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Faster than usual, and more melodic with it. Fourteen minutes of modular techno at Factory Setting, on a bill headlined by @Saytek_live. Recorded at Venue MOT in south London. Factory Setting is one of the best nights in London for this — everything played live on hardware, nothing DJed. @xeenu_live, @simonmos3013 and @DJCOUNSELLINGUK played too, and plenty of people brought their own machines and played sets through the night. BOOKING Live improvised modular techno — solo, London. All I need is a table, two 13A sockets and a stereo line input. No monitoring: I'm on my own in-ears. Set up in 20, or 10 if the changeover is tight. Rider, dates and past shows → https://www.mentataudio.com/live Enquiries → [email protected] Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing Eurorack Modular: BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Doepfer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures Mod Dwarf - Effects pedal used for mastering and end of chain Enjoyed the video? Buy me a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio You can find all my music at https://mentataudio.com/music Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: https://mentataudio.bandcamp.com

A full 75 minute set of live improvised modular techno from Waxless Club at the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch in April 2026. Had a blast playing this set. I've been to several of the Waxless events (a club night where it's all live music on machines rather than DJs) and they have always been great. I really enjoyed Sugoo's opening set of wonky melodic tracks, and Reuben's controlled chaos of really funky noise shaped grooves. I got to headline the event and played a full set. Apart from a few riffs I had saved at the start to get me going it was all improvised on the modular and the Torso T1 sequencer, with a little bit of Roland S1 for some synth lines. It was really fun having a full 75 mins to build and drop things, moving through melodies, more percussive stuff and between techno and progressive sounds. A great crowd, if you were there thanks so much for coming down! Annoyingly my video cut out about 4 mins in... but it was a dark room with some flashing lights and mainly about the music so posting the video anyway! Enjoyed the video? Buy my a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio You can find all my music at http://mentataudio.com/music Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: http://mentataudio.bandcamp.com Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing Eurorack Modular: BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures Roland S1 - Chords and synths Custom Raspberry Pi mastering module running Patchbox and MODEP If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273 Shop for gear I recommend on Reverb: https://tidd.ly/4dDHSsd (affiliate link)

Here's my set from the SpaceWreck: Fire event in Walthamstow, London. There's a great grassroots electronic music scene that has grown up around the Trades Hall in Walthamstow. Synth club every few months is a chance to geek out over synths and gear and a mix of talks and live performances. Tones and Drones are doing regular immersive ambient events with curated musicians and amazing visuals. And the band SpaceWreck are running eclectic curated events of a range of electronic music. I was invited to play at their 'Fire' themed event, with a fun setup of flames and projections around the multiple stages set up. Really enjoyed the event and all the other artists' sets. Enjoyed the video? Buy my a coffee / leave a tip at: https://ko-fi.com/mentataudio You can find all my music at http://mentataudio.com/music Audio downloads of all the live sets are on Bandcamp: http://mentataudio.bandcamp.com Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing Eurorack Modular: BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Forge tme Vhikk X - Synth textures Mod Dwarf - Effects pedal used for mastering and end of chain If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273 Shop for gear I recommend on Reverb: https://tidd.ly/4dDHSsd (affiliate link)

A short set live from the Dublin Castle in Camden at EMOM London. I was also hosting the night and introducing acts so had about 5 minutes to set up. Good thing I recently simplified down my setup to a single case. Sorry for the not so great video, as you can see I just about slammed the camera on the tripod as I was starting to play! I was testing something I've been working on - replacing my Mod Dwarf pedal end of chain setup with a Raspberry Pi setup built into the case. I've got a front panel module feeding the audio out of my mixer into a Raspberry Pi with a Codec Zero hat for audio mounted inside the eurorack case. This does a bunch of end of chain stuff - it literally lets me have a full mastering chain of plugins on the output. Also gives me low cut filters for performance, recording onboard, a line out to the PA and a headphone amp. Pretty useful bit of kit. Just ironing out some reliability issues and getting the front panel tidied up and I'll do a video on what I've been doing with it. Gear used: Oxi One Mkii - All sequencing BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb and delay Forge tme Vhikk - textures If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Recording of my live set from the Factory Setting event this week. I played first up as people were arriving - nice to set the scene for people. I've always loved that feeling of walking into a club with music going and taking it all in, so I enjoyed being able to be the soundtrack to that. It was a great event, with loads of excellent sets and a really interesting and inspiring talk, demo and set from 808 State to headline. This was also the first time using the OXI One sequencer live. I had some left over patterns from a studio jam which I started with, improvising the arrangement and then bringing some more improvised elements in later. Enjoying the new sequencer, although still lots to learn. I'm not dropping the Torso T1 though, I really like that for other reasons so I can see myself still using it. It's like playing slightly different instruments really and they both push you in slightly different directions. I've got an hour long studio set recorded earlier in the day with the same setup which I'll share soon. Gear used: Oxi One Mkii - All sequencing BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

My latest live set... this one is a little different... Not a new direction, but just an experiment with playing some pre released tracks in live versions rather than completely improvising. I'm definitely not ditching the improvising - just trying something to see what I can learn. Having been doing lots of entirely improvised sets recently I started looking into recording some of my improvisations and developing them into tracks. This made me get out my Cirklon sequencer again, and I thought for this month's Factory Setting event I'd have a go at recreating live versions of some of my studio tracks that had been released. So this set consists of Indigo and Flight, which came out on my own label Cirrus Sounds, and Marble which came out on Traum Schallplatten and was the first Mentat track I ever released. These tracks were originally written in Ableton Live, so I brought across some of the samples and the sequences to the BitBox sampler and the Cirklon sequencer, and live jammed the arrangements on the sequencer and the modular system. This brings different challenges than improvising... having sounds in mind for each track and section I have to remember more. I have to remember what sequences are coming from where, how they should sound and how I need to set up the synth to make those sounds. When improvising I can be a bit more immediate and experiment, but here I have to get to something I have in mind, which is a different approach. I don't have to think as much about where I am going though, as I had the three track order planned and to a certain extent the types of arrangements I'd be creating, even though that was a bit improvised. All in all I was pleased with how it went. It goes a bit abstract going out of Indigo into Flight where the transition in synth sounds wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. But it's OK I think and something I'd quickly improve with some more practice. Something I learned was how I might approach varying structures a bit more even when improvising. I have tended to be very loop and groove focused, but my released tracks have more back and forth of differing sections. No reason why I couldn't do this with the improvising - it's just another thing to develop and practice. Next I'm going to explore constructing some track starting with improvisation on the Torso sequencer, but recording them into the Cirklon and refining them into more finished tracks. The Cirklon is much better for that kind of detailed work - although the Torso shines brighter to me for ideas and live jams. I might try some live sets with a mix of more prepared and improvised stuff - it's nice to play some more detailed melodic stuff and recognisable tunes. But I do prefer fully improvising in the moment in many ways, so I'll see where it takes me. Gear used: Sequentix Cirklon - All sequencing BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Another practice set from my home studio. Was in the mood for some slow building prog and techno, slowly warming things up. Goes a bit more Underworld at the end. All improvised as usual. Actual studio is a bit of a box room at the moment after moving house recently, but I've got enough room for the live gear and that's most of what I need really! Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer - All sequencing BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay

A few weeks back I did an hour long 'Midnight set' at The Night Cafe, a really cool alternative venue in Aldgate in London. This is an hour of mostly improvised modular techno and progressive house, performed from right outside the ball pit. Check out all the other Night Cafe Midnight sets over on their channel. It's a great selection of live electronic music, many of the set from friends of mine: / @nightcaferadio Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer BitBox Micro Sampler Mutable Instruments Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas Dopefer A-111-6 Knobula Poly Cinematic Make Noise Mimeophon Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot Timo Rozendal FMP WMD MSCL Compressor God's Box and Thonk Humpback filter Mod Dwarf Forge tme Vhikk X Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 Roland S-1

I'm looking forward to playing a midnight set at the Night Cafe in London this coming Friday, so I've been practicing and captured this hour of improvisation. Please with how this one went, starts out atmospheric and progressive, and then goes back and forth a bit between more rhythm driven techno and more melody driven progressive house. And a bit of breaks right at the end. It's tempting with this live stuff to go all one level and just try to keep the energy up all the time, so I've been working on having some light and shade and making the longer performances take more of a journey. Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer BitBox Micro Sampler Mutable Instruments Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas Dopefer A-111-6 Knobula Poly Cinematic Make Noise Mimeophon Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot Timo Rozendal FMP WMD MSCL Compressor God's Box and Thonk Humpback filter Mod Dwarf Forge tme Vhikk X Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 Roland S-1

Live at Dublin Castle this week. Some more improvised grooves and melodies.

Headed to the 'Super Noodles' EMOM at Clapton in London to do a short improvised set. Didn't manage to get a proper video but here's the recording... Gear used: Torso T1 Sequencer BitBox Micro Sampler Mutable Instruments Plaits Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas Dopefer A-111-6 Knobula Poly Cinematic Make Noise Mimeophon Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot Timo Rozendal FMP WMD MSCL Compressor God's Box and Thonk Humpback filter Mod Dwarf Forge tme Vhikk X

Mentat Mix 13 Deep, melodic house and techno from UK DJ & Producer Mentat. This time including my two recent remixes for QuiQui on Amber Blue and Blame Your Genes on Traum Schallplatten. More mixes and original tracks at www.mentataudio.com .
 Subscribe at www.mentataudio.com/podcast . Tracklist: Kidnap - Start Again [Armada Music Bundles] Martin Roth - Wabi Sabi [Anjunadeep] QuiQui - Dukkha (Mentat Remix) [Amber Blue] Zoi (CA) - Hangover Blue [Architextures] Francesca Lombardo - Psycho [Poker Flat Recordings] Robert Babicz - I know [Dirtcuts] Manuel Mayer - Same [3000GRAD Records] Huminal - Ghost in Machine [Concious Monkey] Blame Your Genes - The Moment (Mentat Remix) [Traum Schallplatten] Eagles & Butterflies - Experiment A [Art Imitating Life]

Mentat Mix 12 Deep, melodic house and techno from UK DJ & Producer Mentat. This time including my new track June out on Traum Schallplatten and a few more favourites from the Tour De Traum XVIII release. More mixes and original tracks at www.mentataudio.com .
 Subscribe at www.mentataudio.com/podcast . Tracklist: Sunspot (NL) - Bugged [Traum] Mentat - June [Traum] Clarian - Pale Blue Palm Trees [Anjunadeep] Eli & Fur - Into The Night [Anjunadeep] Losless - Caesium [Traum] Monolink - Frozen (Rodriguez Jr. Remix) [Embassy One] Emde and Rosenhaft - Kol Hayom [Traum] Enamour - Heart Strings Andre Sobota and Felipe Novaes - Prescience (Alex O'Rion Remix) [Clubsonica Records] Kiwi - Kiya (Rave Mix) [Needwant]

Deep, melodic house and techno from UK DJ & Producer Mentat. More mixes and original tracks at www.mentataudio.com .
 Subscribe at www.mentataudio.com/podcast . Tracklist: Durante - Maia [OPENERS] Tibi Dabo - Nowhere Beach [Crosstown Rebels] Monolink - Frozen (Rodriguez Jr. Remix) [Embassy One] Made by Pete - Akido (Enamour Remix) [Yoshitoshi Records]] Pak Sota - Sweet Spots [Traum] Francesca Lombardo - Flumen [Poker Flat Records] Knives Out - Sugarcoat (Sasha Remix) [Bedrock Records] La Fleur - Waves [Watergate Records] Animal Trainer - Amaron (Einmusik Remix) [Selador] Woo York - Discovery [Afterlife Records] Erkka - Plastic Flamingos [White]

Deep, melodic house and techno from UK DJ & Producer Mentat. More mixes and original tracks at www.mentataudio.com .
 Subscribe at www.mentataudio.com/podcast . Tracklist: Paul Epworth - Voyager [Sony] German Brigante - Solitude [Dirtybird] Huxley - Weirdest Green [Knee Deep In Sound] Raxon - The Ancient [Kompakt Extra] Pig & Dan - Promised [Truesoul] Hannes Bieger and Francesco Lombardo - A Million Souls [Bedrock] Super Flu - Acumulee [Diynamic] QuiQui - The Conquest (Bessif Mix) [Aftertech Records] Graham Baxter and Matter - Everything, So Young (Sonic Union Remix) [Strange Town Records] Yotto - Shifter [Odd One Out] Giorgia Angiuli - Inspiration (Henry Saiz Remix) [Stil Vor Talent]