Born Sancha Ndeko, a South Sudanese-British DJ and producer, the Mia Koden story spans continents and cultures. In youth, she was steeped in her parents’ pan-African record collection and later made frequent soundsystem pilgrimages to hear roots reggae, jungle and dubstep in their natural UK habitats. A culture Koden honours every time she performs, imbuing her sets with lively African percussion, chest-rattling bass, and inventive blends that reflect her heritage and London environs. On April 11, Mia Koden brings these influences to her set at Control Club for the latest edition of aim+wall presents.
Koden first hit the scene as one half of Sicaria Sound, a DJ duo she formed in 2016 with her university classmate Lou Nour. Bonding over a shared love of dubstep, the pair built Sicaria Sound into a vanguard project “rooted in promoting emerging music from the bass continuum”. They became resident DJs for Mala’s Deep Medi Musik label and earned a monthly residency on Rinse FM from 2018 onward. With their relentless curation and mixing chops, Sicaria Sound played major festival stages from Glastonbury to Outlook and launched their Cutcross label to champion new, like-minded talent.
The duo’s debut release, 2021's Binate, wove in their respective African and Arab backgrounds with elements of dubstep and hip-hop. In a genre often skewing toward "boys club," seeing two women of color commanding the decks and production booth like this was a quietly radical presence. After a remarkable run, the partnership ended amicably in late 2021, and Ndeko and Nour parted ways as close friends, each ready to chart her own course. For Ndeko, continuing to carry the bass-heavy torch meant evolving into Mia Koden.
Unveiling Mia Koden in 2022, Ndeko set out to develop her production voice while staying true to the sound system ethos that shaped her. Early 2023 saw the self-release of Hot Take / I Did. These two low-end driven tracks, sitting just under 140BPM, were conceived as a “segue between Sicaria Sound and finding her own sonic identity”, blending “swaggering dub, 2-step, UK steppas and electro”. The EP’s muscular but playful style earned a nod from the underground (or, as she put it, “heads-approved”) and affirmed that Mia Koden would be a force in her own right.
If Hot Take / I Did was a statement of intent, Decode, her 2023 EP on Munich’s revered Ilian Tape label, was its reinforcement. Signing to the Zenker Brothers' Ilian Tape placed Koden on a broader stage, and she delivered emphatically. Decode’s four tracks orbit the dubstep 140-BPM sweet spot while pulling in unusual influences from grime to footwork. On Après Vous, the EP’s shadowy closing track, Koden directly channels her heritage, dedicating it to her late South Sudanese grandfather, sampling a favorite Congolese soukous guitar lick by Kanda Bongo Man atop a heavyweight dub bassline. By year’s end, Resident Advisor named her a Breakthrough Artist of 2024, praising how her DJ sets masterfully unite dubstep, grime and other bass styles under the guiding principle of “honouring sound system culture.”
On stage and in the studio, Mia Koden emanates a studious passion for her craft. A self-described “nerd” about sound, she often scours old footage of sound clashes and reggae sessions for inspiration, digging up crackly samples from vintage Sir Coxsone sound system tapes or Queens, New York battle dances. This reverence for the lineage of bass music gives Koden’s productions and DJ sets a rare depth. In her recent 90-minute Dekmantel Podcast, she careened through bass, percussive, 2-step, dubstep, dub, dub techno and breaks at tempos up to 150 BPM. The mix was technically precise and infectiously bold, lacing thunderous low-end rhythms with surprise flourishes like cheeky grime vocals or R&B snippets.
As a Black woman excelling in a corner of electronic music historically dominated by men, Mia Koden's presence cannot be overstated as a role model and a fresh perspective in the UK bass scene. Her public persona is warm, community-minded and grounded. When she launched her 34U project in 2024, she invited fans to vote on which unreleased tracks should make the EP, making the community a collaborator in her process. Blending critical insight with narrative flair, she has evolved from an underground DJ into a low-end storyteller who isn’t afraid to let her heritage and imagination take the reins.
