Berlin-based DJ, producer and label owner Valerie Ace has been carving out her place in the world of hard-edged techno in recent years. The Deutsche techno prodigy expertly blends the groovy sounds of Berlin's underground with contemporary rave nuances.

Valerie's musical palette can be linked to her early exposure to music creation as a teenager while playing guitar in a Krautrock band, however, Valerie's intense attachment to club culture began in 2018 when she began to run community-driven raves in the art school of Düsseldorf. These smoke-filled painting studios were where she would first cut her teeth in the industry and go deep into the art of DJing.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Ace began to emerge as an exciting producer in the international techno scene and she would soon opt to relocate to Berlin, where she would hone her craft and fully immerse herself in the culture.

Her debut EP landed on SPFDJ's revered Intrepid Skin imprint to critical acclaim. Ace unveiled a thrilling four-track EP that displayed a charismatic sonic compass that is both daring and captivating. Running off the back of the success of her debut EP, Valerie has gone on to feature on a host of prized labels including Anetha's Mama Told Ya, Mala Adh, Haven, and more.

Outside of the studio, Ace has been touring globally from London to Beijing. Valerie has been gracing the booths of illustrious club and festival institutions such as Fold, Tresor, Boiler Room & Unreal Germany, to name a few. Valerie's vision for techno extends beyond producing and DJing; in 2022, she established her label, Hardwon, which features original productions from Ace herself alongside Biia, Nara, New Frames, Ryan James Ford, Vel, and WTCHCRFT. In 2024, Ace drops a second EP on Intrepid Skin and hints at two more debut offerings, all of which will be released soon. These new releases will further galvanize her already impressive back catalogue of original music.

All Valerie Ace Releases (from newest to oldest)

@valerie_ace debuts on @SPFDJ’s @IntrepidSkin with four cuts of fierce, zapping techno. Hear 'Lavender Ceiling’ now

More info: https://djmag.com/music/premiere-valerie-ace-lavender-ceiling

Premiere: Valerie Ace 'Lavender Ceiling’

Artist: Valerie Ace
Release: Dare EP
Label: Hardwon
Catalog: HARDWON006
Release Date: 17.03.2023
Format: digital
Mastering: Hardgroove Mastering
Artwork: Valerie Anna Zwoboda

Tracklist:
1. Cool Or Cruel
2. How Dare You
3. Hurting Them Back Will Not Heal Your Pain
4. Angel Acid

Instagram: valerie_ace_
Soundcloud: valerie_ace
Facebook: valerie.ace.dj
Label Instagram: hard.won
Label Soundcloud: hardwon-label
Label Bandcamp: hardwon.bandcamp.com

Valerie Ace drops her second solo EP ‚Dare‘ via her
up and coming label Hardwon. The release
features four nonconventional club tracks covering
a wide palette of sounds from dreamy melodies to
highly distorted hardcore bass-drums. Founded in
2022, Hardwon has previously launched a mix of
digital and vinyl releases by artists Nara, Ryan
James Ford and Vel.

Valerie Ace is a DJ and electronic music producer
currently based in Düsseldorf, Germany. She made
herself known through her debut EP Glitzer Vs
Hass that was released on SPFDJ’s label Intrepid
Skin in early 2022. Several other releases have
followed since on Anetha’s Mama Told Ya, Ceili’s
Mala Adh and more. After appearances on Hör and
Boiler Room, Ace has been playing shows in clubs
all over Europe including Fold, Bootshaus and
Stone Techno Festival.

Valerie Ace started her musical journey in her teens
playing electric guitar in an experimental rock band
and spent much of her 20s in art school where she
turned toward a more electronic sound. In the
Studio Ace likes to experiment and create her own
sounddesigns and aesthetics. She has been
exploring electronic instruments from her first
oscillator - which was a self-made circuit that she
built into the back of an electric guitar - all the way
to complex modular synthesizers.

SINDEX PREMIERE: Valerie Ace - Angel Acid [HARDWON006]

Download

Valerie Ace - Casting A Spell On U With My Acid [HARDWON008]

Valerie Ace - 303 Problems [HARDWON008]

B1 Valerie Ace - Anxious Not Afraid

Premiere: Valerie Ace - "How To Fit In" [Intrepid Skin]

Listen / Download: https://lnk.to/EscapeTheAlgorithm

In just three years, Berlin-based DJ and producer Valerie Ace has released six EPs plus a few extra tracks on just as many labels. One can say she has a natural talent, but an unnatural talent would be more fitting. Valerie Ace makes machine music—dark, industrial, groovy techno—at machine pace with machine precision. For her first Boysnoize Records release, Ace delivers six cracking tracks on her Escape the Algorithm EP, reflecting the aggressive sound of the techno capital’s young underground.

The EP opens with “Do It Again” (145 bpm), a dizzying track that pumps through layers of pitch bending texture. Ace flexes her command of timbre with hallucinatory punctuations of alien insects and screeching tires that scream as if alive. “The Algo Made Me Do It” (150 bpm) follows with a swift gallop. Here, an organ synth melody drives the arrangement along a rollercoaster of builds and drops, with Ace’s synthetic-organic accents throughout. The abstraction of human voices into mechanistic noise seems to be an Ace signature, and feature heavily on “In an Ideal World” (144 bpm). This is a fully locked in, beats-replace-brain, ego-death-on-the-dancefloor track that takes control of the body and hypnotises with otherworldly chatter. Escape the Algorithm continues with a full mix and tool version of “Scan Code To Unlock Heart” (144 bpm), a rattling runner with a totally infectious horror film whistle that morphs from sample to synth. Ace’s polyrhythms rip, with toms banging a tribal groove and snare stuttering to climax on the drop. The EP closes with title track “Escape the Algorithm” (150 bpm), which finds Ace deftly moving from 4/4 to broken beat and back around two big build-ups. An ominous synth serves as a through-line across the complex arrangement, amplifying the energy as it sinks, swells, and shifts to staccatto.  

Valerie Ace’s Escape the Algorithm EP is all killer, no filler, and its length attests to its purpose: the unnatural extension of night to well past dawn. Fortunately, the machine that is Valerie Ace does not only power the decks, it powers the dancefloor, too.Escape the Algorithm