Delayed x Mostra: Patrick Russell
There’s an unwritten rule at multi-day festivals: Sunday belongs to the music heads, the people who put the music and the dancefloor ahead of blue Mondays. A few days into a proper marathon, body and mind become more sensitive. At that point, listening to DJs who understand this is crucial. Sundays at Mostra always hit differently. Luckily for us, the final day of the fifth edition brought exactly the kind of treat we needed: a three-hour journey from one of the finest selectors and DJs in the game, Mostra resident and ever-inspiring Patrick Russell.
Across Mostra’s five editions, Patrick has offered a different journey each time. We have been fortunate enough to experience four of them, and people still talk about some of those sets. His defining quality is connective, long-form selection, and having him play on Sunday, as golden hour gave way to dusk, made this one even more special. Yes, we were inside the brutalist-looking sports arena of Vall d’Hebron, but the light pouring in during the first hour of Patrick’s set made it feel raw and real, exactly what we needed.
Mostra is about power through subtlety and patience, and in our eyes, Patrick Russell’s style is the epitome of that. In our interview with the Mostra residents a little over three years ago, Patrick put it perfectly:
“I play all kinds of music, from acid to IDM to ambient and experimental techno. It’s a constant challenge to present disparate music from many decades in the context of a cohesive story with common sonic or rhythmic threads. Or at least, that’s the goal.”
That approach shone brightly during this dusk set. Patrick began minimal and groovy: stripped down in elements, but never stripped of energy. He channels the idea that less is more, but the sounds he chooses are moody, full of personality and always with a twist. There was an after-hours quirkiness to the early selections, the kind that produced plenty of smiles and a few “WTF?” looks on the dancefloor.
Once the foundation was set in stone and the ground beneath our feet felt firm, Russell began to shake things loose. The groove fractured in just the right places, with acid slipping in and out of the mix. There was a Detroit stamp all over it, with nods to New York and Chicago along the way. A snare here, an off-kilter rhythm there, every new detail gave the story another life. Time travel is not a thing yet, but when Patrick Russell is behind the decks, cosmic waves can do the job. His talent for bringing together elements from the past, present, and future places him in a very small group of DJs who continuously prove something we love to repeat: good music does not have an expiration date.
The playfulness reached its zenith during the second hour. Intricate percussion, raw 808 and 909 sounds, and exotic, unmistakably personal grooves gave the set its own character. Vall d’Hebron was vibing with a capital V. By then, night had arrived. Smoke machines were in full-on mode, lights started shaping the final evening of the festival, and Patrick pushed things further apart in the best possible way. The last hour drifted into deeper, dubbier corners, gradually preparing the room for what came next: Scion’s live set.
Like a true gentleman and musical sensei, Patrick Russell took everyone through a three-hour journey that felt like a blink of an eye, filled with joy, smiles, and dancing like we had not already danced our way through an entire festival.
This set is a lesson in eclecticism within electronic music. More importantly, it was one of the nicest dancefloor moments we have experienced in some time. It makes our hearts glow to share it here on Delayed.