Setaoc Mass
also plays Berlin — 7 nights
Setaoc Mass is an essential voice in techno and electronic music today. As a DJ, producer and label curator, his vision is bold and clear, rooted as much in techno as it is in IDM and experimental music. His sound—sleek, hypnotic, ultra-refined—is instantly recognizable, the result of tastes and techniques honed over 15 years of monklike dedication to his craft.
Setaoc Mass records are routinely gobbled up by DJs lauded by shops like Hard Wax. His labels, SK_Eleven (a platform for his own music) and SK_X (an outlet for music from like-minded artists are among the best in techno. As a DJ, he is a regular on the world's most hallowed dance floors, from Berghain to Bassiani.
Setaoc Mass is Sam Coates, an artist born in Manchester, long-since based in Berlin and now in Kyiv, Ukraine. He started DJing and making music after a simple experience that changed everything: a friend's older brother showing him a series of seminal music videos from artists like LFO, Aphex Twin and Autechre. Soon Coates was soaking up CLR podcasts and marathon techno sets in Berlin. The foundation for the sound of Setaoc Mass—driving, atmospheric and meticulously well crafted—was being set.
The rest of it — six more paragraphs
In 2013, Coates moved from Manchester to Berlin and dedicated himself to music completely."From my morning coffee till I went to bed," he said, "I'd be in my small room with my headphones. No gigs, no cash, just exploring Ableton, Native Instruments, Reaktor, experimenting with different ideas, finding my sound, seeing what I liked and what I didn't like."
The work paid off. In 2015, impressed by his sound, Spencer Parker tapped Coates for an EP on Work Them Records." Soon his records were in demand from institutions like Soma Recordings and Len Faki's label, Figure. But Coates was most interested in his own label, SK_Eleven, a "highly personal" project named after his home postal code that remains the primary home for his music.
The sound of Setaoc Mass has always stemmed off in many directions, with ambient, electro and experimental scattered across his EPs. Then came 2022's Horror Vacui, a debut album that made a clear artistic statement: with Setaoc Mass, techno is just the tip of the iceberg.
A devotee of his music's history with no patience for nostalgia, Coates has absorbed techno's legacy, and is dedicated to pushing it forward.
Words by Will Lynch
mayra@sourceartists.net
Their Resident Advisor profile, in full and unedited.
Records out on Soma Records, Figure, Blueprint Records and SK_eleven. — their own list on Resident Advisor
The nights
2026
- Fri 29 MayBASEMENTtheir 2nd night · basement ny
2025 — 1 night
- Fri 18 Apr 2025public recordstheir 2nd night
2024 — 3 nights
- Sat 30 Nov 2024public recordsfirst time · Ickpa
- Sun 2 Jun 2024TBA - BrooklynMERGE
- Fri 31 May 2024TBA - BrooklynMERGE
2023 — 1 night
- Fri 1 Sep 2023BASEMENTfirst time · basement ny
Their rooms
One tick a night, on the one axis this page has — Aug 2023, where the listings start, to Jan 2027, the last night anybody has announced. The shaded end has not happened yet.
- BASEMENTSep 2023 – May 20262 nights
- public recordsNov 2024 – Apr 20252 nights
Two of the 6 listings never named a room, and are not counted as one.
Who they play with
Counted from the bills themselves, over bills of twelve names or fewer. A pair's count includes a night that is announced and not yet played; where there is one, the row says when.
- LYDOan unnamed room ×1, public records ×1 · May 2024 – Apr 20252 nights
- Clarisa Kimskiian unnamed room ×2 · May 2024 – Jun 20242 nights
- Ne/Re/Aan unnamed room ×2 · May 2024 – Jun 20242 nights
- Quelzaan unnamed room ×2 · May 2024 – Jun 20242 nights
- Rene Wisean unnamed room ×2 · May 2024 – Jun 20242 nights
The nights, the rooms and the bills are the listings themselves. The biography, the labels and the photograph are Resident Advisor's. Nothing on this page was written for it.