Thorn

Music for Animals

Seagull Scene

Sheep in Black and White

Erased Tapes 十五

O I End

Two years after releasing the acclaimed Crash Recoil, Anthony Child aka Surgeon returns to Tresor with new LP, Shell~Wave. Retaining the minimal equipment list and studio-version-of-live-show-sets approach of the previous album in order to focus on the work itself, Shell~Wave is a deeply personal document of both where Surgeon is and has been, converging three decades of experience with a continued curiosity in the untested.

"To make this project, I had to dig really deep in terms of what my relationship was to techno; I've been involved with it for a really long time and there's a lot about it I feel dislocated from, so I had to really think hard about what techno is to me. I often get asked "what is techno to you?" but I can't answer that with words; this album is the answer."

From the complex, twisting track Infinite Eye to the caustic Soul Fire, the eight tracks that make up the body of the album are single-take explorations of the vast, hard yet minimal techno Child is synonymous with. 

Neatly dividing the record in two, the emotional centre of the record comes in the form of Dying, a vibrating, beatless piece that with a mantra-like vocal loop steeped in reverberating effects.

Further echoes of dub production appear throughout the record as tracks like Divine Shadow, and Empty Cloud have an almost ever-present mist of reverberation, driven by the appearance of a new delay unit in the equipment list; while much of the philosophy of Crash Recoil's creation is present, the process and the instruments have changed as Child again switches up his approach to studio work.

This insistence on trying novel techniques doesn't preclude returning to old ones, as this use of modern digital machines with live, hands-on takes that are as inspired by 60s producer Joe Meek and 70s reggae as they are by this year's synthesiser expos.

"For me, it's an interesting experience returning to old techniques again after 30 years. [I'm] always exploring and finding myself back at the beginning. Connecting the present with the past."

This philosophy of 'time travel' is inherent to the music itself as the synchronised loops repeat while the delay and effects branch out, forming unique eddies; distinct quantum moments within the circular whole; the future leaking through the spaces between the sounds. All of the concepts on the album are perfectly communicated through the painting by Taiwanese artist Jazz Szu-Ying Chen which suggests the movement of water, sound waves, and the chitinous shells of sea creatures.

BANDCAMP

Surgeon - Serpent Void

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.

Black Sites - C4

Rising Spanish producer, JUDY, performs a live hardware set recorded on March 5 at Tresor New Faces hosted by Beatrice.

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Follow Judy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judyisangry
Resident Advisor: https://ra.co/dj/judy-es
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/judyisangry

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.

Judy (Live Hardware Set) | Live at Tresor - 05.03.25

ECLAIR - Left Right

Refraction Records welcomes Italian artist Ercos Blanka for a deeply atmospheric contribution to its podcast series. Known for his refined melodic sensibility and emotive sound design, Blanka has carved a distinctive path through labels such as Seven Villas and Greyscale, and previously delivered a remarkable remix for Pedro Capelossi & Aeikus on the imprint.

In this exclusive mix, he channels the same harmonic elegance and textural depth that define his productions, weaving a narrative built on warmth, subtle tension, and introspective groove. The result is a timeless journey through his sonic universe, capturing the immersive character that has become his signature.

SUPPORT OUR MUSIC:

• Beatport: www.beatport.com/es/label/refract…n-records/116619
• Bandcamp: refractionrecords.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/refraction_recor…MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC7raGerhKQAP9uhEL3pEm1w

To submit demos, send a private Soundcloud link to:

info.refraction.records@gmail.com

#deephouse #dubhouse #dubtechno #deeptechno #techno #peaktime #driving #raw

REFRACTION Podcast Series #26 - Ercos Blanka

holy aggression ROB ACID _

Grand National - Talk Amongst Yourselves
Shpongle - Dorset Perception
Petter - These Days
Unkle - What Are You To Me?
The Youngsters - Smile
Spooky - Belong
Unkle - In A State
Lostep - Burma
Felix Da Housecat - Watching Cars Go By
Ulrich Schnauss - On My Own
All tracks edited and remixed by Sasha

Sasha - Involver

London-based DJ, Nick Spencer - known more commonly as oddSock or The Sonic Architect - has been gaining traction in the UK in recent years, with his dynamic and eclectic taste in music. 

oddSock is upfront about his personal struggle to define and follow one stylistic direction, and pinpoints his discovery of WUITW (Warm Up in the Woods: a series of underground outdoor/warehouse events) as a turning point in his recent career. This emotional approach to electronic music - driven by melodic techno, electronica, and emotive trance - filled a particular void that had existed throughout his musical journey. 

Somebody listening to a typical oddSock set today, can expect to be taken on an adventure of blissful, euphoric melodies, juxtaposed with intelligent rhythms and powerful baselines.

oddSock excelled musically at an academic level, achieving his degree in Digital Music from Southampton Solent University in 2014. During this formational time, he performed in a variety of clubs across the country, including Fire (London), Mo’s Warehouse (Southampton), The Pyramids (Portsmouth) and Basement 45 (Bristol). He has also held DJ residencies in his University city and current home city. These public appearances have run without fail against a backdrop of legendary, music-centric house parties.

2017 looks equally promising. oddSock is now part of a new monthly show in Southampton, Fractals on The Goat Shed, and is planning a series of events, hinting at his very own woodland rave, curated alongside DJing sidekick, Dave Hall. 

And for the remainder of the year? oddSock aims to get on the 2017 festival circuit, and will be working on new production projects, both with a hope of sharing his highly capable and compelling  sounds with a broadened group of listeners.

For bookings please contact: nlspencer84@gmail.com

Thorn

oddSock

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