Quite loopy but groovy as hell.
XDB: Walter Jones knows how to make sample-based deepness. His releases on DOW are highly recommended and not to be missed in any US deep house collection. I found this blue wax record at Disc Union many years ago, and it travels with me quite often. This and another one on DOW Records are in my bags right now, ready to play at Heideglühen Berlin tonight.
XDB: Cabinet Recordings from Germany has an amazing back catalogue full of groovy house goodness. This one has been played out the most, I guess… epic classic sounding stuff, recommended!
XDB: Super special and most probably the darkest one in my selection on here. I have 4 copies of this record and going to do the closing at Basilar Festival in Portugal at this year’s edition, playing b2b with Ron Albrecht, who did this masterpiece. People always ask for a track ID when it hits the speakers.
XDB: This is for me the funkiest tune Kyle Hall has ever done. Kai Alcé picked it for his Ndatl Special edition series and he did a good job doing so. Jazz is the teacher.
XDB: Ross 154 is Jochem Peteri aka Newworldaquarium. Most people will know him for his Trespassers classic. This one is equally good and I love its title too, “Until My Heart Stops”.
XDB: Voice Stealer is Carl Finlow. He and Keith Tenniswood are amongst my favourite UK producers when it comes to quality electro. I hope to see them again perform at Houghton this year.
XDB: Robert Hood has a reputation as one of the best producers when it comes to minimal Detroit techno. This one came out on Music Man, and it’s most certainly one of his tunes I played out the most. He is way more diverse on his masterpiece of an album titled “Nighttime World Volume 2.” In my top ten albums of all time.
XDB: I remember the first time I played out “lost love” by Ever Vivid. It was in Copenhagen at Culture Box and I gave Echocords Kenneth Christiansen my copy that night. I could listen to this one forever.
