Afro House, with a flamenco edge

Afro House is the main style. The flamenco element is what makes it recognisable inside that style — not a second genre bolted on.

“Two steps forward, one step back.”Relaximo

RELAXIMO — Dutch DJ and producer, Italian roots. Between Amsterdam and Valencia.

No closed playlist

I never bring a closed playlist. It depends on the music, the room and the people in it, and that is exactly what I love about it — every night is different. When I’m playing Flamenco Afro House I like to open with El Flamenco, by Aaron Sevilla and Mëstiza. Listen to it and you’ll understand why. Especially if you speak Spanish.

The room first

In a room I don’t know, I walk it first. The corners, the front, the back — I want to hear how the sound sits in the whole space. Then I watch the floor and try to catch someone’s eye. Where are we in the night? Am I opening? Are people talking, or already dancing? If there’s a DJ on before me, I listen to what they’ve built. That’s what tells me where to start.

Adapting doesn’t mean giving people what they expect. The opposite. I like coming in with something unexpected, something that makes people curious. You hold that for a second — and then the drop lands. The beat, the percussion, everything.

Percussion

Percussion is the thing for me. I’ll run up to three percussion-heavy tracks at the same time until the rhythms braid into each other, like being surrounded by people drumming. It turns into something almost tribal and it goes through your whole body. You look around and everybody is in it. Good luck standing still through that.

The flamenco came first

The flamenco came first, years before the Afro House. I’ve lived in Spain seven or eight years, and for four of those I was with a Spanish partner from a small village — that’s where it got under my skin. Flamenco isn’t only music. It’s passion, feeling, a way of expressing things. So when I found the fusion, I already knew the original songs: I recognised the melodies, the voices, the emotion. It was never two styles glued together. It was two worlds I was already at home in.

Energy

Keeping the energy up doesn’t mean holding everyone at maximum for hours — you need the small breaths, letting the music drop a little, because that’s what makes it land when you come back in. Two steps forward, one step back.

What I want

What I want is that people danced, and that one mix surprised them enough to still be talking about it the next day. When it’s flowing, I’m enjoying the mix just as much as they are.

About the symbolThe RELAXIMO symbol is a continuous ring with five thick arcs, on beats 12, 3, 6, 8 and 10 of a twelve-beat compás. The ring is the four-to-the-floor loop of house; the accents are the ones of the bulería. The gaps between them are 3–3–2–2–2. At a hundred beats per minute, one turn lasts 7.2 seconds.

Bookingsbooking@relaximo.com

The pieces

01 Compás symbolTwelve beats, accents on 12 · 3 · 6 · 8 · 10 7.2 s

02 The ring, in motionRendered, silent 13.9 s

03 DeckSingle frame —

02 · The ring, in motion. 13.9 s, silent.