2016 was the year Palms Trax proved he can cater for any crowd, any time

It’s 4pm on Sunday at Dekmantel. The Main Stage is near full and the sun is shining. The DJ tasked with getting everyone back in the mood for another night is Palms Trax, and the UK selector is firing. Delving into tracks by Kerri Chandler, Chaka Kahn and Stardust, it’s clear Jay Donaldson is just as happy playing funk, soul and party classics as he is rolling house. No surprise his tour schedule has been nothing short of staggering this year.

“I was scheduled to play before Robert Hood at MMA in Munich, this huge underground club that feels like winning a cameo in The Matrix Reloaded,” says Jay, speaking to us from Mexico. “He was late, so I ended up playing about three hours of 135 BPM techno and trance, then went straight to Paris and played back-to-back with Marcellus Pittman and Casper from Dekmantel at Concrete.”

After making himself known via two EPs on Lobster Theremin, Donaldson settled onto the gig circuit before becoming a member of the Dekmantel crew.

As a festival, party and label that’s fast established itself as one of the freshest and most in-demand crews in the game, the success of Palms Trax seems to have gone hand-in-hand with the Dutch brand’s. “I was so lucky to be invited to join. It’s changed my life,” he confirms. “Not only the exposure but because of how much I’ve learned.”

The ‘High Point On Low Ground’ EP that came out at the start of 2016 gleefully channelled Italo, disco, house and tropical tendencies and was a real shot of caution-to-the-wind fun. Behind the decks there’s little chance of pin-
pointing which direction he’s going to take, a refreshing trait. There’s more music on the way, but he’s got some stuff to take care of first.

“My main priority now is to get my house plant, Griffin, through the winter,” he says. “That, and working out how to give back to those in our community who may need a leg-up.”

Funster is Mixmag's Digital Deputy Editor, follow him on Twitter