Meet our February 2026 Mix of the Month Winner – Riley Bee

Congratulations to Riley Bee, our Mix of the Month winner for February 2026.

Riley Bee (formerly Riley Warren) is an independent electronic music artist and DJ who has been crafting and performing her sound since 2006. Drawing from retro-futurism, cyberpunk aesthetics and the rich cultural fabric of classic 90s electronic music, her sets blend deep, atmospheric grooves with hypnotic rhythms and downtempo cinematic pieces that feel less like playlists and more like evolving soundtracks. Much of her inspiration comes from film scores; moody, emotional and immersive, and that influence is unmistakable. Having travelled internationally as a performer and worked in sound design for film, Riley brings a worldly, cinematic depth to everything she does. Through smooth transitions, layered melodies and carefully built tension, she creates journeys that balance analogue nostalgia with a thoroughly modern electronic pulse.

Las Vegas-based Riley will be familiar to regular readers, having previously been a runner-up during our bumper August 2025 edition, when entries nearly hit the 200 mark. As with our previous two winners, it took a second entry to claim the top spot, and we are absolutely thrilled that she kept at it. This month, as always, the quality of submissions was exceptionally high, which makes this victory all the more deserved.

Riley’s mix is flawless, seamless and expertly constructed, built around deep, bassline-driven electronica. But what truly set it apart and made it our unanimous choice is its powerful, poignant message woven throughout. In the turbulent times we are all navigating right now, this mix stands as an excellent example of emotional self-expression through the medium of art, and that is precisely the kind of work we believe deserves to be heard by as wide an audience as possible.

We also want to give a well-earned shout out to this month’s top 10 runners-up: Eclis, Ella Mental, Jay White, MarkMark, McDee, pwnda, Scott, Singular Sounds, TCHRLZ and TRYSTZ. Brilliantly done to each of you. And to everyone who submitted this month, even if you have not received a mention here (the runners-up represent roughly the top 10% of entries, and art is always subjective), your contributions mean the world to us. Please keep going.

How did you approach your mix from a creative and technical standpoint – what story were you aiming to tell, and how did that influence your selection, sequencing, and transitions?

Hi. First I’d like to say a quick thank you for hosting a mix competition like this. It’s really refreshing to see that actual judges are listening to the quality of music, mixing, technicality and creative processes rather than how many likes someone can get on their mix. It’s exceptionally rare these days to find quality over quantity.
Now that that’s out of the way, ha ha.

My personal journey with music has taken me into some really cool spaces such as sound design for film and doing some foley work. That really opened my eyes to feeling the emotions of sound that’s not necessarily “music”. I like to create more cinematic storylines rather than just a punchy bunch of cool tracks of the moment. Luckily, I’ve been doing this for a very long time so I’ve got two decades of music to pull from when creating a set for radio or, in this case, the Decoded Magazine Mix of the Month competition.

Most of the music I chose for this mix had some meaning in the sound, feeling, or, for some tracks, even just the name. I have always had a connection with the monologue from the movie The Network, and now seemed like the right moment to use that in a mix. With everything going on in the world in the last year, and especially now, this mix tells a story of people finding their power in themselves—be it through community, through music, through media… whatever it takes. I might not be a great public speaker, but I can try to tell a story through music.

Were there any particular production or mixing techniques you used to maintain cohesion or enhance dynamics across the mix? For instance, did you favour long blends, harmonic mixing, or any custom edits to help the narrative flow?

I’ve been very lucky to have amazing mentors throughout my time as a DJ and producer who have really inspired me to transition between tracks longer. Anything less than nearly 2 minutes of mixing two tracks is just cheating in their eyes. They’ve definitely inspired me to push my transitions to another level. I really enjoy those mixes where you can’t tell where one track ends and another begins because its beat and low bassline have been teased throughout the entire last track, maybe two.

As far as custom edits, I’ve had a musical infatuation with Marc DePulse for quite a while and he recently made two remixes of a Darin Epsilon track.  I loved them both so much I just mashed them together in this mix. Why settle for one when you can have both? I also added a Jon Hopkins mix that I first heard in the movie *Monsters*, which he scored. The movie itself was good but that movie inspired me to get into the film side of music. Jon is a huge influence on me.

How have your musical experiences and influences shaped your sound?

Oh, yes. Of course. I’ve been very lucky to have gotten to do several great projects throughout my musical career. When I started playing music, I was all about Sasha, Hernan, Nick… the usual suspects of progressive. That was my life. As I grew as an artist, and started to define my own style and sound, I fell in love with cinematic scores and that completely changed my production style. Most everything I’ve made in the last number of years has been downtempo, heavily synthesized sounds and very melodic.

(Most of my music is released under Riley Warren if you’d like to hear it.) I changed my name a few years back when I realised my musical style had changed so drastically. Oddly enough, my releases as Riley Bee aren’t downtempo.

Tracklisting:

1. The Network (Movie) – Mad as Hell Monologue
2. M-Sol DEEP, Mikhail Talanov – Airflow (Original Mix)
3. Jon Hopkins – The Journey / Temple (from Monsters OST)
4. Ormatie – Twisted Turns (Original Mix)
5. Nosssia – Clandestino (Original Mix)
6. J Staaf & Z1 – Drop The Hook (Original Mix)
7. Ruben Costlada, Hvitling – You are not machines (Hvitling Remix)
8. Rees – Enter The Realm (Curses Remix)
9. Darin Epsilon – Midnight Rider (Marc DePulse Sunday Afternoon Edit)
10. Darin Epsilon – Midnight Rider (Marc DePulse Remix)
11. Dirty Doering – Freedom Disappeared (Original Mix)
12. Sharam Jey, AMFM (MX) – Vocoder Love (Original Mix)
13. Animal Trainer – Rebirth (Original Mix)
14. Marco Bedini – Controller (Original Mix)
15. Aparde – No Need (Robot Koch Remix)
16. News Anchor Interview from the 90’s with a cool connected dude

Follow Riley Bee on Socials:

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rileybeemusic 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rileybee__ 
Facebook: facebook.com/djrileybee

About the Decoded Magazine Mix of the Month

Our Mix of the Month competition is open to DJs worldwide, regardless of profile or experience.

For more information, including rules of entry and where to submit, head here.

by Damion Pell

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