Rebirth of the cool

On June 27, 2025, a long-dormant signal reactivates from Hamburg's hidden places: Helena Hauff and F#X return as Black Sites with R4 on Tresor Records—their first full-length album and the first release under the moniker since 2014. Like a hieroglyphic recently discovered and translated, R4 feels more like a long-awaited resumption than a comeback.

Recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production the record is a classic example of the symbiotic relationship that can come from the interaction of human and machine. This punk ethos isn't invoked through distortion alone, but through method; in the album's breaking from the received wisdom of hardness tethered to speed as most of the tougher pieces are lower BPM and vice versa (with one notable exception in the mind-melting stomp of BLOKK).

Across ten tracks, Black Sites traverse a landscape where genre dissolves into intention. It migrates through electro's danceability, acid house's corrosion, and into the liminal realm of machine funk—a genre coined by Andrew Weatherall, which sounds like the results of technology dreaming of soul where the emphasis is on live execution, on immediacy over perfection—a sound forged in the act of creating, not polishing.

In a 2013 interview, around the time of the first Black Sites EP, Hauff was quoted as saying that she wants "things to fit together properly, but on another level, I really want them to make sense together." That principle animates R4: The album's form reveals itself in time, with each movement echoing and amplifying the others to create a synergistic whole.

From the opening crawl of C4 (a name that like the music foreshadows the explosions to come) to the end-of-the-night bliss of MOTHERJAM via the intense peaks of BLOKK, 707, and classic acid track 3D it's clear that R4 is a work made with serious intent; a refutation of a world where streaming has made the two-minute single the dominant musical form again. R4 demands immersion, not just attention. It is not a collection of tracks, but a singular, recursive experience: a mirror in which sound and listener repeatedly rediscover one another.

BANDCAMP

Black Sites - MOTHERJAM

Put this in your pipe & smoke*it - DoriExploratori&Krissatúttubyssa mix

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Jaywalking - Arabella Jane Tamlin - 25 Jun 2025

Legendary UK producer/DJ, @plant43, delivers a diverse set recorded live from the Globus floor at Tresor's 34th Anniversary party March 14, 2025.

https://soundcloud.com/tresorberlin/plant43-live-at-tresor-14032025

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plant43/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plant43electro
Resident Advisor: https://ra.co/dj/plant43
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Photo credit: Marie Staggat: https://www.marie-staggat.com/
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About Tresor Berlin
At midnight, on March 13th 1991, a basement door opened at Leipziger Strasse 126, Berlin. Through this door, many passed, on their way to defining new terrains in electronic music. There they found a dance floor in the vaults of a closed-down department store, with a unique sound bound to dense fog, building night after night a history that was also a vision of the future.

This history has seen in Jeff Mills’ first sets on three turntables, Underground Resistance's first live appearances in Europe, grandiose Tresor Park parties, to various chapters of the Loveparade with Sven Väth in the 90s and since then countless generation-spanning parties. These moments represent the highlights of infinite personal clubbing experiences. It is the manifestation of the Berlin spirit, emerging from its considerable strife. This history is not without its complications - from temporary closure by the authorities and several raids in the early years to closure and demolition of the old location in 2005. What followed was years of wandering in exile and, finally, resurrection in the new home in Kraftwerk Berlin.

These stories, conversations and shared experiences within our walls forge a resilience that drives towards a shared ideal, the Tresor sound: community, resistance, and the world to come. This was observed in the newly re-unified German youth, who danced and celebrated together from the club’s inception, and into the present day through ongoing community work in Detroit.

To those that have danced before, and to those that will dance in the future: the light at the end of the long Tresor tunnel is a signal. A flicker amidst the fog. This is our future. This is our place.

Plant43 | Live at Tresor - 14.03.2025

Track list: 
Niilas - Thank You - Niilas
Los Twangueros - A Mug Of Instant (Marius Våreid Free Spirit mix) -HolyRiot 
Marius Våreid - HRR
Elli -One Last Time (Prins Thomas & Isobel remix) -Horisontal Mambo
Oak Ay - Teti - Beatservice
Faisal J. Key - Hulegu (Sommerfeldt remix) - Antidote music
Karolinski - Ja´azz - Full Pupp Express
Karolinski - Really... It's One Family - Full Pupp Express
Boblebad - Mirror Magic
Modal Trafikk I-To (Extended perc. mix) -Hot Music
Henrik Villard - Illumination - Snick Snack Music
MOJO - Don´t - Snick Snack Music
Djembe Tekno - Che Che Koule - Snick Snack Music 
Ivaylo - Moodyan - Lab Cleaning Jams
Øyvind Morken - Don´t Techno For an Answer - Snick Snack Music 
Espen T. Hangård - Spränglistan 
Horse Love - Tannlegeregningen - Tellektro 
Freij - Knob - Hyper Fauna 
Focks Koshka - Freak - Hyper Fauna 
Focks Koska - Späti Stefan - Hyper Fauna 




LYD. New Norwegian Sounds. September 2025. By Olle Abstract

Recording of Elena Colombi & Lena Willikens' set at the UFO II stage during Dekmantel Festival 2025.

Elena Colombi & Lena Willikens at UFO II - Dekmantel Festival 2025

Welcome to Marijus Klimaitis for Porn Disco Vol 21 
Marijus Klimaitis is a long-time figure in the Lithuanian music scene, known for shaping its underground sound through projects like Smala and 12 Inčų Po Žeme. 

Sharing the decks on parties alongside Manfredas, Tolouse Lowtrax, Marc Piñol, Odopt and many more, Marijus Klimaitis is recognized for cultivating his own sound within the local scene, weaving weird and mystical moods into his sets — creating hypnotic, unpredictable journeys that linger in the listener’s mind.

Beyond the dance floor, he extends his vision through the Per Amžius Ambient show on Radio Vilnius, blending 90s vibes with modern beats and sharing his distinctive atmosphere with audiences worldwide.

Rebirth of the cool

Karezza

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