Nikita DJ is a Helsinki DJ and event curator. They joined the SUMU crew in 2023 and stayed until the venue closed this August, six years of a place that ran entirely on its own terms, where every host and guest was the awareness team and most people knew each other by name.

He recorded their guest mix in July, still carrying the Valley stage at Solstice around with him. Ninety minutes of late-90s and early-00s progressive from Superstition, Planet Vision, Choo Choo, Forensic, Yoshitoshi with a handful of 2025 cuts on 9FINITY and Magicwire slotted in very naturally. It opens with his comfort record, Terry Lee Brown’s Ocean of Joy in Dano’s Melancholy Dub and near the end runs two different remixes of Resistance D’s Feel High back to back. Peak time, dubby whatever you may call it or hopeful melancholia, as he puts it. I’ll say: an ocean of joy.

Great to have you. Give our listeners the quick rundown: who are you and where are you based?

Hey listeners! It’s Nikita. I DJ and organise parties in Helsinki. The latter mostly hosted at SUMU – an underground venue I was an active part of till its recent closure in August 2026.

Tell us about your event work, how did you get started and how have the nights evolved?

After a few years of organising small and very exhausting nights at rental locations, my friend and I were invited to host an event at SUMU. Soon after, in 2023, I joined the crew.

The venue had already been around for a few years by then and had built some recognition without being public per se. The post-covid meeting spot gradually evolved into a club that everyone I talked to somehow already knew about.

What kept you coming back to arranging parties?

“The secret element is crime”, I guess?

Jokes aside, I feel what kept the venue running for six years was an ambition to do things on our own terms. Top to toe SUMU has been a Do-It-Yourself venue. There really hasn’t been an area of production we wouldn’t personally take care of, and I think it translated into how people felt at our venue – both guests and artists alike. We didn’t ever have an awareness team, but each host and guest was the awareness team. Whilst there were always people to talk to, our message has always been that we all bear responsibility for a party. We also got to know most of the people visiting us, or even if we didn’t, they would pick up the etiquette quite quickly.

As for the artists, we aimed for bookings that would be interested in the experience itself, rather than big fees (that we couldn’t offer anyway). And so if a world touring DJ was still keen on playing in a small basement, it was always a good sign for us.

Personally, I kept coming back as I felt there wouldn’t be another place like this in Helsinki. And now, there really isn’t. There are a lot of great things happening in the city, but SUMU would be just pretty damn hard to replicate, even for ourselves.

But yes, I have also been there for the thrill of it.

Tell us about the state of your collection. Where are you finding the music right now?

I am honestly down for every possible channel we are exposed to right now. My favourite being an actual record store, but I also don’t shy away from checking what pops up on my feed on social media, or heading to “suggested tracks” on streaming platforms. It’s already there – take it or leave it. I am not really bothered with how ‘rare’ tracks are, although finding a new favorite with some 300 views on YT definitely adds to the experience. A longer process of discovery just feels more special.

More importantly than where I am taking a record from, I need to find something of myself in the record. Playing it otherwise feels like a scam.

What’s your ultimate comfort record?

Take two!

Boom Generation – Flageo

Terry Lee Brown – Ocean Of Joy (Dano’s Melancholy Dub), which is also the opener of this mix.

So the mix, can you tell us a little something about that? What kind of set are we in for?

The mix is largely inspired by the Solstice festival 2026 and specifically, the Valley stage. It became the place I can barely skip coming back to after four years of visiting the festival.

Back home this year, I started putting together some tracks that would put me in the same headspace – a mix of hopeful melancholia together with ecstasy and some things that wouldn’t translate well verbally. Maybe this is where music really starts for me. My ultimate favorite records feel like breaking out – of my troubles, my thinking, myself. Embodying this sort of an outer-inner state was what I was after, and this mix has been a solid attempt.

This recording largely focuses on prog sound of late 1990’s, early 2000’s, 2020’s… But I seek the same ethereal character in other genres I appreciate. A lot of shoegaze or 90s electronica I listen to speaks to the same feeling.

What experiences are you currently seeking more of?

Connecting with people through music and otherwise, at beautiful places.

For some time I thought of music as a soundtrack to great experiences. Now I am sure music creates the experience itself – it’s the bond and the secret language.

Many thanks, anything else?

Shoutout everyone doing anything. Wish you an ocean of joy.