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Out now on Rekids: lnk.to/REKIDS192

Although based in Berlin for several years, Dustin Zahn has continued to exert influence over the fertile but steadfastly underground Minneapolis techno scene as part of the Intellephunk collective whilst cultivating a worldwide rep via releases for Blueprint, Token and his own Enemy Records. The ‘Gain of Function’ LP sees Zahn channelling the groove-fuelled techno of the late ’90s and early ’00s and shaping eight powerful but funky contemporary techno tracks that display the decades of experience under his belt. 

Forged from a series of live jams with two drum machines and two synths, the album is a refined collection of raw, purist techno brilliance. Across the A-side ‘Tell Me About Paradise’ brings shimmering staccato chops under bright and airy percussion before ‘Tangie Groove’ picks up the pace with floating pads, vocal slices, and a rumbling bassline. On ‘Lucid Dreams’, scattered percussion plays with hypnotic synth licks, while ‘Smoking in Silence’ sees off-kilter leads dancing between emotive vocals and evolving drum loops.

Opening the second disc is the deep and shuffling ‘Crimson Cheeks’, with trance-inducing samples nestled between sharp drum hits and rolling synthesis, and ‘Days Like These’ takes a darker turn as twinkling arps and droning pads carry the track. ‘Shark Rodeo’ featuring Jeremy Black mangles samples into a dense rolling affair, before closing number ‘Next Level Looseness’ drops the 4/4 pattern for a raucous club track, combining oddball sound sources and unruly production techniques for a trippy finish to the album. 

Since the late ’90s, Zahn’s hypnotic and driving techno has consistently caught the ears of top DJs and labels worldwide, with anyone catching his marathon sets at the likes of Berghain exposed to expansive sets. In addition to his techno-heavy catalogue and DJing prowess, Zahn has lent production and engineering skills to bands and singers, recently working with Poliça and on Carm’s Pitchfork approved eponymous album. Beyond this, his vital work with Intellephunk includes the nearly two decades long running Communion after-hours events, cementing his invaluable contributions to the scene.

Dustin Zahn

Tangie Groove

Dustin Zahn - Tangie Groove

Lisbon's Paraíso bring their A&R a-game once again with a stellar EP by one of the city's most beloved techno DJs - @vilmusic - and a chef's kiss remix by the one and only queen of twisted dance, @ednd from Algarve.

VIL effortlessly strikes a balance between his seasoned raver's effective ammunition approach and his penchant for freshness that has accompanied him since his early days as a dubstep DJ. Concise elegance and banging inventiveness meet in the opener Rotari, as the A2 follows with detroitian levels of class and relentlessness, all ecstatic hats, warm stabs and beautiful percussion. Ghet09 closes the A side with tom-filled jack-infused beats and smooth keys with an instant-classic quality, all offset by eerie pads cause it's techno we're gladly witnessing after all.

Anjos, the new Birmingham brings in-your-face energy in the tight drum programming and a dash of trippy, quasi-dubby melodic elements in an ode to Lisbon's tentative premier techno neighbourhood Anjos.

Deranged yet loved-up, the B2 is a perfect peak-time dreamy mood-setter - proving we're in the hands of a skilled emotion-to-dance translator. The record closes with a stellar remix by one of Portugal's innovators, EDND herself, who drowns the opening track in mysterious waters and adds beautiful melodic elements, perfect for that much-appreciated deep dive moment on the dancefloor. There's a wonderful digi bonus for the heads, where oneiric pads are punctuated by vocal chops from a very familiar classic.

BUY VINYL/DIGI

Digital Bonus - Vil - Soul Thing

Mohem 02

Redox

"I've always loved mistakes; it's the hidden beauty in all art" - Andrew Weatherall

Transparent Sound are the original dons of UK electro, not exactly household names yet an act with so many under-repped classics that once you dive into their catalogue you might end up emptying your bank account on Discogs. 

To save you going down this calamitous path as well as to finally, raise TS to the level of notoriety they deserve, Tresor Records is very proud to announce the release of Accidents 1994-2023.

Formed by Orson Bramley and Martin Brown in Bognor Regis in 1994, Transparent Sound have managed to create 30 years' worth of some of the best electro from the British Isles, despite claiming to not know what they were doing nor how their instruments work. 

It's likely that it's this lack of knowledge that led to the quality and longevity of their output - the pair experiment and tinker with the machines until something pleasing appears then follow that sound down whatever path seems fruitful: "the confidence of ignorance" as a slightly more-famous Orson, Orson Welles, once put it. 

This tactic has paid off well and found them stumbling into many notable adventures, from remixing The Cure to performing during an intermission between two halves of a lecture - none of which they understood as it was in Spanish.

The compilation collects a lucky-for-you 13 of their most glorious electrical accidents on a three-disc set including the dancefloor hits Punk Mother Fucker (a mainstay of Villalobos sets at the time of release), and No Call From New York (as heard on Helena Hauff's perfect 2017 Essential Mix).

The package also comes with 'Windows To Your Sole' from the unreleased white label Transparent Sound 007, other unreleased tracks, and special 2023 edits as well as six digital bonus tracks.

BANDCAMP

PREMIERE: Transparent Sound - Remanisance

PREMIERE: Transparent Sound - No Call From New York (Acid Mix)

PREMIERE: Transparent Sound - Mistakes Happen

PREMIERE: Transparent Sound - Punk Mother Fucker

At what point does a new tool or technology become so integral to a process as to be intrinsic? And what happens if that technology starts to subordinate its user? 

By reflecting on these questions Machine Alliance, the new EP by Irish producer Kerrie on Tresor Records, connects her music to the sci-fi origins of techno and electronic music in general.

With inspiration from classic books and films of the genre such as The Machine Stops, The Matrix, and Blade Runner as well as modern explorations in art and philosophy like Free Your Mind and Technopoly, the EP's title takes on two opposing but intersecting meanings. 

One, based on the potential for machines to take over or replace humans, is a key idea of sci-fi that seems closer to reality with the arrival of machine learning and real artificial intelligence.

The second has a much more positive view, one where the "alliance" is between the artist and machine to create the music, a process she places immense value on, being both cathartic and therapeutic, whilst also being a vehicle of addition and expansion:


"I feel that it's a collaboration&hellip;the machines are precise in their timing and I add the human touch (literally) in the live performance which adds natural imperfections, so we both provide something the other can't. There's also an element of growth; the machines get updates and so are always expanding in terms of their musical capabilities. And the more I push my own technical abilities I feel we are growing together in a constant synchronised dance."

This "dance" results in four tracks (plus three digital-only bonuses) of classic machine funk which combine the aforementioned ideas in sci-fi with a deep lifelong affection for techno. Tracks like Ode to the D, and Technopoly Dream display this love through her choice of sounds and structure, both intentional and subconscious, while Replicants, and Human in the Loop project into other genres to fully round this release off as a contemporary example of music rooted in both past and future.

Kerrie - Human In The Loop

Fireground's live sets brim with joy and Mediterranean warmth, so as we have now passed the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and are well on en route to leave the long, cold winter behind, what could be more fitting than a new release from the duo? 

As with their three previous releases on Tresor (Dualism, Refreshing Part 1, and Dreams) for Love Letter Angela and Daniele have created a heady melange of styles of techno synonymous with the turn of the century with such outrageous elan and jubilation that they practically embody the musical term giocoso:

"We had the "summer" concept in mind from the beginning, this pushed us to create a message in our sound making it uplifting and engaging, capable of conveying a positive, romantic and warm vibe.

In our productions we always give priority to the harmonic parts such as melodies, pads, piano and guitar riffs, the peculiarity of this EP is that all the tracks were born first from these elements, and only at the end the groove was crafted, not due to a difference in importance, rather to ensure that the rhythmic part paid as much respect as possible to the harmonic part."

This decision to build upwards from the harmonics has paid dividends: the entrance of a string section provokes visions of a rapt club crowd cheering with exultation; a looped groove stimulates a connection to such gleeful nostalgia that is almost certain to be heard at many festivals in coming months; a blissful pad sweeps over a track like the first rays of sun in the morning; a filtered synth rises to be met with a xylophone-like countermelody&hellip;every track has a moment where the music overflows with some form of happiness. Together the collection promises, and perhaps even delivers, a summer both ecstatic and joyful.

Fireground - Etereo

Abend in der Stadt Ø9 | oneaxone

Out now: https://fanlink.tv/SYMDIGILP001RMX

Find Your Own Meaning (Incl. Ryan Elliott Remix & James Ruskin Mix)

Buy/Stream

Biemsix - Gonna Remember (Album Mix) - Symbolism

Wrapping up the dolly TS year with a surprise single by label boss Steffi and Rosati!! 
“Bring the Beat” is a powerful, driving track with hypnotic vocals, deep grooves and pulsing bass lines. This high-energy single, crafted to captivate and ignite the dance floor was recorded at the Candy Mountain studio earlier this year and is the fist single of a bigger collaboration that will drop in 2025. Hope you’re ready. 



Steffi & Rosati - Bring The Beat

PLOKK - Chillwave Dreamy USA Study Relaxing (13)

PLAYER J

Hold Fast

Under The Flightpath

Blueprints

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.

Kerrie - Human In The Loop

Tresor Records

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