Cassy

Watching Cassy eagerly dive into her record collection is a joy. Away from the transcendent spaces she continues to play at most weekends, her vinyl-digging series Talking About My Records on Instagram gives ample opportunity to engage with her endearing excitability. Its concept being spurred by moving back home to Austria and reconnecting with a stacked vinyl stash, you can feel the buzz gained from rediscovering lost gems and rinsed B-sides. Keen to share this experience with whoever’s watching, what makes this series stand out is the sense that Cassy’s enthusiasm and faithfulness to the music that fuels club culture has been revived. We’re seeing the beginning of a new era for Cassy. Given that her trailblazing career surpasses two decades, a serious reset to recalibrate should be expected. She’s lived in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York and LA; worked at iconic record store Hard Wax; held residencies at hallowed clubs Panorama Bar, Trouw, Output, DC-10 for Circo Loco, Rex Club, Amnesia for Cocoon, and Pacha with her own night in the Pachacha room; taken in massive festivals and heaving basements the world over; contributed to the seminal mix series from Panorama Bar, fabric and Cocoon; dropped records on Perlon, Aus, K7!, Ostgut Ton, Cocoon Recordings and Bass Culture; and launched her record label Kwench Records featuring EPs from Fred P, Demuir, Ian Pooley, Kristen Velvet, Chris Carrier, Art Alfie, Amir Alexander and Steve Bug. In 2020, Cassy tapped out, moving to Austria with her mother and son. Getting distance from the challenges of the scene and learning to rest was needed. It’d be a drum & bass set with Ray Keith via a live stream by London club FOLD that did some of the work to lure her back. Cassy’s return would be further cemented by record digging sessions with her unearthed collection, pulling out tracks from Ron Hardy, Regis, Mike Dunn, Tin Man, Étienne de Crécy and Terrence Dixon, among many more. Making her debut in South Korea, fulfilling an urge to spend more time in Buenos Aires, throwing herself back into Berlin’s bubble, playing at Heideglühen,ELSE, Renate and Panorama bar, Cassy is future-focussed with an outlook that she’s here to enjoy DJing anew. “There’s fresh audiences out there to connect with, and that excites me,” Cassy explains. “I feel like I better understand my job description. I better appreciate what the moment needs and I’m less concerned with what records I have to play to keep my reputation intact. We can be too critical of ourselves. As Larry Levan advised, drop the ego. Let’s keep it real.” Flip through the two EPs that she released in 2023 on her label Kwench Records, and you’ll get a good feeling of where she’s at with her confidence as a producer and label head. On E.T. Ascension, Cassy utilises Roland’s 808 and her computer in a bid to honour her roots. Eager to strip it back to the basics, sending waves into the past when she was living in Berlin using that exact minimalist setup, she’d feel connected with herself again. “It’d been a long time since I’d used an 808. It was nice to revisit these feelings using the machine, lean into my weirdness in producing music and also use my vocals. I’m super proud of this record. It gives me that kick to get more and more creative with every release.” Ultimately, Cassy has liberated herself from the pressures of blasting through a checklist according to whatever the dominant standard may be. Representing herself in a true and sincere way is all that she demands.