It was November 2023 and I'd just seen Angel D'lite play twice in as many weeks. Both times in London, the first was a seven-hour back-to-back with Kasra V at Temple of Dreams, the party she co-curates with Eris Drew at Corsica Studios. Their set was a perfectly tongue-in-cheek journey through hardcore throwbacks, mammoth drops and expansive breakdowns. At around 2 AM, Hyper & Rhymes' remix of Puretone's "Addicted to Bass" unexpectedly crept into the mix, launching a thousand "woi-ois" and frantic fingers fumbling for the Shazam app.

"A lot of my friends say that I have a talent for finding tunes that are really on the cusp, you know? That are a bit like, 'Is this awful or is this actually incredible?'" she laughed, recounting the moment.

A week later, at Venue MOT, she switched tack. This night was a more sincerely euphoric affair, buoyed by her genuine love of ecstatic house pianos and hands-in-the-air trance. This mood-lifting versatility is what has defined her rise and rise. It's no surprise, then, that I overheard someone say to a friend, "I've seen Angel D'lite, I got what I came for, I can go home now."

In recent years, Angel D'lite has emerged as a torchbearer for rave revivalists, packing her pleasure-seeking sets with the very best trance, prog and hardcore from the '90s and '00s. Coming up through London-based DIY parties like GDANSE!, World Unknown and We Buy Gold, the DJ and producer has recently gone global, touching down everywhere from De School's New Year's Day party to FOLD, Nowadays and Dekmantel Selectors. If you're a regular clubber in London, New York, Berlin or Amsterdam, there's a good chance you've come across one of her mind-bendingly fun sessions—or, like that one raver in Venue MOT, heard a glowing review among your dancing crew.

Angel D'lite in her South London home. In the past few years, she has emerged as a torchbearer for rave revivalists.

When I met Angel D'lite in her South London home, which doubles as a makeshift studio, she lazed insouciantly on her bed. I perched on a large white patent leather sofa, directly opposite a series of shelves spilling over with records. To our right, two turntables, a mixer and a pair of monitors (one broken) sat neatly on a bright-blue tiled plinth. Sporting vivid bubblegum pink hair—a look that has become something of a trademark—she looked like a physical manifestation of the vibrancy she brings to the club. She was, as expected, a bubbly and effusive conversation partner, her demeanour warm and inviting.

It quickly became apparent that she filters her life almost exclusively through music. When asked about specific details of her upbringing or career, she almost always referred to labels, DJs, producers and record shops—such as Hackney favourite Tome Records. "They get a lot of garage in, and I guess that's because it's Hackney—the demographic and generational [aspect]," she said. "I find a lot of really good hardcore and breakbeat."

Despite possessing scholar-level knowledge of electronic music, Angel D'lite comes across as extremely unpretentious, never lingering on personal anecdotes for too long. Recounting her favourite bands from her teenage years, she proudly listed Sugababes, The Prodigy and Depeche Mode for their ability to shape culture while still being true to themselves and having fun. "Yeah, I wish I could say I was cool when I was young," she said jovially, "but the first CD that I bought was Boogie Pimps."

She spent the majority of her teenage years digging for music in second-hand and charity shops. But it wasn't until she was 19 that she focused her gaze on dance music, sparked by discovering bands like Propaganda and Yazoo, which led her to dig for more maximalist Belgian hardcore. One particular find was Mother Mix Three, a South African hard house and trance compilation that rewired her brain. "It actually changed a lot for me," she said, gesturing to her own shelves stuffed with 12-inches and CDs. "If you were to listen to any of the tunes from the mix now, the influence it's had on how I play is pretty clear."

The South Londoner packs her pleasure-seeking sets with the very best trance, prog and hardcore from the '90s and '00s.

Unlike most DJs, Angel D'lite started learning how to mix in the club. In 2016, she and two friends decided, on a whim, to successfully throw a New Year's Eve Eve party at Dalston Superstore—"a notoriously difficult day to put a party on"—and the cherished East London queer venue ended up offering the trio a residency. All of a sudden, she was playing every month. Though she admitted she initially "had no idea what I was doing," her technical skills quickly accelerated.

Gradually, those years of digging began to pay off: as her DJing abilities evolved through hardcore, new wave, synth pop and hard house, she increasingly found herself fusing contrasting genres and styles until it became her artistic calling card. "There's some really fast synth poppy stuff that's 160 [BPM], that I would be playing with jungle," she enthused. "But I wasn't thinking of it as a thing."

Indeed, Angel D'lite's DJ style marries no-holds-barred rave music with idiosyncratic mixing. This thrilling combination was on full display during her memorable performance at Field Maneuvers 2022. The 1,500-capacity Norfolk festival, loved for its "dirty little rave" ethos, provided the ideal setting for her rebellious and authentic approach to DJing, in which her rousing selections soundtracked the dusky hues that settled over the festival's iconic Sputnik tent. Having been an avid devotee of the festival before becoming a DJ, she was beaming at the chance to play at one of her favourite parties. "Sputnik is my favourite dance floor in the world," she said with a grin. "It feels like I'm transported back in time like I'm at a rave in the '90s."

Playing almost exclusively on vinyl, Angel D'lite's style is a one-two punch of regular DJ tics that, in her hands, feel anything but. Firstly: she loves a long breakdown, whether it's letting elements of the track fall away before building up towards a crescendo, or simply playing tracks in full. Recounting her 2023 set at Glasgow's popular queer party Shoot Your Shot, she described closing with a particularly rambunctious, kick-heavy remix of Simple Minds' anthem "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

"It was such a big moment and everyone was going crazy and I was like, 'You know what, let's just leave it on,'" she smiled. "Sometimes, after a really insane tune, when you turn to your friend and you're like, 'What the fuck is that?' You're not thinking about the tune after it, because you're so blown away."

Secondly is her approach to cutting in records. Channels are often swapped or chucked in off-the-cuff. Fresh kicks, hats and snares strafe into the mix with bumpy thrill. Peppered throughout, these moves act as threads for eager crowds to latch onto and follow, simultaneously straddling the joy of the current moment while teasing an expectation of what's to come. For her, there's a clear line between these cuts and her love of hardcore, jungle and UKG. "There's a lot of hardcore breaks and faster garage stuff, where the productions are choppy and they have vinyl stops and spinbacks, things like that," she explained. "I play like I'm making a track there and then."

Angel D'lite at Venue MOT, one of the DIY London venues she regularly performs at.

It's rare to find a DJ unafraid to leave the mixer untouched for five minutes and hyperactively work the hi-pass filter within the same set. This careful balance of patience and chaos perfectly coalesces with the dance floor-busting curveball selections that have become part of her signature. In full flight, these tricks can make a room, tent or stage of any size feel like an unruly house party.

Speaking to The Ransom Note in 2021, Angel D'lite revealed which artists she'd love to share her riotous energy with behind the decks. Her replies? DJ Rap in the '90s, Miss Kittin in the '00s, before a final answer, "Eris Drew… a gal can dream." Less than a year later, in 2022, the pair launched Temple of Dreams, and then performed a lauded back-to-back closing set at London festival Waterworks the following year. I reminded her of her wish, and she looked back at me with deep satisfaction. "It's mad… Eris is just magic," she said warmly.

Although best known as a DJ, Angel D'lite has also released an impressive string of original productions and remixes on the likes of Banoffee Pies, Dansu Discs, Planet Euphorique, Ritual Poison and Radiant Records. Most recently, she put out a gorgeously proggy split EP with fellow London-based artist LUXE on GODDEZZ. Like everyone else stuck in their flats at the time, Angel D'lite began producing in earnest during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Initially dragging tracks into Ableton to make her own DJ edits, this led to her making her own tunes from scratch.

"When I really got into it, clubs weren't open, so I wasn't thinking about making music for the dance floor," she reflected. "It was dance music, but I wasn't thinking about it in a functional way. It's only been within the last year or so that I've thought about it like that. I feel much more confident in my ability now."

This newfound confidence in the studio also spurred Angel D'lite to expand on her curation skills via her own label, the aptly named Sugar Rush. The in-the-works outlet will launch with her forthcoming debut EP—details of which she's keeping close to her chest—that will intentionally mirror her high-powered sensibilities as a DJ. "I want [Sugar Rush] to be a home for a fun, euphoric and pumping sound," she said. "I'm open to most genres, as long as they're within that kind of energy."

The label has also acted as a launchpad for other ideas: alongside Sugar Rush, she detailed plans to start a twin club night called Sugar Crash. Rather than shelling big-NRG club music, this afters destination will be a cosy, psychedelic event making space for softer downtempo sounds.

Speaking to Angel D'lite, you get the sense we've so far only caught a glimpse of her kaleidoscopic vision. The colourful, ravey world she has built around herself has resonated with clubbers of all temperaments, persuasions and generations. But what she has managed to achieve in such a short space of time is down to sheer tenacity—from her incessant record collecting to studio perseverance—and she has bigger and brighter plans to push her creativity forward. Before parting ways, I asked her if there was anything we might have missed.

"Did I tell you about the merch?" she replied, her eyes alight, before revealing yet another glint of her vision: cropped tees, highlighter colours, with a central logo set in diamantes. Classic Angel D'lite. I mentioned offhand that this was a much cooler idea than the typical logo on black or white tee. She looked up and laughed: "That didn't even cross my mind!"