There’s rhythm, and then there’s what Quantic does: weaving pulse into narrative, groove into geography. The British-born, globe-wired producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist has spent the past two decades threading sound systems together with strings, horns, and heat, turning tradition into transmission. From London basements to California, Colombia studios to Brooklyn rooftops, he’s less a genre artist than a cartographer of groove, mapping joy, longing, and resistance across continents.

His latest transmission? A first-of-its-kind DJ-Kicks mix release, via !K7 Records, iscomposed entirely of unreleased original productions—a luminous, slow-burning fever dream of house pulses, cumbia riddims, disco flash, and smoky jazz inflections. It’s not a setlist, it’s a story. One told in 16 tracks, many collaborators, and no boundaries.

Call it communion. Call it craft. Call it what happens when you’ve spent your entire life listening deeper than the beat.

See here, Quantic diving into the process behind the mix, his many alter-egos (including the darkly hypnotic Sobredosis), and the decades of crate-digging, border-crossing, and analog devotion that have shaped his orbit. This isn’t nostalgia, it’s global frequency. Tune in.

Your mix artwork cover features a photo of you from the 90’s. Looking at that image now, what has stayed constant in your creative process—and what advice would you have given to your younger self.

I think a constant since that time has been curiosity and the pursuit of new methods and diversions to make music and art. As a teen I was given lots of freedom in my household to experiment and encouraged to express ideas and emotions through music. Looking back at that time I would probably tell my younger self to make as much use of that free time because adulthood is busy AF!

The mix is made entirely of original work, but structured as a DJ set. What were the challenges or freedom in blending the producer’s mindset with the DJ’s instinct.

I’ve straddled the DJ and producer worlds for most of my career, so for me the two go hand in hand. I’m always thinking about the sound system and dance floor when making beats and likewise my experiences DJ’ing around the world feed back into my production aesthetic. The trick is to tell a story with your selection and the arc is everything.

In your mix, your collaborators span from all over the globe–What connects these artists in your mind, and how do you know when a collaboration belongs in a project like this.  

The connection between artists is, in this case, the mix. What connects ingredients in a dish or colours in a painting? The joy of a mix like this is to unite people who wouldn’t maybe normally be side by side in the same arena. Some of my own favourite music productions are made by people from very different paths and disciplines, it’s these varying strengths that make up a beautiful balanced whole.

You’ve lived and worked in the UK, Colombia, and the US. Do you think moving across the country has sharpened your musical instinct or blurred them in interesting ways?

Travel and living in different places has informed my musical taste and I’ve learnt so many things from the real masters. I have been fortunate to meet and collaborate with some real musical heroes and a lot of musicians in their 60s and 70s. I think you can learn a lot from people who are further ahead in your career, and I think the takeaway is that things will always ebb and flow—the ups and downs—but you have to stay focused on your work, as your work and works stay around and will be listened to by future generations.

This is why I believe it’s important to make work that is rich and musical and not throwaway.

You release music under multiple identities–Quantic, Sobredosis, and collaborative projects. What Sobredosis allows you to explore that Quantic doesn’t. How do these aliases help you articulate different sides of yourself?

With Quantic projects Miticos del Ritmo and Ondatropica, the focus has been on Colombian cumbia styles, rooted in sounds from the Caribbean region.

With Sobredosis, it takes more influence from Mexican cumbia, Sonideros, and cumbia obscura. I guess I have a lot of ideas, and my many different nom de plumes allow me to explore these sub-genres I love.  

Where do you see yourself in another 20 years from now?

I hope to be on a sail boat BBQ’ing for my family. But in reality, I’ll probably be in a sweaty nightclub spinning records somewhere.

How has the change in technology influenced your creative process, from your early days to now?

From speaking to my contemporaries, I think those of us who are music-focused don’t get swayed that much by new tech. You often find the best songs are made by that trusty old beloved thing—something someone knows real well, and hadn’t thought to replace it. At the end of the day, all these things are tools, tools for making human expression happen. I do love tech and new innovations, but it often takes me a while to be persuaded. I’ve pretty much made music in a similar way since the 90s. The software and tech gets faster, so you’re not waiting around as much, but essentially, I’ve been doing the same thing with it.

Which cultural or musical tradition has the most significant influence on your sound, and how has it shaped your work?

I think the music culture of the Caribbean has had an undeniable influence on me as a producer. Not only growing up in the UK with a backdrop of sound system culture, jungle and pirate radio, but also digging into music from Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. My recordings in Puerto Rico with Nickodemus and Tempo, which made it into the first Latin iPod commercial (Mi Swing es Tropica). Also, my work as Ondatropica and working with artists from Barranquilla and Cartagena. The dub soundscapes I explore with my project, Flowering Inferno.