Kosmic Kingdom 2022: Five Mixes to Get You Rave-Ready

On June 3rd and 4th, Kosmic Kingdom Music Festival returns for another immersive celebration of bass music culture in Sleepy Hollow Renaissance Park on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa.

Proudly passionate about contemporary bass music in it many forms, the festival's lineup boasts established favourites, scene pioneers, boundary-pushing artists, and rising stars that span experimental bass, dubstep, trap and plenty more.

So ahead of the latest instalment of this annual favourite, we've picked out a handful of mixes from acts on this year's lineup to get you in the mood for another weekend of bass-fuelled hedonism. Enjoy.

Final tickets for Kosmic Kingdom 2022 are on sale here.

Of The Trees

Recorded at an underground location in Atlanta towards the end of the last year, this dark, menacing and masterfully-constructed set draws heavily from dubstep's rich heritage with rumbling sub-bass and sparse syncopated drums (and even vocals from legendary MC and grime stalwart Killa P) as well as bringing in fresh-sounding elements of the contemporary sound.

Of The Trees is an artist with a clear respect and deep appreciation of the scene's history, but also somebody unafraid to draw on what has come before and add his own spin to it, creating something that feels new and exciting; there's also glitch, downtempo, trap, hip-hop from both side of the Atlantic – blending Baby Keem and Little Simz edits into the mix – and even a bit of jungle towards the end.

Fitting also that someone with a clear respect for the culture is wearing a t-shirt that pays tribute to the tragically missed and utterly irreplaceable SOPHIE, one of electronic music's most unique and unrivalled talents.

CloZee

This sunrise set from Envision Festival back in 2020 is a captivating blend of globe-spanning, atmospheric and melodic bass music from Kosmic Kingdom 2022 headliner CloZee; featuring many of the French producer's unmistakably evocative productions, as well as wave music from genre pioneer Klimeks and similarly enigmatic proponent of the sound Klasey Jones, former Soulection production wonder-kid Sam Gellaitry, and much more almost indefinable magic.

Shades

Between them, producers Alix Perez and EPROM are no strangers to blurring boundaries and stretching the limits of genre

The former is nominally a drum and bass producer, but one that from the very start of his career has never been afraid to explore other influences, while West Coast favourite EPROM is even less categorisable in his melding of everything from glitch, to grime, to acid, and beyond.

Uniting as Shades, the result is an unsurprisingly intense and almost undefinable array of experimental bass music, which melds dubstep with half-time and mid-tempo weirdness, and even old-skool rave.

NotLö

A comparative newcomer, Denver-based producer NotLö is already making serious waves in the bass music scene. As this mix recorded for the CloZee-curated Emergence Virtual Showcase demonstrates, her penchant for deep and distorted dubstep, brooding bass, and darkly experimental sounds is evident, with the unsettling visuals perfectly reflecting the sense unease and curiosity that her music often creates.

N-Type

It feels only right that a festival with dubstep as part of its core should feature one of the genre's earliest proponents. Hailing from South London, N-Type was heavily associated with the earliest iterations of the sound, his contribution to the legendary Dubstep Allstars series in 2007 coinciding with, and contributing to, the meteoric rise of Benga, Skream, and plenty more besides.

Still as committed to being a globally flag-bearer of the sound as ever before, N-Type's passion for dubstep is infectious, and his sets – like this mix for Rinse FM ahead of their 'I Love Dubstep' night at iconic London club Fabric earlier this year – are a showcase of his deep affection for the scene.

Kosmic Kingdom 2022 takes place June 3-4 in Des Moines, Iowa. Find more info on our Kosmic Kingdom 2022 guide and book the final remaining Kosmic Kingdom 2022 tickets here.