Overview. Ostalgia is Rhys Fulber’s second album for Sonic Groove following the success of last year’s Your Dystopia, My Utopia. Like its predecessor, it continues his interest in pushing new boundaries in industrial techno, with kicks and bass lines woven together with clinical precision to cause intense speaker pressure, and atmospheric synth lines that will dig deep inside your mind. The title and the original socialist realism mural on the cover refer to Ostalgie - a romantic nostalgia for the old but comforting ways of Communist East Germany - and a yearning for rigid systems after progression into the future has led to chaos and uncertainty. While the music on Ostalgia is at times a reflection of that chaos and uncertainty, it also refers to Rhys further exploring his Germanic ancestry. And although the sledgehammer beats of 12 Steppes and Fission evoke Rhys’ previous work with industrial pioneers Front Line Assembly, he is not simply paying homage to his past musical escapades here. This is forward-looking music, not content with resting on any past ideologies.

Official flyer.

Overview. In these 3 years we dream of reaching an event like this and we have achieved it. Of course, everyone is cordially invited to the celebration of our 3rd. Anniversary with one of the most iconic DJs of the underground scene in the world with you ART DEPARTMENT!
Art Department is the underground music project that is now led by the legendary Jonny White, who is the head in charge of the famous record label "No.19". AD productions changed the landscape to electronic music, earning recognition as the number 1 track of the year at the Beatport Awards in 2014.

Location.

Overview. Movimiento Para Cambio, is the full-length and debut for PAN from Montreal based duo Pelada. Comprising of vocalist Chris Vargas and producer Tobias Rochman, they have gained international attention through the city’s underground warehouse rave scene.
An urgent, headstrong body of work, the LP uses the music as a mechanism for delivering ideas central to the group’s moral and political ethos. Vargas explores themes of power, identity, surveillance and environmental justice atop Rochman’s raw mix of rave synths, acid basslines, breakbeats and dembow rhythms.
While at times unpredictable, the album is unified in its fast and loose approach. A Mí Me Juzgan Por Ser Mujer (‘I Am Judged Because I’m a Woman’) is an anti-machista anthem, stylistically nodding to NY house. Though Vargas doesn’t identify as a woman themselves, they understand their experience as a woman in an imbalanced patriarchal society that excludes women, femmes and non-binary people. Habla Tu Verdad (‘Speak Your Truth’) emphasizes the need to overcome the stigma around discussing sexual harassment, offering courage and strength to those who may need it. Asegura (‘Secure’) deals with the unprecedented power of Big Data, which monetizes a surveillance based economy through its users' data and behaviours. These themes are set to fierce unrelenting bpms, nods to gabber, and samples of a reality show where young men compete in a prison fitness contest. Caderona (‘big hips’), features a hardline perreo-tinged beat that carries Vargas’ vocals with refreshing ferocity. Inspired by a cumbia song, Caderona offers a counterpoint to the male gaze, acting as an opportunity to demand space. Aquí describes the reality of a global corporate domination, where capitalist insatiability meets government inaction as we sit on the precipice of a mass extinction of our own making.
Pelada hope to inspire critical self- reflexivity through engagement, building power, demanding space and action. Or as it is written in their liner notes: ‘ABRE TUS OJOS, LA BESTIA SE ALIMENTA DE LA EXPLOTACIÓN' which translates to ‘OPEN YOUR EYES, THE BEAST FEEDS ON EXPLOITATION’.
The album is mastered by Jeremy Cox, featuring artwork by Johannes Schnatmann & Bill Kouligas.

Overview. As it has become a somewhat common occurrence in his discography, Shackleton’s Cosmo Rhythmatic debut as Tunes Of Negation opens with a song. Its structure and, most importantly, themes, can be integrally traced within his rhizomatic net of creations, consistent with a process that’s regularly wandered through spiritual depths by means of sonic perseverance. Sung by Heather Leigh, the double – cantos continuum of “The World Is A Stage” and “Reach The Endless Sea” deal with time, or rather its illusory, treacherous nature, as well as spiritually investigating ideas of immortality, memory, and grief.
Ultimately, it is a meditation on the non-finitude of life and spirit, and the limits of perception in dealing with it. It could be argued that the whole record, as well as Shackleton’s whole body of work, represents an attempt to break those limits and trespass beyond human experience, incorporating an immense vocabulary of music traditions in order to ditch linear narratives and the established grammar of electronic music.
Shackleton’s usual arsenal of resonating woods and metals, ceremonial polyrhythms and astral melodies acquire a freer, more spontaneous character by the intervention of keyboardist Takumi Motokawa and mallet player Raphael Meinhart, whose symbiosis with the producer generates a truly beautiful and multi-directional flow of energy. The sacral austerity of the music is paralleled by its sheer, seductive, harmonic power, one that draws new trajectories in time and space with its seemingly endless layers of arpeggios, beats, and drones.
For all their complexity and propulsion, these are indeed Tunes of Negation. The title, inspired by a poem by 13th Century mystic Jalalu’l-Din Rumi, is a description of what Shackleton himself hopes to achieve with the music, to “aid transmutation and enter into the light”.

Overview. Exterminador is the production and DJ alter ego of Berlin-based music educator and vinyl aficionado Mario Resta. As like-minded musicians both him and Marcel Dettmann share a profound passion for electronic music with soul and attitude, for techno and its many-faceted derivatives. Both producers befriended each other years ago, providing the basis for musical dialogue and exchange. This path led to Exterminador providing the inaugural release on Dettmann's new platform BAD MANNERS, in form of four versatile cuts for both peak- and downtime.  “Bleeding From Inside” opens the A-side of BAD MANNERS 2 with a fast-paced, cool and hardhitting electro funk meditation. Afterwards “You Are Not I” features an irresistible bassline atop a boomy kick alongside alluring vocals and hi-hat. B1 sees a stark change in pace and style: “Pericos” is a deep, melodic and bleep-focussed techno tool with occasional fireworks-reminiscent flares. “Scattered Remains” closes this EP with a second track with funk- and even more wave/ebm-leaning rhythm, featuring radio vox to dramatic effect.  BAD MANNERS is the new platform and label by DJ and musician Marcel Dettmann, offering artists close to him an undefined space for expression while encouraging unpredictability in format and sound.

Overview. BAD MANNERS 3 offers two club-enabled reworks of classic Marcel Dettmann material by legends Anthony 'Shake' Shakir and Morphosis. Both remixes have been previously unreleased and date back many years. Recently resurfaced, the approach of each of the two techno innovators shows how music can survive time: sounding fresh and still way ahead of the curve.  The 12" starts with motor city's very own Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir. Knowing each other since the late 1990s and having shared decks many times, this Detroit-Berlin axis is manifested with the pioneering producer and DJ’s remix of “Eruq”. Here, Shake offers a both playful and fierce take on Dettmann's unreleased original, turning it in a multi-layered gem of his that's guaranteed to turn heads in sets.   “Works” on B features a deep, groovy 10-minute percussion and synth modulation study by interdisciplinary artist and Berlin-based producer Rabih Beaini aka Morphosis – now rhythmically compelling, then further expanding and stylistically free-floating.  BAD MANNERS is the new platform and label by DJ and musician Marcel Dettmann, offering artists close to him an undefined space for expression while encouraging unpredictability in format and sound. 

Overview. Schlepp Geist has been invigorating Leipzig‘s scene and sound for quite a while now and with certainty will do even more so with this upcoming, vigorous EP on Distillery Records.
He shaped up the opening and lead track „Dust“ with so much potential, that he just had to carve out two versions, serving slightly different fields of application. The „Outdoor Mix“ incorporates all the essentials of an utmost classy peak time affair that will apply to the affective dynamics of crowds in larger numbers. Single lasting notes ensnaring micro-percussive patterns, haunted vocals creating somewhat of an emotive song-quality within the track-like arrangement, a break evidently bursting with tension and energy, in short: the maximum in effect, without compromising in style and attitude. The „Indoor Mix“ on the other hand highlights rather tribalesque rhythms and a more subtle and deep quality to the groove, tweaking it for ultimate club-duties. Following up is „Shiver“, a tune that delves into deeper realms, introducing a filtered-in piano-motif that progresses into pure Acid bliss. Tool-house splendour that surely will send shivers of joy down many spines. „Last“ opens up yet another sound aesthetic, bringing heavy breaks and a bass-line into play that at some point in Techno history would have been considered „Knartz“. Comparative minds might even sense some tribute to „Flatbeat“ within this mix. At least up until the point, elevating pads add a more romantic notion to the tune. Chris Manura then finally lays his hands and mind on that very „Last“, translating it into a 4/4 scheme, referring to the original‘s bass-line here and there, but in general teasing out a completely different temper that‘s built on sparkling synths, a straight groove, deep mentality and epic arrangement.