Efdemin Finally Pays Berlin's Debt to Detroit, One DJ Minx Sample at a Time

What's on the Mirror Phase EP?

Efdemin's first release for Dekmantel lands as a tight four-tracker: "Mirror Phase," "FS1R," "Unity Grain" and "Slip," out via the label's UFO series on 17 July 2026. Sollmann built the tracks from studio jams played mostly on analogue gear and finished them fast, a departure from the more meditative pace of his recent work. First Floor called the result "four precise, direct techno weapons with expertise and personality," landing club-first rather than headphone-first.

The title track opens on delicate strings and rippling chords before the drums take over, "Unity Grain" drifts into space-age, rubbery grooves, and the closing pair, "FS1R" and "Slip," lean into crunchier, more aggressive territory built around twisted vocal clips.

Why does a DJ Minx sample matter here?

The opening track carries a fully cleared sample of DJ Minx's spoken-word intro to Kevin Saunderson's 1997 entry in the X-Mix series, a release Sollmann has cited as formative to his own techno education. DJ Minx, born Jennifer Witcheris, is one of Detroit's foundational techno DJs and the founder of Women on Wax, the label she built to get Detroit's rhythm out into the world on her own terms. Clearing her voice rather than just echoing her sound is the difference between homage and theft, and it puts a Black Detroit pioneer's name directly into the credits of a record on one of European techno's most respected labels.

Sollmann has described Mirror Phase as "a deep bow" to the exchange between Detroit and Berlin that built modern techno in the first place.

"Four precise, direct techno weapons with expertise and personality." (First Floor)

How does this EP fit into Efdemin's catalogue?

Efdemin, the alias Phillip Sollmann has recorded under since the mid 2000s, is a longtime Berghain resident who has spent two decades moving between clattering, physical techno and slower, more textural records released under his own name. Mirror Phase follows POLY, his more introspective, headphone-leaning album from the previous year, with a record First Floor frames as explicitly built for the floor. Landing on Dekmantel, rather than his own naive imprint or long-time home Dial, also marks his first release for the Amsterdam label, one of the scene's most consistent gatekeepers of quality over hype.