Written and produced by Léo Naïtaïssa
Artwork © Angela Cacciapaglia

KSR BANDCAMP

Quelza - Reworked Movement [KSRDGTL009]

Digital tracks from my KEY vinyl release.

Get it here : https://keyvinyl.bandcamp.com/album/key

Exhale

Holden’s third release on SK_Eleven, Dust,  showcases a striking evolution of his signature dark, driving sound. Rhythms are as urgent and rooted in the dancefloor as ever, but melodies have grown more haunting and emotive. This release sees Holden charting new sonic territory with two ambient tracks to open and close the record. Opener “Dust” brings melody and harmony to the foreground to set the emotional tone for the peak-time techno tracks that follow, while the closing track, “Frost,” ends the EP on a more hopeful note, its yearning melody disappearing into the mist beyond the sunlight.

A1 - Dust
A2 - Myth
A3 - Corner of the Room
B1 - The Beginning and The End
B2 - Steep
B3 - Frost

All tracks written and produced by Holden Federico
Mastering by Beau Thomas 1087 Mastering, London
All rights reserved SK_eleven 2024

Holden Federico - Dust [SK11X025]

Chami and DHÆÜR step up for the first release on DIG Curated, the sub label of Dust in Grooves (DIG), a pioneering force in the world of vinyl techno, born in Berlin. This passion project, launched by Olivia Mendez and Chami, spotlights emerging artists who embody the essence of the imprint's signature style—sophisticated, timeless, and groovy. With each release, a new talent is endorsed by a seasoned digger from the scene, aiming to push forward undiscovered sounds and empower the community.
After years of refining his palette as a dedicated DJ and acoustics master, the Italian-born, Berlin-based DHÆÜR has developed his distinct creative vision rooted in sound quality and stylistic research. At the time of crossing paths with Chami, DHÆÜR had already produced a handful of immersive tracks, exploring unknown territories while keeping things minimalistic, giving DJs the freedom to construct their preferred sonic environments. Four of these tracks are pressed on DIG Curated 001, marking the beginning of a chapter for the sub-label that brings forth the future sound of techno.
The opening track of the release SUBJECT ZERO is a cinematic, mental, elegant journey, playing with the perception of built up anticipation. This boundless, loopy soundscape is designed to induce inner quests on the dancefloor and is a grand point of departure to unknown adventures ahead. This interlude of primordial grooves sets the scene for a voyage through a not-so-distant world where dystopian visions and technology merge with hypnotic synths. Evoking human emotions and desires is the hot and groovy track MIN(E)D, with vocals that could be from a female replicant building her own sonic web3 through the soundsystem of a steamy dancefloor.
On the B side, things quickly gain power and intensity, with STEPS racing through pounding beats, enigmatic pads, and unpredictable claps, only tamed by DHÆÜR’s impeccable acoustic design. The EP closes with the cryptic, mechanical sounds of HEX 1904d1, deconstructing old patterns and programming a new form of evolved consciousness—inspired by precision and a reverence for organic movements.

Words by Lora Mateeva, Orb Mag

Written and produced by DHÆÜR
Mastering Nihad Tule
Graphic design Diego Vicinenza
© Copyright DIG Curated 2024

DHÆÜR - B1.STEPS [DIG-C001]

Growing up on the north Atlantic island of Iceland bestows one with an unusual and often intense relationship with light and colour: Summers come with endless days, Winters with scant sunlight yet increased sightings of the Aurora Borealis; the mysterious and awe-inspiring glow across the sky. Channelling these energies, Exos comes to Tresor with his Green Light EP, a five-track collection of the sort of spectrally rich techno synonymous with the Northman's 27-year career.

Across the EP, the five tracks fizz and pulsate driving ever forward, making the release's title a three-way play on words referencing the continuous travelling of photons, the verdant warping of the Northern Lights, and the universal colour for Go, for forward propulsion. Smart wordplay can also be found in titles like Gr&aacute;tt Silfur, a term in &Iacute;slenska (literally "grey sliver") which signifies a tension between two parties, further extending the colour metaphor and dark/light dichotomy found elsewhere.


The digital release comes with three extra tracks that continue the dynamic energy, pushed along by the same shifting, mutating force where the music often feels like voices calling out from the darkness or the shimmer of light as the sun rises across the horizon.

Green Light EP continues this year's blazing return from an artist who, similar to his output, is never stagnant: ever changing form yet ever moving forward.

BANDCAMP

Exos - Only One Way

Ascent of Mount Agung EP

Bandcamp

Louis The 4th - Drive System

Magnum Opus

Cosmology Crisis

Collision

Apex

Berghain Techno Podcast #004 (Preview) | Dunkel

Split 1.0

Tension

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. 

Tresor Records was founded in the same year and began to serve as a platform for exporting the new sounds associated with Tresor all around the world. Emergent musicians from Michigan, such as Juan Atkins, Underground Resistance and Drexciya, were pivotal in shaping these early years. Their visits to Berlin would kick-start dialogue between the youth movement in Europe and these musicians. This story is one of friendship and community-building, inextricably linked with cities like Detroit, Birmingham or Edinburgh, where like-minded friends built something truly special, where revelatory rhythms soundtrack decaying industry in corrupted metropoles. 

Tresor Records has been the fertile soil for dozens upon dozens of creative minds, from the very luminaries of the scene who developed electronic music over the last three decades through to contemporary protagonists who are currently defining the sound of the future -  A more than 300 strong catalogue displays an unmistakable identity - the Tresor spirit.

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.