Belgian guy who own's PC computer.   
DIRTYBIRD, TURBO, RELIEF, HYPERCOLOUR, PETS RECORDS, W&O STREET TRACKS, JUKE TRAX...  
Bookings:  
N/S America:  Julian@thebullittagency.com
ASIA+AUSTRALIA: paul@posterchild.com.au, trent@posterchild.com.au
Europe: joanna@fmly.agency
Management: pete@petegoodingmanagement.com

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


@worldnimarecords owner
@Lyase Recordings co-owner

With a finely tuned ability to weave together diverse and melodic sounds, it's no surprise that Nima Tahmasebi (aka NT89) has garnered such acclaim for his live performances. A true master of his craft, his productions have been played by some of the most revered names in the industry, including The Chemical Brothers, Laurent Garnier, Ilario Alicante and Charlotte de Witte, just to name a few. He's also lent his remixing skills to heavyweights like Fatboyslim, Duck Sauce, Junkie XL, Tiga and Amelie Lens.
Nima has already traveled the world, performing at residencies in cities like Amsterdam, Lisbon, Paris, and Tokyo, as well as electrifying crowds at renowned festivals such as Awakenings. Having spent six years in Amsterdam, he became a staple player in the city's thriving house and techno scene, regularly appearing at Rara Aves parties parties at the iconic Melkweg venue.
Now, Nima Tahmasebi has set his sights on new horizons, having recently relocated to Rome to focus on his two labels, Lyase Recordings (co-founded with his friend Whitesquare) and World Nima Records. With 2023 shaping up to be his most prolific year yet, Nima Tahmasebi already has six releases scheduled for various techno imprints around the globe.

Label boss of Float Records & OOM Records
For bookings contact:  gils@kromantiagency.com

TWR72 pioneers a forward thinking approach towards electronic music: a fusing and pulsing rhythm with a cutting drive, binding it with a strong signature groove. Tracky, stripped-back and tough as hell, TWR72, delivers an ultra-lean cut of prime techno.

BOOKING
seppe.maesen@livenation.be

PROMOS 
info@mumbaiscience.net

One of Germany’s leading house music lights, Boris Dlugosch’s chameleon-like approach has helped him to amass an incredibly enviable catalogue of grooves that continues to grow every year.

Releasing on illustrious labels like Gerd Janson's RUNNING BACK,  Classic Music, Defected, Suara, Toolroom Records and Poker Flat Recordings in recent times, Dlugosch’s chunky basslines, crisp percussion and earworm melodies have found their way to all corners of the house music scene. His successful working relationship with Purple Disco Machine yielded L.O.V.E. and Set It Out, which both hit the #1 spot on Traxsource and the Top 5 on Beatport, as did Peppermint Jam’s 20th anniversary remix package of his classic Keep Pushin’.

Keep Pushin’ was the track that broke him through onto the global house scene in the mid-’90s in a big way. Germany wasn’t exactly a hotbed of house music talent at the time—making him somewhat of a rarity—and it soon became clear with further anthems like Hold Your Head Up High that he was a producer with a serious sense of musicality as well as dancefloor prowess. After this series of club smashes, the big-name remixes started to roll in: Aaliyah, Mary J Blige, Adeva, Randy Crawford… and then came that remix for Moloko’s Sing It Back, a huge crossover track that became the official radio version and hit #4 in the UK Singles Chart. Next came reworks for Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Jamiroquai, Mariah Carey, Moby…

Eventually growing wearisome of the declining funky house / garage sounds of the era, Dlugosch discovered a new-found love for the French electro scene in the mid-noughties, releasing Bangkok on Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sound imprint and Cycle on Lektroluv Records (complete with a remix from Etienne De Crecy), with the likes of 2manydjs, Boys Noize and Laurent Garnier all throwing their weight behind his updated sound.

After the electro scene became saturated and the times progressed once again, he metamorphosed into the producer we know him as today, taking a modern approach to classic house music that draws on multiple influences. “I constantly check for new tracks and absorb what’s out there” he says of his hunger for new sounds and styles. “We all change constantly!” he adds of his—and indeed others’—evolution over the years. “I don’t want anyone to pigeonhole me”. And nor should they. When you have as much musical talent as Dlugosch, it’s criminal to keep making the same sounds over and over again.

A Boiler Room Berlin set in 2013 introduced him to a new generation of house music lovers, and his regular In The Mix uploads on SoundCloud give a good idea of what can be heard in his rocking club and festival sets. Upfront house meets garagey classics and disco cut-ups, dashes of electro, acid and deep melodic moments to give a well-rounded selection that perfectly marries house music’s past, present and future. 

He is also an erstwhile label owner, having set up Golden City Sounds in 2013 with Digitalism’s Isi and HEY TODAY!’s Raik Fargo—but the imprint is currently dormant. He’s eyeing up the possibilities of launching a new label, but only when it feels right and makes sense on a creative level. We live in hope.

A true legend who continues delivering the goods today, Boris Dlugosch is one of house music’s real treasures.

book me to play: marcus@lb-agency.net

"Over the last ten years, his works have become some of the most indispensable in modern dance music.."

Turbo Recordings was founded by Tiga in Montreal back in 1998. In addition to launching his own career, the label has been integral in the success of acts like Chromeo, Gesaffelstein, Duke Dumont and most recently, ANNA & Charlotte de Witte. Core talent includes ZZT (Tiga's collaboration with Zombie Nation), Jori Hulkkonen, BETON, Clouds, Harvard Bass, Pilo, Shaded, Dimitri Veimar and a host of new young producers in genres ranging from pure techno, electro, and house to pop. The list of artists who have released music on the label is a veritable 'who's who' of top-level talent spanning a broad musical range, and this, along with a commitment to beautiful design, has earned the label respect in the industry and a cult following among fans. 

“We started out singing into plastic bags and shipping them to stores as quickly as possible. Later, we discovered that vinyl sounds way better when delivered by kayak. I learned so much the first few years…Now, as I look towards the future, I can envision music for poor people, sonic odors for the hearing impaired, even MP3s for women....Vroom, sucka!” says Tiga, the lyrical lampsman lighting the way down Dance Avenue.

For licensing inquiries: licensing@turborecordings.com

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