Apart from holding it down as resident designer at NVA, Mike Durcak a.k.a. Mike Mind, is perhaps still one of the Montreal’s best kept secrets, even after years of DJing and putting out records on Tiga‘s Turbo Recordings.

Mike is something of a savant when it comes to working with machines, his ability and approach to making music is beyond almost anyone I know, and his tracks, even just demos, simply exude a level of quality that few can match. I’ve been lucky enough over the years to have been able to have a peek at various stages of Mike’s little known musical output, whether it be cathartic hours long acid jam sessions or just killer techno tools which, any label worth their salt would release, but he does “just for fun”. He’s also responsible for writing maybe one of the greatest acid tracks of all time…

Not only does he have chops in the studio, but all bias aside, he’s maybe one of my favourite DJs full stop. His uncanny ability to read a room is only bolstered by years and years of encyclopaedic knowledge of house and techno— “what is this?” is an oft-posed question by many who have had the opportunity to see him play over the past decade or so. Since acquiring the collection, I’ve been bugging Mike to come do a Six Picks, knowing he would unearth gems of yesteryear deserving of their time to shine. Mike of course did not disappoint, and has graciously offered nine picks for us which he whittled down from stacks of absolutely killer records. Only the best will do, and as far as DJing goes, there is a lesson to be learned there.

A sound I’ll forever associate with my first trip to Berlin in 2001. I have a couple records by these Tresor label artists in my own collection, but I’ve never heard this one before — so good!

A nice B-side from the Platipus catalog featuring some downtempo double-time weirdness, dubby acid hits, and rainforest ambience. (Listen on Beatport)

An amazing minimal dub techno release by Thomas Heckmann as his Metric System alias. Loving the low bit-rate crunch of the samples from the SCI Studio 440!

A killer techno stepper that reminds me of Wishmountain and Regis’ tracks but actually predates both. By Müller Records’ Frank Müller and Tangerine Dream’s Ulrich Schnauss. Seems incredibly ahead of its time.

Once I saw The Drone Sector in the collection, it was hard not to include at least one of the tracks in this list. One of my all-time favourite albums. 20 years old and still as good as ever!

Another one of those records you hear in 2017 and realize just how ahead of its time it was. Damn!

An incredible Cari Lekebusch collab with Alexi Delano from the Mr James Barth era. Sounds like it was made with the same samples as their Puente Latino EPs for Primevil. So good and unique. Love it! (Listen on Beatport)

There aren’t a ton of producers that have made trance records that I still love after all this time, but Thomas Heckmann is at the top of that list. This trippy track off of his third Drax album reminds me a lot of his trancey Age alias that I love. (Listen on Bandcamp)