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Paranoid London Live set for Movement Detroit Paxahau recorded in lockdown November 22, 2020 at The Cause (London).

In pandemic times of telepresences and social distancing, Live At Robert Johnson from Offenbach and Riotvan team from Leipzig up for a magical musical mission. Encompassed by the graphic design of Michael Satter & Panthera Krause, each of the five tracks has been created by teams representing both label crews and their environs, rendering a truly synergetic effort. The release “Live At Robert Johnson & Riotvan” presents tracks from Roman Flügel & Robolledo, Jennifer Cardini & Chinaski, New Hook & Perel, Fort Romeau & Panthera Krause and Horkheimer, Peter Invasion & Gregor Habicht.

Rebolledo & Roman Flügel - Star Stuff

Jennifer Touch & Chinaski - Dime

New Hook & Perel - The Lambs Suffer

Fort Romeau & Panthera Krause - Omicron 8

Horkheimer & Peter Invasion & Gregor Habicht - Summe Drei

Some of techno’s biggest names, including Slam, Rødhåd, The Advent, Ben Sims, Nina Kraviz and DJ Rush are among those contributing to a new compilation, 100 Years of Colombia, which seeks to draw attention to the ongoing violence being inflicted on anti-corruption protestors in the country.

NGOs and social justice organisations including Colpaz, Desaparicion forzada, Movice, Red Juridica Feminista and Fundación Escuela Canalón will receive profits from the sales of the compilation. Since 18 April 2021, when protests began in the country, protesters have faced terrible police brutality. There have been documented disappearances of hundreds of people, killings of civilians by police forces, sexual assaults made by members of the police, and thousands of injured victims, according to ‘non-governmental organisation ONG Temblores. The compilation 100 Years Of Colombia brings the techno scene together to make attention and awareness of what’s happening in Colombia, with a hope for a better future. All the income from the compilation will be donated to charity organisations across Colombia.”

Techno lovers of a certain age will probably remember where they were the first time they heard Dave Clarke‘s World Service, which was released on 21 May 2001, setting a high bar for mix CDs of the period. With 47 tracks set across two blistering CDs – one techno, the other electro – World Service included killer cuts from the likes of Surgeon, Jeff Mills, Umek, The Hacker, Adult, Anthony Rother, Joey Beltram and others, and helped spawn one of the most-revered electro tracks of all time, Fischerspooner’s Emerge. Even Radiohead made an appearance, with the ethereal Idioteque, a track that helped lay the foundations for their future direction. Released on React, and mixed live on vinyl, World Service also helped establish Clarke as one of techno’s go-to artists, and he’s maintained his status as a leading custodian of tough, uncompromising beats in the years since.

Dave Clarke: World Service - Techno Disc (2001)

“I love the sound and approach. I love most of the Hauge sound, not only the acid techno but also electro. And I’ve never actually stopped loving that kind of sound.”

Most people know Ferropolis from the MELT festival. But Ferropolis in Gräfenhainichen is a museum. Lignite mining boomed in Central Germany for decades, but at some point the era of lignite was over and then the question arose of what could be done with the site and the equipment. The area was flooded and a beautiful local recreation area was created. The idea for the “Stadt aus Eisen” came about as part of a project at BAUHAUS Dessau. The excavators are history, they are both steel sculptures and industrial monuments. The old devices should definitely be preserved, as a memento, but also as an object for viewing. The old lignite site is now a very lively museum and a monument to industrial culture.

In addition to the museum, the area now also offers a festival area on the lake and between rusty giant excavators. It offers a unique atmosphere. Therefore, the old brown coal opencast mining site is a very popular venue. The metal festival “Full Force”, “Splash”, the hip-hop festival and the well-known pop festival “Melt” take place here every year. The blogger Eva Meagwin visited the Ferropolis area and write the story of this lost place on her blog Burgdame.

Minimal has become a dirty word in dance music. But the sound has greatly evolved from its legendary yet much-derided Bar25 days. Henry Ivry traces the sound’s mutation from its Detroit roots to its drugged-out Berlin peak to its ultimate return as something altogether different.

From Rio to Paris to Rome, to the warm afternoons on Berlin’s river Spree, there is a growing scene on the periphery of dance music’s underground. Trying to describe what it is, however, is not easy. Popular tracks fuse electro and garage rhythms with Detroit melancholy and IDM. Breaks fold into the loops of minimal and tech house funk. Quirky, sci-fi synth lines duet with anxious basslines. And while this may seem disjointed, the mixes, parties, and records that define this scene are remarkably consistent, taking inspiration from ’90s dance music and a deep love of crate-digging. The result is tracks that are both timeless and of the moment ...

The book “Missing The Club” is substantially illustrated with black and white photography by Thomas Sweertvagher for Brusseleir Digger, with zoomed in record sleeves, with a unique and coloured photographic essay of Crevette Records by Sarah Skoric and with selected pictures from the author himself Kong DJ. He says about his book:

Artist and director Leila Ziu explores dance culture and alternate realities with Altered States on the Dancefloor, a triptych of audiovisual works that correspond to three different rooms at a virtual rave. Featuring musical contributions from Rian Treanor, Paleman and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, each room sees Ziu experimenting with a variety of disciplines and styles, moving between experimental choreography, video montage, as well as 2D and 3D animation. Previously working with Outlook and Dimensions festival as their festival site designer, as well as making videos for Sports Banger and Pearson Sound, Leila Ziu’s work is intimately connected to dance music and club culture. “Altered States on the Dancefloor” is a manifestation of the primal urge to connect, to sweat together in a shared space, a drive that is only intensified at a time when dancing together is more difficult than ever and the spaces left for us to do so are few and far between. Ziu envisions an alternate reality where all this is made possible and in so doing maps out a blueprint for brighter times ahead. Watch “Altered States on the Dancefloor” here:

Room 1 - Sound by Rian Treanor

Room 2 - Sound by Paleman

There’s no denying that Japanese hardware - synthesizers, drum machines, and DJ gear - has exerted a huge influence on dance music. How did this island nation come to dominate music production and playback?

It was quite a phenomenon. There were a few decades – mostly in the ‘80s and ‘90s – where the entire chain of dance music production, from creation to playback, was monopolized by Japanese products. Sounds were created on Roland, Yamaha and Korg synthesizers and drum machines, played by DJs in clubs on Technics turntables with Audio-Technica cartridges, Pioneer DJ CDJs and mixers, and listened to by punters on Sony Walkmans and home stereo units. Japanese products were involved in almost every stage of the process and we barely even noticed. How did Japan go from the butt of jokes – ‘Made in Japan’ used to be a pejorative, much like ‘Made in China’ is today – to the global leader of dance music electronics? To get to the bottom of this, the Attack Magazine assembled a world-class group of experts, including Japanese engineers and a synthesizer documentarian and Japanologist, and asked them, “How did Japanese music technology come to dominate the dance music world?”

Photographs by visual artist Seana Gavin that take a trip back to the '90s underground rave scene. In her Photobook, Spiralled, she is taking us on a trip back to the nineties when she was an underage devotee of the underground rave scene. Her images reveal a life of travelling and parties, just as the UK government introduced the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act that clamped down on illegal raves and other forms of "anti-social" behaviour. It was around that time that sound systems like the famous Spiral Tribe quit Britain for Europe, and Seana went with them. She lived this travelling life, kept a diary, took the pictures and then, for near on two decades, kept it under wraps. Until now. “Spiralled” is a personal visual history of the "fuck-the-system" movement of truck and caravan convoys that crisscrossed Europe staging free festivals, raves and largely peaceful parties in open fields and disused industrial buildings. Featuring her photographs and thoughts, the book also includes an ephemeral archive of posters and flyers. Her images certainly document a great but largely lost freedom. Freedom from smartphones, social media and Zoom calls. And, of course, freedom of movement. She adds: "Spiralled is a document that celebrates all of this while taking you on the winding journey through a decade of my life."