French duo Mozambo have spent the past decade shaping a sound that sits comfortably between club functionality and musicality, drawing on disco, Afro-rooted percussion and classic house without treating any of them as fixed reference points. Over the last year their profile has accelerated, with steady DJ support, international touring and the launch of their own imprint, Jungle Disco Records, signalling a project entering a more self-directed phase.
They’ve delivered an exclusive mix for us that mirrors that trajectory. It moves between newer material, catalogue favourites and records that continue to hold weight in their sets, giving a clear sense of how they frame a room.
In the accompanying interview, Mozambo speak about momentum without pressure, the gradual shift from musician-first thinking to a more holistic DJ perspective, and the responsibility that came with reworking Gilberto Gil’s “Maracatu Atômico.” They also reflect on nearly ten years of partnership, the instinct behind launching their label, and a recent spell in Los Angeles that brought fresh energy ahead of a busy run of releases planned through 2026.
You’ve had a huge amount of support come in quite quickly over the last year. When that starts happening, does it sharpen your focus or add a different kind of pressure in the studio?
When that kind of momentum starts to build, we don’t really experience it as pressure. For us, it’s much more a source of motivation. It pushes us to create more, to express ourselves more freely, and to keep moving forward. Seeing that level of support is exciting and very rewarding. We try to look at it positively, as something that encourages us to stay inspired and focused on the future. It definitely gives us a lot of strength.
Your music leans heavily on rhythm and feel rather than big moments. When you’re building a track, what usually comes first for you?
Rhythm plays a very important role in our music because, as DJs, we’re extremely sensitive to how rhythm translates on the dancefloor. We always think about how a track will feel when we play it in our DJ sets and how it creates a real club atmosphere.
At the same time, the melodic side is just as important to us. We’re musicians, so we’re always trying to find the right balance between rhythm and melody, so the track has both impact and emotion. We don’t really have a fixed method when we start a track. Sometimes it begins with drums, sometimes with a melody. It really depends on the feeling in that moment. Inspiration comes very intuitively, and we build the track around what feels right rather than following strict rules.
You’ve been DJing and producing together for nearly ten years. Looking back, what parts of your early output feel miles away from where you are now?
Looking back, what has changed the most over the years is our vision, especially when it comes to how we start and finish a track. Today, we probably approach music much more from a DJ perspective than we did in the early days.
At the beginning, we were thinking almost exclusively as musicians. Now, we have a more global vision of electronic music, of the music we love to play as DJs and the music we love to compose. That naturally changed the way we work.
We’ve kept our musician instincts, but our decision-making has evolved. With experience, you learn when to strip things back, when to add what’s missing, and when to stop. The biggest change is really maturity, in production, in vision, and in understanding what a track actually needs.
Maracatu Atômico connects you to an enormous cultural legacy through Gilberto Gil. Did that project change how you think about responsibility when reworking music with real history behind it?
It was a huge honour for us to remix Gilberto Gil. He’s an artist we deeply love and one of our absolute references in Brazilian music. Because of that, there was a strong sense of responsibility. We wanted to respect the original and bring it into our world in the most honest way possible.
Our goal was to create a fusion between what we love about Gilberto Gil’s music and our own musical universe. We wanted to highlight Brazilian culture through samba, while connecting it with house music, which represents us and what we love to play as DJs.
Samba and house share something very important for us: they both bring people together. We’re very proud of the result and happy to see people from different musical backgrounds discovering Brazilian culture or electronic music through this remix. It really feels like a meeting point between two worlds.
There’s a fine line between drawing from Afro and disco influences and drifting into something formulaic. Is that a conversation you actively have between yourselves?
We don’t really overthink it. Disco and Afro influences have been part of us for a very long time, so working with these sounds feels completely natural. Disco, in particular, has always been a huge influence, both in our productions and in our overall vision.
House music is the bridge between all these influences. It naturally carries elements of disco and Afro music and allows us to bring those sounds into clubs around the world. For us, it feels organic rather than forced.
We enjoy blending these elements and shaping them into our own sound. It’s music that really speaks to us emotionally and that we genuinely love to play as DJs, whether it’s our own tracks, remixes, or original records from the late 70s and 80s.
You’ve just launched Jungle Disco Records at a moment when a lot of artists are questioning the value of labels altogether. Why was now the right time for you to build one?
We had been dreaming about creating our own label for quite a long time. For us, it was about independence and creating an extension of Mozambo. A place where we can release music freely, without limits and without artistic compromises.
We felt it was the right moment because of the strong support we’ve been receiving, especially from DJs around the world. That encouragement pushed us to take this step and express ourselves more fully. With today’s digital tools, releasing music is much more flexible than it used to be. Jungle Disco Records opens the door to many new possibilities, and we’re really excited to develop the label further and give it more focus throughout 2026.
After a month working in Los Angeles, did that environment push your sound forward or simply clarify what you don’t want Mozambo to become?
Los Angeles felt like a very special environment for us. It’s a city we truly love and that has inspired us for a long time, through music, cinema and its creative energy. California is somehow part of our identity and even part of our childhood dreams.
Being there doesn’t necessarily change our vision, but it brings comfort, inspiration and motivation. Being surrounded by talented artists, meeting new people and exchanging ideas is incredibly stimulating
It’s also very different from Brazil, Latin America or Europe, which makes it refreshing. Overall, it was a great experience and gave us even more motivation for the music we’re about to release.
Tell us about the mix you’ve put together for us – any specific tracks you’d like to highlight?
With this mix, we wanted to give a snapshot of where we are right now. It’s a blend of our recent releases on Jungle Disco and other projects, alongside tracks that came out years ago but still feel important to us today.
We included music we play regularly in our sets, mixing older records with more modern tracks that make sense together. The mix reflects our universe, our influences and what we enjoy sharing on the dancefloor. We wanted it to feel honest and timeless rather than tied to a specific moment.
Looking ahead, Do you feel more driven by building longevity or by taking risks that might not always make sense commercially?
We’re really excited about releasing a lot of music. We don’t overthink the idea of risk too much, because you can never really predict how a track will be received.
We rely a lot on intuition and on what we genuinely love first. That’s always our main filter before sharing music with our audience. We take time to listen to our demos and feel what makes sense in that moment.
2026 is already starting really well for us, and we’re extremely excited and grateful for what’s coming. There’s a lot of music on the way, and it feels like a beautiful year ahead creatively.
Tracklist:
FLC , San soda – It’s you (San Soda’s Panorama Bar AccA Version)
Mel Bundo – Homerun
Africanism, DJ Gregory, Baron – Block Party (Baron remix)
Mozambo – KMJ
Teddy Pendergrass, The Martinez Brothers – The more I get, The more I want (The Martinez Brothers Remix )
Luke Alessi – After five
Mozambo – My Soul
Mita Gami , Garden City Movement – Untouchable
Konvex , Meloko , Garla – If U Ever
Mozambo – Corrosol
Gilberto Gil, Alok, Maz, Mozambo – Maracatu Atomico (Alok , Maz & Mozambo remix )
Antdot, Mozambo – Stay
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