watergate club
falckensteinstr. 49
10997 berlin
germany

OUT NOW
Alan Fitzpatrick - Don't Stop [APX031]
orcd.co/apx031

Tour Dates & Music: https://alanfitzpatrick.komi.io

Labels
@wearethebraveofficial
@apexfaction

Management - Electric Ibiza 
Neil Evans 
neil@electricibiza.com
Lisa Barraclough
lisa@electricibiza.com

WATB/Apex Label Manager
Graham Sahara
graham.sahara@electricibiza.com

Socials - Tom Aves
digital@avesie.com
 
Bookings - UK, Europe, Asia & ROW
NGE Bookings
will@nge-booking.com

Bookings - North & South America
Emma Hoser
Liaison Artists
emma@liaisonartists.com

A man who needs little introduction, Southampton born techno legend Alan Fitzpatrick has spent the last decade carving out his musical niche and holding rank in the upper echelons of the underground electronic world. Few artists can claim to have headlined Berghain and also had a hit on daytime BBC Radio 1, but then there aren’t many artists like Alan Fitzpatrick. 

One of the most popular techno DJs in the world, he has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Carl Cox and Adam Beyer for the best part of a decade, performing at the world’s biggest clubs and festivals. Known primarily for his raw hard-edged sound, Alan has developed into one of dance music’s most versatile producers, equally at home putting out techno bangers on Drumcode as he is making disco-infused house anthems, or experimental electronica under his 3STRANGE alias, not to mention his impressive range of collaborations (including CamelPhat, Skream, Sasha, Rebūke and Jamie Jones). 

The We Are The Brave and Apex Faction label don adopts a no nonsense approach to A&R and in 5 short years Alan has welcomed some of Techno’s finest producers to his fold. The Englishman champions the musical output of both established artists and breakthrough alike, accumulating over 50 million Spotify Streams on We Are The Brave records since its inception in 2016. Fast-forward to 2021 and the southern powerhouse shows no sign of slowing down, his passion for music permeating all aspects of his career. The WATB frontman is renowned for curating an evening of exceptional magnitude, having already showcased his roster’s talent at The Warehouse Project, Shine Belfast, SWG3 Glasgow and the infamous Fabric nightclub in London.

For Rune Reilly Kölsch, Kompakt has become a great label to call home. In 2013 the German imprint celebrated 20 years of record releases at the cutting edge of electronic music, championed in June by one of the most genre re-defining albums and personal music projects for an era: Kölsch’s landmark long player, ‘1977’.

A melodic autobiography on black wax, the Kölsch project has seen 36/37-year-old Rune take stock of a diverse and successful production career and draw upon his own personal beginnings: a nostalgia for childhood, family, friends and the confusion of applying his split-cultural heritage to what it means to think of ‘home’. As Rune freely admits, “being half Irish, half German and living in Denmark – it was all one big messy period of my life.” 

Born to hippie parents in the freetown of Christiania (a commune-like autonomous borough of the Danish capital Copenhagen) his childhood was spent surrounded by creativity. His mother was an artist whose family had roots in German politics and his father a singer songwriter who travelled through Asia playing music in the early 70's. Kölsch, however, did miss out on building friendships and found solace in making up “this imaginary world that I would spend days in,” before the family moved to Germany – a period of memories, relations and characters from which ‘1977’ derives its titles.

For Rune, the tracks he began building from 2010 took in this personal reflection, his being “completely locked in to reminiscing about what shaped me as a kid and into the individual that I am now” – contemplating his unique past to form the brickwork of ‘1977’, one of the most future-facing techno albums of recent years.

Influenced by hip hop, pop and the incredible legacy of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, Rune started producing in 1995, embarking on a string of success stories. In 2003 he released the multi-million selling, saxophone-infused ‘Calabria’, that saw collaboration requests pouring in from artists as diverse as Nicki Minaj, Shakira and Flo Rida. He then set up Tattoorecs – releasing pioneering underground tracks with no titles, just tattoos for artwork, that garnered critical acclaim and support from minimal and techno trailblazers such as Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Tiefschwarz and Ricardo Villalobos.

This appreciation of the complete musical spectrum has gifted Rune with a devotion to groove and melodics and with it the dexterity to input real creative change to the genres he reveres, not least his beloved techno. “2010 was the year of the ketamine house wave, where the music was 118 bpm and everything was extremely boring”, reflects Rune. “I wanted some melodic techno, some energy back in this scene. People needed the energy to express themselves and go crazy for a bit.”

This notion faced opposition, even from within Rune’s close circles. But it was Kompakt founder Michael Mayer who had the insight to see what Kölsch was trying to achieve. Rune’s conviction that vibrations and melodics are the key to human response had tipped the balance, underlined by his experience as a hip hop DJ where he “needed something to catch me and drag me in. And that’s what techno should do!” Here too he drew on his love of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, recalling how “they used to make mistakes all the time. It would be a big mash of all kinds of stuff, but at least something was happening. That’s what I was missing and that’s what I’m trying to change with the Kölsch project.”

The result is ‘1977’, a personal collection of dancefloor destroyers that are continuing to send clubs and festivals across the globe into melodic supernova. Take this video of Kölsch’s set at Belgium’s I Love Techno festival, one of Rune’s 2013 highlights, where “people were doing sit downs, singing along to all the tracks”. Watch it. It puts the hairs up on the back of your neck. “The response was overwhelming,” said Rune in a recent interview with Mixmag (who named Kölsch as one of their ‘Stars Of 2013’), as “when you think about it, it was just a bunch of childhood memories with a kickdrum underneath.” 

Elsewhere he’s ripped up the airways with an acclaimed Essential Mix for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1, delivered his incendiary soundscape to Singapore’s world-renowned ZoukOut Festival, boomed his live show through the heaving basement of London’s XOYO and played the hallowed Space Terrace – in his words “a boyhood dream since I started going to Ibiza in 1999. That was what I wanted from life!” So opening Amnesia in 2014 with Joris Voorn will be a bonus then...

While these are reasons enough to keep the beaming smile beneath Kölsch’s trademark black fedora, his humility remains just as striking. While tracks like ‘Goldfisch’ have taken pivotal positions in the set lists of world class DJs from across the dance music spectrum – traversing the underground with Seth Troxler, while simultaneously providing credible new euphoric highs for the likes of Axwell – Rune remains joyously down to earth. All despite producing, with ‘1977’, an album that has crossed as many cultural and musical boundaries as his own childhood past.

From the face-twisting melodic drive of ‘Opa’ and ‘Bappedekkel’, to the chord-surfing piano groove of ‘Der Alte’ and the euphoric crescendos of ‘Lorely’, ‘Oma’ and ‘All That Matters’ (all hits in different countries), the fact remains that whether in your living room, on the dancefloors of the world’s greatest parties, or simply in your headphones on your way home, Kölsch’s ‘1977’ has re-defined techno and become an achievement that speaks for itself. 

Words: Phil Dudman – Clubs & Live Music Editor, Mixmag


MANAGEMENT
phil@threesixzero.com
mm@threesixzero.com

BOOKING
WW (excl. North & South America): 
dave.blackgrove@teamwass.com
North & South America: 
bshprits@teamwass.com

Bookings: matt@thepool-london.com 
Promos: promo@gregwilson.co.uk 
DJ Dates: https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/upcoming-dj-dates/
Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester’s majorly influential Legend, having originally started out in his hometown, New Brighton. A pioneer of mixing in the UK, he became the first ‘dance music’ specialist hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester’s now legendary Haçienda club in 1983. Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’.

In 2003 he set up electrofunkroots, a website documenting this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture. After a two decade hiatus from the booth, he returned to DJing and soon welcomed bookings throughout Europe and, subsequently, worldwide.

Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV, putting together the first UK radio mixes of their type for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester and showing a certain Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) how to scratch.

Nominated by DJ Magazine for outstanding contribution, and also named amongst their top twenty remixers of all-time, Greg’s remix credits include Grace Jones, The XX, Groove Armada, Bryan Ferry, Confidence Man, Gilberto Gil and Simian Mobile Disco, whilst he’s edited tracks by A Guy Called Gerald, Talking Heads, O.M.D., Electronic, Imagination and Missy Elliot.

In January 2009 Greg’s reputation was further enhanced when his Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 received almost universal acclaim and was selected as one of 10 classics that spanned the show’s near 17 year history.

Greg’s Blog, ‘Being A DJ’, was launched in June 2010 for observations on various aspects of club culture now an online touchstone for an ever-increasing amount of dance enthusiasts and aficionados.

In August 2010 he co-curated areas at the inaugural Vintage Festival at Goodwood, which was named ‘Best New Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards.

He has produced a series of documentary podcasts, Time Capsule, Random Influences and Early 80’s Floorfillers, as well as the long-running blog series, Living To Music.

Greg has given talks on music and DJ culture at a number events at venues The Tate Gallery in Liverpool and London's Southbank and Institute Of Contemporary Arts, whilst in 2013 he was invited onto a panel alongside legendary figures Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder @ ADE in Amsterdam. 

In 2014 he unveiled the multi-media label Super Weird Substance, focusing on recording and live events. In 2015, the label released 8 vinyl singles, brought together in the 2 CD comp, 'Greg Wilson Presents Super Weird Substance'. September 2015 saw a memorable Festival No.6 Happening in Portmeirion and Greg rounded off the year with the Liverpool-based celebration of the 40th anniversary of his first club date in 1975 as well as being presented with DJ Magazine's Industry Icon award.

Greg launched his Credit To The Edit club collective at 2016's Festival No.6 and since then has taken it to Liverpool, Berlin, Brixton, Bethnal Green and finally back to Portmeirion for Festival No.6 2017.

2017 saw his label host the epic 14 Hour Super Weird Happening at Liverpool's Florrie, following a mixtape collaboration with Alan Moore, who also appeared at the Happening, whilst it also saw the digital release of The Super Weird Society's 'Gone With The Vibe', released the following year on the first Substance Select 12" vinyl alongside 'The Ghosts Of Watling Street', 'The Best Is Yet To Come' and 'Summer Came My Way'. 2018 also saw the release of Vol.3 in Greg's long-running Credit To The Edit compilation series.

After a handful of further releases, the label was put into hibernation with the onset of covid. Diversifying, ‘Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives’ was issued during 2020 lockdown as a limited run paperback, with more books, both Wilson’s own projects and by other authors, now planned.

Connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and irl through parties, film and video.

NIN3S (aka UNER) is the new alias of one of the most important talents of the last 10 years in the international electronic music scene, UNER. With a classical background including an undergraduate degree in Music Theory & Piano (which he began at the early age of 4), and a Summa Cum Laude graduation in the Art of Mixing from the Berklee College of Music, together with his passion for film scoring and orchestral composition and his love for the art in general led him to focus on this new project and make a big change in his career in September of 2019, after making his first complete soundtrack for an a Polish dramatic film, obtaining since then several international jobs in this new facet.

He is immersed in this and other main musical projects, which combine electronic and classical composition between analog, acoustic instruments and live musicians as well as other artistic projects in the movies industry, arts and live shows.

As a UNER, from debuting in 2009 on Diynamic (Solomun's label), to remixing one of the world's electronic music icons, Laurent Garnier, in 2015, he has had very exciting moments with a brilliant career.
After a life dedicated to music, the rewards came in the form of excellent reviews and audience success, performances around the world and musical releases on the best electronic labels such as Cadenza, Cocoon, Visionquest, or Diynamic, in which he released his debut album “Tune 432", showing his more personal side. In addition, this album showed the continued musical maturity as an artist.
Looking back, we can see that he was one of the top artists on Resident Advisor's annual charts in 2012, in 2013 he was named best newcomer at the Ibiza DJ Awards, and in 2014 the sophistication came with his album, as well as being awarded with more than 10 awards in his career as an international producer and artist throughout all these years. Every milestone reached is celebrated and appreciated, but Manu's ambition made him a stepping stone to the next level. The results are clear: 25 years of career, awards, tours around the world and respect from the music industry. 

Currently, we find Manu completely involved in bringing his knowledge and transferring all his love and passion in all his productions, making a fusion from neo classical composition to electronic music, connecting music with other arts giving that personal and unique point of view that characterizes him. This is how NIN3S was born in the world of arts and comes to position itself in the right place, as he did previously with its other aliases.

Damian Lazarus - DJ, Producer and creator of Crosstown Rebels, Day Zero, Get Lost and many other wonderful things

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