For around a decade, Philadelphia-based DJ-producer Estoc has been weaving together experimental electronic, industrial, ambient, and hip-hop and even pulverizing hardcore influences into her DJ sets, original productions, and edits. She connected to music through classical and jazz music, before she discovered chiptune, a unique genre of electronic music that utilizes the sound chips found in vintage arcade machines, around 2007. “It has always been a point of interest for me,” she says. “I started producing my own music in high school and haven’t stopped since.” Eventually, she became Estoc, her name taken from the weapon popularized by the Dark Souls series, which is used to pierce and puncture armor. “I chose this name because I believe in finding and creating tools to disarm and destroy fascist thought and action, to pierce the armor they have built for themselves through their allegiance to the state,” she once said in an interview. Over time, she started seeking out heavier, harder music and, in 2022, she released Serenity, her debut album, a collection of forceful, dancefloor-focused tracks. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, she’s delivered 50 minutes of jackhammer beats featuring tracks from her friends and artists she’s inspired by—DJ Plead, WTCHCRFT, Tzusing, and more. Press play and buckle up because this is one wild ride.

01. What have you been up to lately?
Lots of touring, figuring out how best to shift my life into one of action and solidarity

02. What have you been listening to?
History and community.

03. What is it that appeals to you about dance music?
Its versatility and potential.

04. Where and when did you record this mix?
At home after a long tour.

05. How did you go about choosing the tracks?
Music made by friends, comrades, revolutionaries, co-conspirators, and those I am inspired by.

06. What can the listener expect?
I wanted this mix to be an exploration of what it means for music, especially music like techno, to be political. What messages are we able to share when our languages of propaganda are simply inferred rather than explicitly stated? Can music be made political by its context? By a separate statement? I want to find ways to inseparably intertwine the art and its message because in a world that seeks to liberalize and defang us as artists I don’t think we can always lean on McLuhanist readings of our work.

07. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
This is maybe a bit more put together but the lack of emphasis on specific genres is always a thread that runs through my sets.

08. What’s next on your horizon?
Dual power.

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. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra “13 Angels Standing Guard ‘Round the Side of Your Bed” (Constellation Records)
02. Kofia “Leve Palestina”
03. Skee Mask “Reviver” (Ilian Tape)
04. WTCHCRFT “Liberation Not Peace” (Unreleased)
05. TSVI “Hossam” (Self-Released)
06. Juman & Nene H “Zaytoun” (UMAY)
07. NKC “Bootlicker” (Sea Cucumber)
08. Al-Hadaf Band with Sa’eed Al-Danaf “Red Star” (Self-Released)
09. WTCHCRFT “The Engineer” (Unreleased)
10. False Witness “Blanquist Scam” (Self-Released)
11. SHYBOI “&FALL” (E-Missions)
12. Kareem El Morr “صفعة” (UMAY)
13. False Witness “Never Fake It” (Jack Dept)
14. Muslimgauze “All The Stolen Land of Palestine” (Self-Released)
15. Daboor, Shabjdeed “Inn Ann” (BLTNM)
16. Gamma Intel “Azimuth” (Dreaming Live)
17. Toumba “Rashash” (Nervous Horizon)
18. DJ Plead “Going For It” (Livity Sound)
19. MM “QBT16” (Her Records)
20. Storm Band National Art Troupe “In the Name of the Popular Front” (Self-Released)
21. VCRHEADCLEANER “theidiot” (Unreleased)
22. Alex Compton “WATCHER” (Unreleased)
23. Rizzla “And Stay Down” (Fade 2 Mind)
24. Tzusing “Exascale” (PAN)
25. Bobby Beethoven “TF DUMMY NUMBER ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO” (Self-Released)
26. Unknown “Unknown” (Unknown)
27. DJ Haram “No Funeral Instrumental” (Hyperdub)
28. The Body & Dis Fig “Coils of Kaa” (Thrill Jockey)
29. Nahash “Changement de Regime” (SVBKVLT)
30. Alex Compton “Red Star” (Unreleased)
31. Slowdive “Machine Gun” (Creation)
32. Malibu “Tilting on Windmills” (UNO NYC)
33. Ana Caprix “Base” (Self-Released)