You won’t find much information on Lola Palmer, the Ukrainian DJ, even if she seems to have played her music everywhere. Born in Razdolnoe, a part of Crimea, she began DJing around 2004 for nothing other than the fun of it; with a love for sharing music with others, she’d spend her weekends playing records at local bars. She opted to pursue it full-time in 2012 and cut her teeth with regular sets on RTS.FM, a Kyiv radio station. She began to produce a year later, driven to make the sounds she wanted to play out, and she surfaced with a compilation of chill-house made in collaboration alongside Konstantin Astafyev. Informed by her DJ sets, which are characterised by a delicate, deep techno groove, her productions have landed on Russia’s MixCult and, more recently, the mighty Berg Audio, a benchmark in warm, dub-driven sounds. Somewhere New, her latest release, accompanied two deep techno tools with remixes from Priku and Janeret.

Today, Palmer is based in Amsterdam, where she’s been enjoying some downtime through the pandemic. She balances life on the road with work in social care. Before the enforced break, she had a touring schedule that matched almost any other DJ in terms of flights taken, with particular emphasis on Europe’s eastern block. As she gears up to tour again, she’s presented some of her newest records in this week’s XLR8R podcast, recorded last week in her apartment. At a touch over one hour in length, it’s full of the records she’s been dying to play out, coming from Losoul, Simo, and Slovenia’s Alex Ranerro. With its deep, light groove, it reminds her of the sets she’d play earlier in her career, when she’d play through RTS and bask in the joy of sharing her favorite music with her friends.

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’m waiting for today’s situation to improve, and for all these lost gigs to be rescheduled. But most of my time at the moment is taken by my day job which is helping families with their kids. Since the pandemic, I’ve been accepting more work on this side and it can consume my energy. Also I’ve started to write more music and I’m happy with my debut EP on Berg Audio. I’m trying to stay motivated and positive, and sports are helping me to keep a balance.

02. What music have you been listening to through lockdown?

I’ve continued to expand my club music library but I’ve also started digging deeper into genres I’ve always been of a fan of like old school hip-hop and R&B, downtempo, and jazz. One of my favorite new discoveries is definitely Midnight, an incredible vocalist from the United States.

03. How did you find your away into music?

From a young age, I knew that I wanted to somehow be more connected to music. At 16, I remember playing at my school parties, which was my first time selecting music that I would then share with people and see their reaction. I will always remember my first “real” DJ set which was back in 2006 in Crimea, a special, and beautiful experience that definitely confirmed my desire to continue sharing music with people, and on a dancefloor.

04. What is it that draws you to DJing?

As I’ve said, sharing music is something I’ve been drawn to since I was very young. DJing has never felt like a job and it’s always a special moment for me—there is just nothing like sharing feelings through music, and seeing how people respond on the dancefloor. Having a job on the side makes you realize how lucky you are to be invited to play music to people and create those special connections; I never take it for granted!

05. Where and when did you record this mix?

At my home in Amsterdam, where I have been living for the past few years.

06. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?

My selections alway depend on my mood, what’s happening in my life, and the different emotions I experience. In this podcast, you will find a selection of some deep techno tracks that I’m feeling at the moment. This podcast reminds me a bit of my older ones for Mixcult or RTS.FM for example!

07. What can the listener expect?

I wanted to make this podcast deep, light, and romantic, but always groovy. I’m hoping that your listeners will like it.

08. What’s next on your horizon?

Moving to a new flat, playing a few confirmed gigs this summer, getting back to Kiev to take care of some personal things, and, of course, handling countless hours of kids screaming and laughing during my day job! Thank you again for having me. I’ve wanted to join your series for a long time.

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Losoul & Raysoo “Following a Melody” (Pawas Remix) [Love International]
02. DP-6 “Rainy Day” (Rainy Version) [DP-6 Records]
03. Azteca “Keller” [Jesus Was Black]
04. Butane, Riko Forison “Little Helper 372-2” [Little Helpers]
05. Lowdi “Almost Enough” [Berg Audio]
06. Wlad “Lotus” (Youandewan remix) [hedZup]
07. Montei “Gulleserian” [Hibit]
08. Simo “Dialogul” (Vern Remix) [Stamp Records]
09. Rowlanz “Life” [hedZup]
10. Pasha Filin “Shapes” [Indeep]
11. Alex Ranerro “Insistent” [Berg Audio]
12. Camelia “High Beams” [Fake Society Records]