There are DJs who play to fill the floor and DJs who play to teach you how to listen. Nicolas Lutz belongs to the second kind. Born in Montevideo, he carried his ear to Europe and, over the years, built something rare on the scene: an identity made not of hits, but of records almost no one remembers.

His method is easy to name and terribly hard to sustain: dig. Thousands of hours combing through crates, boxes and forgotten corners until he lands on those strange recordings —house, techno, electro, breakbeat, ambient, new wave— that time left behind. He doesn't play them for their rarity, but because he knows what they're worth. He's a true vinylist, the kind who lets a strange record reveal its power slowly, without rushing.

A label named like a refuge

In 2014 he founded My Own Jupiter, a platform that quietly became an underground reference. There, patience and depth aren't slogans: they're the editorial line. His own released work is brief and deliberate —two EPs, both collaborations— and that says something too. Lutz doesn't need to sign much to leave a mark; choosing well is enough.

• Auf Wiedersehen (2018), alongside Omar under the alias Draculas Lutz: acid, breaks and techno with a cosmic texture.
• Sentimental Stab (2021), with Tunik: four cuts between the industrial and the hypnotic, with a Barnt remix included.

The selector before the producer

To understand Lutz you have to hear him play. For years he was a familiar face at Club der Visionaere in Berlin, alongside Binh, in those long sessions where the groove is built record by record. His RA.473 podcast (2015) is still a good way in: subtle, tricky sounds from someone who trusts the journey more than the drop.

His most recent work shows him just as faithful to himself. His five-hour-plus set at WOMB (Tokyo, 2025) and his appearance on The Lot Radio confirm he's still on the same search: less focus on the name, more on what's playing.

Why listen now

Because it fits an idea that matters to us: music isn't exhausted by the new. Sometimes the most forward-thinking move is to rescue something that already existed and give it a context where it finally makes sense. Lutz has been doing exactly that for two decades, without hurry and without a sales pitch.

If you've never heard him, start with any of these records and give it time. Like his sets, it's not about impressing in the first minute, but about staying.