Intercity Connections | Dixon Sparks Up Mexico City

01 Earlier this month, Dixon brought his travelling sound expertise to Mexico City with a set well tailored to a glossy crowd and booming venue, nestled in the San Angel district. The evening was put on by Project Sound, one of the city’s main magnets for international artists and labels; they also invited Innervisions cool cat Trikk, The Drifter and Zombies in Miami to complete the tableau.

Dixon’s 3h story was wonderfully compartmentalised, dipping into high-energy sections that spotlighted acid, tribal, deep house and nu-disco. These different chapters were framed by tasty buildup interludes, the whole packed in minimal tinted red lights.

Contrasting with Trikk’s blazing visual production which took full advantage of the venue's layered laser setup, Dixon’s light show was seductively minimal - a form that suits him most, matching his discrete no frills personality and complementing the depth of his sound.

PREMIERE: Aleksandir - Yamaha [Tessellate] by HouseumSoundCloud · Houseum

Trikk executed a solid dabble across deep sounds, starting up loungey, dipping into techno and ultimately swerving to melodic tracks with vocals that harmonised to the prominent primary colour lasers. At times they’d dim to darkness for full drama, allowing for eery bass heavy grooves.

Innellea - Weigela by AfterlifeSoundCloud · Afterlife

Watching Dixon arrive in itself told a story. The maestro slid into the booth, taking a backseat to observe Trikk in comfortable respect, folding his sweater with delicate attention. Before coming on, he would swiftly lean forward for the ocasionally discrete mixer adjustment.

Dixon took over the 2am sermon, filling the spacious venue up with gradually booming spacey sounds, weaving Yamaha into the spicy Acidulant track below. The trademark inability to categorise his sets by genre was alive and well, although this one did see a tendency for big room brighter RÜFÜS type tracks with emotive vocals, delivered to an adoring crowd. We would’ve welcomed a bit more weirdness.

Nonetheless, he still manages to propose a wild blend of sonic influences and work up spatial and sonic effervescence that builds, lifts and peaks a whole room's energy. Dixon paints contrasts that only he can spin so well, like matching dreamy-tribal tones of &ME to bass-guitar heavy eery tunes to light deep house pieces to the jackin' house track below.

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Doing the room well, Dixon finished on disco, with dance moves demonstrating clear belonging to the sounds he span.

Cover photo: Matte