GENRE: Electronic 

LABEL: Dekmantel

REVIEWED: 6 October , 2025

RATING: 8.0/10

Call Super’s A Rhythm Protects One is a patient, often mesmerizing reconsideration of what a DJ mix can mean in the streaming era. Framed as a deluxe, physical mix project and released through Dekmantel, the record positions itself as a corrective to the shapelessness of online mixes: it insists on form, ritual, and the slow sculpting of atmosphere. 

Sonically, the album drifts between warm minimalism and textured club futurism. Sparse percussion, burbling low-ends, and found-sound flourishes give many passages a tactile quality—like grooves being unearthed rather than manufactured. Moments such as the Conny Slipp pieces and Call Super’s own “Waterways” (which appear among the album’s sequence) show how small motifs are repeated and transmuted until they feel almost archetypal. The result is less about immediate peak-time payoff and more about cumulative immersion. 

The project’s conceptual framing—accompanied by a zine and a gatefold 2CD/2×12” package—reinforces its meditation on memory and media. That care for physical presentation amplifies the music’s themes: nostalgia for the mix CD’s curatorial power and a plea for formats that slow listening down. It’s an argument delivered with subtlety rather than didacticism. 

If the album has a fault, it’s that its deliberate pacing will frustrate listeners seeking immediate hooks; this is work for repeated, attentive plays rather than casual backgrounding. For those willing to invest time, however, A Rhythm Protects One repays patience richly—an artful, reflective statement about club music’s past and possible futures.