Described as “multi-layered electronic music for the heart, mind and feet”, no wonder rising Berlin-based Dutch producer Baikal is named after one of the deepest lakes in the world. Keeping his identity partially shrouded and remaining unconcerned with hyper-consumption, the producer is peddling a strand of house and techno from another, more introspective place. 

Baikal is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water, and at 1,642m, the deepest. It is also among the clearest of all lakes, and thought to be the world's oldest at 25 million years. 
Baikal proves worthy of his namesake. Having achieved some success under the name Mark August with releases for Innervisions, the Dutch producer needed a break—and decided that decamping to Germany was the way to do it. He couldn't stay out of the game for too long though, and he's recently begun releasing music on the Maeve label that he co-runs with fellow Innversions colleagues Mano Le Tough and The Drifter.

Unlike so much full-fathom house music these days, his sonics never sound like a copy of a copy of a copy. It’s warm and chilly all at once, both welcoming and a little alien. Two releases on Maeve and countable remixes of others, Baikal is making all the right moves, all without pandering to trends and doing his music in his own way, and in his own time.

Support: Huang Wewei, Nigls