In Session: Eris Drew

Certain music is just made for losing yourself to. You know, the proper get loose, tops off, ceiling slapping type of losing yourself. If Eris Drew is on the decks of the nightclub you're in, then you'll be needing a Find iPhone-type app to locate yourself by the end of the night.

The Chicago DJ's sets are loaded with riotous breaks, supercharged rave stabs and choppy, high-pitched vocal samples, often dominated with records from way back when dance music was in its formative years, unleashing that wicked sense of euphoria like only the old skool can.

Take a recent podcast for Her Damit Festival, for example. She bursts through jungle, techno and house to put together over an hour of power, then there's the unbelievable show on The Lot Radio with Octo Octa.

You can see why The Black Madonna enlisted her to be a resident DJ at Smart Bar in Chicago. Before that she had been going to raves since the early '90s, taking in the sounds of gabber, trance and jungle, as she revealed when we met her in London earlier this year. We've also got Midwest artists like Miles Maeda and Terry Mullan to thank for her obliterating style of DJing.

Her name's become more of a European fixture in 2018 than it had the previous year. Where 2017's schedule was dominated by US shows, notably at Smart Bar, this year's seen Eris' name printed all over flyers in Europe. She's played Concrete in Paris, Panorama Bar in Berlin, Blitz in Munich and The Pickle Factory in London, while Atonal, Unsound and Field Maneuvers hold spots in her festival calendar.

That's not to say the US won't be getting her attention, though. In April she launched her Motherbeat parties, promising "a night of sustained ecstasy in the first of several dance rituals to occur in various cities".

Soon you'll be able to hear what's she's capable of production-wise as she's releasing a split 12" with Octo Octa on Violet's label Naive.

For now, though, it's all about this In Session which is a fizzing mix bringing together the old and the new. There's Liquid's 'Feel 3' and Leftfield's 'Fanfare Of Life' from 1992 and Luca Lozano's 'Essential Elements' and Truska's 'Lucid' from this year, mixed into to a bunch of other electrifying records either released in the early '90s or the last two years.

Note: you're probably gonna lose your shit.

Mount Rushmore 'I’ve got the music (DJ EFX Mix**)' (Moonshine Music 1994);

Soundbwoy Killah 'Oh Baby' (Warehouse Rave 2018;

DJ Seduction 'Hardcore Heaven (The Hardcore Mix)' (FFRR 1992);

Luca Lozano 'Essential Elements' (Running Back 2018);

Yak 'Mido' (Version009 2017)

Liquid 'Feel 3' (XL Recordings 1992)

Leftfield 'Fanfare of Life' (Hard Hands 1992)

Truska 'Lucid' (Jelly Bean Farm 2018)

Hex 'Alright to Love' (Stealth Records 1992)

Disk 'Acid Rain' (Whiteloops 2017)

M5 'Gotta Feeling (DJ D-Xtreme Bass Down Dub)' (Nervous 1996)

P€PA & Z$OLI 'PZS_Rave' (E-Beamz 2018)

Dream Cycle 'DCYX5' (Sneaker Social Club 2017)

Placid One 'Azure' (Nebulae 2018)

Alphonse 'Smokey (The Pilotwings’ Future Sound of Lyon Remix)' (Especial 2018)

Deee-Lite 'What is this Music?' (Elektra 1994)

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter