Function’s tale begins with a gregarious mother who would keep him occupied as rookie selector for neighbourhood gatherings while growing up in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Music was his world, and it wasn’t long before he found himself standing in awe before Jeff Mills in 90s NYC at the infamous nerve centre of Club Kid hedonism Limelight, where he went on to pick up a Thursday-night residency himself. Few DJs can claim to have been around during such a moment in club history, but ten years later came another. His friendships with Regis, Silent Servant and Female turned into the much acclaimed collective Sandwell District, a pivotal sound for an era that forced everyone’s attention towards Berlin. There he became Berghain resident and played a role in shaping the club’s fabled musical opus. In the years since (and following Sandwell’s dissolution) he’s matured in his own right, with a number of mesmeric releases (most recently ‘Green EP’ released on his self-run imprint Infrastructure back in May), collaborations with the likes of Vatican Shadow, Luke Slater and Steve Bicknell, a heavy touring schedule that criss-crosses the world at rapid clip and Bassiani residency to boot. Function’s techno is an ambient fog in which sinister arctic synths and perilous rhythms collide to produce an exquisite fusion that would be hard to mistake for anyone else. Those grainy textures, subterranean ripples and punishing kick drums are a hypnotic rework of his many influences: 90s loops with a more modern and sharper industrial edge. Bassiani Podcast 186 is an impassioned live-recording from the club that weaves through a number of hammering tracks and steadily climbs towards its furious climax. A hair-raising three-hour beast courtesy of this decorated techno behemoth.

BASSIANI PODCAST SERIES

Bassiani invites Function / Podcast #186

Analog feline techno cuts
All tracks written and produced by Gorbé in Paris, France
Artwork by Morgane V. photography
Mastering by N. Aftalion

The Prophet

What a great year this was! Thanks to everyone who made the magic happen and lots of love to those of you who are listening from afar.

Jake The Rapper @ Juicy - Garbicz Festival 2024

Helmut Geier’s career in music is just about as long as they come, starting out a DJ freshman back in 1978 and witnessing numerous of the most notable revolutions in sound and politics to have changed the world since. So many of electronic’s foremost names, like cult Berlin record dispensary Hard Wax, or Tresor and E-Werk where he held residencies, or even Limelight in New York, all bear his mark to some degree or other. Then there’s his releases, collaborations and remixes, and forays into the world of fashion, numerous enough they’d take a while to tally. His formula for longevity has been a chameleon-like ability to stay tapped into the zeitgeist and guide its course, International Deejay Gigolo Records has been a permanent conduit for the mission, his early championing of the electroclash genre and work with talents like Ms. Kittin, Laurent Garnier and Vitalic another notable moment in the last half century. One thing’s for certain: DJ Hell’s not planning on going anywhere; his work’s at times anthemic, at times high camp, but constantly pulling from a lifetime of references both past and new and creating something new from the embers. Bassiani Podcast 240 is a very special live recording from Hell’s set at Bassiani’s Time Passages night back on September 27th, a three hour instalment heavy with 80s synthwork, vocoder frequencies and pounding bass. Yet another watermark from a cultural legend.

@djhellofficial

Bassiani invites Dj Hell / Podcast #240

“As the Japanese composer Nas-Kaz once said, sound is like wind — it becomes boring when humans try to control it too much. I feel the same when performing live ambient music. We have reached a time where music cannot be created by thought alone; it has to be allowed to unfold, to breathe on its own terms.”

ambient live set at Halle am Berghain - December 2024

The Berghain series on Ostgut Ton returns with volume 07 mixed and compiled by Berghain resident Function. Download the free .WAV file (1.38 GB).  

Tracklist
1. Tadeo - Reqiuem (00:00)
 2. Post Scriptum - Constant Acceleration Drive (01:33) 
3. Rødhåd - Kinder der Ringwelt (05:01) 
4. Christian Wünsch - Auger Electrons (08:24)
 5. DVS1 - Electric (12:26) 
6. Mark Broom - Satellite (14:24) 
7. Rrose - Signs (18:45)
 8. Teste - The Wipe (21:37) 
9. CJ Bolland - Horsepower (26:38) 
10. Cleric - Concrete (31:39) 
11. Blue Hour - Common Ground (33:24) 
12. Peter Van Hoesen - Objects From The Past (Neel Remix) (36:00) 
13. Psykofuk - Psykofuk (37:55) 
14. Steve Bicknell - Transcendence # 3 (41:54) 
15. Post Scriptum - Human Timescales (42:31) 
16. Steve Bicknell - Odyssey # 1 (46:42) 
17. Steve Bicknell - Odyssey # 2 (46:46) 
18. Planetary Assault Systems - Arc (47:15) 
19. Allen - Kepler (48:59)
 20. Cassegrain & Tin Man - Oxide (51:07)
 21. Inland - Sca Fell (53:25) 
22. Truncate - 86 (56:20) 
23. L.B. Dub Corp - Roller feat. Function (Len Faki Interpretation) (59:17) 
24. Function - Golden Dawn feat. Stefanie Parnow (Live Version) (1:02:36)
 25. Carl Craig - Twilight (1:05:40)
 26. L.B. Dub Corp - So Much (1:07:50)
 27. Blue Hour - Parallels (1:13:31)
 28. Abdulla Rashim - A Shell Of Speed (1:15:35)
 29. Silent Servant - Noise Treatment I (1:18:08) 
30. Sandwell District - Untitled A (1:21:54)

  Mixed and compiled by Function 


All tracks used by kind permission of the respective copyright holders.
This compilation: © Ostgut Ton 2015 | OSTGUTMIX02
Mastering Jan Wagner at Faust Studio | Photography Jimmy Mould

for full info, credits and extended artwork go to: ostgut.de/label/record/136

Special thanks to Michael, Norbert, Jenus, Robert, Stefanie, Mom and Ed.


mix releases

Berghain 07 | Function

Speedy J @ Torax Barcelona 11-05-2025

Hard Wax w/ Fadi Mohem: 6th August '25

Bassiani Podcast 272 brings together two techno heavy-hitters for a three-hour bout of heady, rolling grooves. In one corner comes Georgian mainstay and grassroots agitator NDRX, a formative member of Tbilisi's techno contingent. His early efforts in expanding the city's nightlife offerings helped drive radical change, and shaped the decades since. His mission further translated into the founding of Stare at DJ (2012), and 11th Floor (2015). Both are vehicles for the gathering and promotion of local talent without which, Georgia today would look much different. In the other corner comes Dustin Zahn, a midwestern champion for tribal rhythms and pulsating hypnotism. Heavily armed with a flurry of references including the brain-melting IDM of the late 90s and iconoclastic beats, Dustin founded Enemy Records in 2004. In recent years, he has made appearances on labels like Blueprint, Token, and Rekids. He also hosts the Trainwrecks Podcast, an outlet for intimate face-to-face chats with industry peers. This storied duo are a menacing match, a b2b pairing that manifests the adrenaline-fueled techno native to both their sounds and whips up a sum greater than both its parts. This latest number is a bout of fevered techno havoc devised by two sonic confrères, an auditory onslaught of hammering loops recorded live at Bassiani's season closing night.

@nod-rex
@dustin-zahn

Bassiani invites Ndrx b2b Dustin Zahn / Podcast #272

DVS1 on duty for episode 004 as he will headline the Balans event on september 30th in Studio 80. Minneapolis' prodigal son made it into a Dutch affair. In his own words:

"I decided to dig through a few stacks of records and grab all the DUTCH artists I could.  Then 1 take… Here is the mix!"
 
Tracks and remix’s from
 
ESHU
Tim Wolff
2562
Jeroen Search
Joris Voorn
Legowelt
2000 and one
ROD
Dimi Angelis
Speedy J
Steve Rachmad
Delta Funktionen
Conforce
Newworldaquarium

BALANS004 - DVS1

Controlled chaos from a sonic daredevil.

Read more here: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=627

The Prophet

Gorbé

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