First surfacing with a couple of singles back in 2010, Dec Lennon – aka Krystal Klear – always seems to have directed his gaze towards the past.
It’s a tendency that’s abundantly clear in his productions: speaking to us last year, Lennon described himself as making music “using styles and sounds from 1980-1994”.
But it’s in his DJ sets that Lennon’s eclectic, time-scrambling tastes are really brought to life. In a mammoth new contribution to Oki-Ni’s excellent mix series, Lennon has assembled a collection of tracks reflecting his “intimate memories” of people, places and events from recent years.
The mix covers an impressive amount of stylistic ground over its 40 tracks, touching on hip-hop from J Dilla, De La Soul and Common, older fare from The Jackson 5 and Patrice Rushen, house music old and new, from Roy Davis Jr. to Soundstream, and – of course – a smattering of Prince. There’s also a couple of Krystal Klear originals, ‘Composure’ and ‘My Love Is Burning’, tucked in there somewhere.
You can stream ‘OURS’ by Krystal Klear below.