You’ll find the music of Glenn Astro, a German DJ-producer, on labels including Ninja Tune (where he released a collaborative album with Max Graef in 2016), Money $ex Records (which he ran between 2015 and 2018), and Denmark’s Tartelet Records, which is where he released Homespun, his latest solo album in 2020.

Sonically, Astro doesn’t stick to any particular genre; rather, he fuses house and broken beats with jazz and disco, filling each of his tracks with rich, spacious grooves. On 2018’s Turquoise Tortoise, with Hodini, he pivoted into more downtempo electronica and future soul, with thick kicks and warbling basslines. He grew up in Essen, where he would listen to hip-hop, house, soul, jazz, and disco, and began DJing at the age of 13. Today, he runs the labels Termina and Hypno Discs, platforms for his wildest bass adventures and club experiments.

Later this week, Astro will release Nothing Is Real, a compilation of his own original productions from a cast of fictional artists, on which he celebrates the thrill of discovery which came as standard as he listened to new entries in series’ like DJ Kicks. He’s decided to celebrate the album with his much-anticipated XLR8R podcast, which he recorded last month in Berlin. Across its one-hour run-time, it moves between head-nodding downtempo, techno, broken beat, and various chill-out delights—a sure-fire mix to brighten up your day, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I recently became a dad, so that’s an amazing new journey, which keeps me busy. Otherwise, I am working on as much new music as possible, aside from working a part-time day job.

02. What have you been listening to?
Apart from Rosalia’s Motomami, you mean? Although I’m not really a club person, I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music lately, but I guess it’s more on the unconventional side of things. It’s hard to pinpoint. Lots of rap records, too. Also there’s this album called Jerusalem by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou that was released by Mississippi Records recently, which is just absolutely wonderful. The record features recordings she did in the ’70s.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
On a rainy Saturday afternoon In my studio, roughly two weeks ago.

04. What setup did you use?
Two turntables, a mixer, and a laptop.

05. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?
There’s no refined system behind it. A lot of the included tracks are recent purchases, a few tracks are rediscoveries I haven’t heard in a while, and there’s a few digital exclusives thrown in for good measure. My aim was to keep it somewhat…”clubby.”

06. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
During dinner preparations, commuting from or to work. Perhaps for a spontaneous living room dance, while doing homework, or hanging out on your couch, bed, floor, or sofa. There are loads of applications you can combine it with! I don’t want to be overly cynical but we’re all in some way or another stuck in this neoliberal treadmill of doing things we don’t really want to do but have to do daily, in order to get by, so I hope this might ease the stress a tiny bit for a little while for someone out there.

08. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m an indecisive person, so usually it’s something that pops into my head on the spur of the moment!

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Optic Eye “Crystal Moon” (Mystic Stones)
02. Drush “Birds & Bass” (Fast Castle)
03. Brain Liquor “Blame It On” (Tartelet)
04. F.B. Illwig “Take It Off” (Moonwalk X)
05. Missy Elliott “Get Ur Freak On” (Gavsborg edit) (Unreleased)
06. Nutcase & Papachubba feat. Petah “U Do” (Best Effort)
07. Technosis “Change Positions” (Butter Notes)
08. SG Rilla Mane “My Cadillac” (Wah Wah Wino)
09. Skepta “Man” (Yung Bingles & Lil Chimpz Rebax) (YBLC001)
10. RDG “The Hand Above” (Sentry Records)
11. Lag “Rokenrol” (Beot Remix) (Coincidence Records)
12. Binary Digit “Acid King Charles Spaniel” (WéMè Records)
13. Michael J. Blood “Eazun” (Blood)
14. Greyhouse “New Beats The House” (Remix) (Hotsound USA Productions)
15. Sounds of Life “Currents” (React/Artcore)
16. Yushh “Look Mum No Hands” (Wisdom Teeth)
17. Fracture “Blaze” (feat. Bryan Gee) (Astrophonica)