Sofia Kourtesis – DJ Kicks

What does it sound like?:

Sofia Kourtesis has been a fast-rising star of the last few years as a producer and DJ. Her album Madres was high on my top albums list for 2023, with its mix of beats and hazy warm melodies creating something elusive and fragile as well as rhythmically hypnotic.

Now, after a series of mixtapes for platforms like Resident Advisor comes her first big-series DJ mix release on – gasp – physical format. Overall it cleaves to the general mix arc – we start with a beatless intro track, here temple bells from Jon Hopkins, and gradually warm up with some relaxed and downtempo tracks from Aphex Twin and Daphi (aka Caribou). Kourtesis has, as is customary with DJ Kicks, a few self-penned tracks scattered throughout – first up is It’s You is in the relaxed warm-up section, leading to some house-flavoured tracks from Myd, Axel Bowman etc (no me neither). Her next self-penned track, Texas Changing, takes things up another gear. This is what I love about her work – rhythmic while never losing sight of a melody. Joy look Up Now introduces a seventies disco sample-based track with a wicked mid-track stuttery breakdown. The house rhythms and vocal samples gradually give way to a more techno instrumental section in the middle, to show she can do a bit of hard as well – it’s also perhaps the most throwback section of the whole mix. Back on vocal-led tracks, there’s a resetting of the vocal by Jocelyn Brown on Somebody Else’s Guy that works really really well. Hard to mess up a vocal that great.

As is often the case with a mix, everything ultimately leads to that one track: in this case Kourtesis’s Los Poemas No Seimpre Riman, that takes you to that transcendental moment. Listen to the track in isolation and it’s great, listen to it in its place in the mix as the apex and culmination of everything that’s gone before and it’s amazing. Dave DK’s beautiful Lagoon 69 and a Four Tet track provide the grace notes and exit music.

It’s warm and soulful on the whole, with a great balance of vocal and instrumental tracks. I thoroughly recommend – to the mixheads on here and those who are a little more reticent.

What does it all *mean*?

The first CD dj mix in my collection dates from 33 years ago. What was thought of as a passing fad, and a mass market cash-in (hello Misery of Sound!) endures and is as fascinating a format as ever.

Goes well with…

Working, relaxing, headphones.

Release Date:

27/3/26

Might suit people who like…

Another one of my favourite mixes of the past few years, Anna’s for Global Underground.

0