Los Angeles’s premier techno collective Black Lodge celebrates its one year anniversary on March 5 with special guest Claude Young, a name plucked straight from the roots of Detroit’s pioneering techno scene. Claude will play an extended set at Hyperion Tavern alongside Nomadico, and Black Lodge residents Force Placement and Kosmik. Read more
Detroit techno producer Robert Hood is releasing a new LP under the alias Floorplan. Entitled Victorious, the album was produced together with his daughter Lyric Hood.
Hood began producing under the alter-ego in the late 90s, a means to release productions that were funkier and melodic than the straight techno his fans had been accustomed to. Although the project died down for a a few years, it was revived with a string of EP releases that began in 2010 and culminated with 2013’s Paradise album release.
From this point forward, Hood has announced that Floorplan will remain a duo project. He will continue producing techno solo and is set to release a new album and three EPs through Dekmantel soon. His daughter Lyric has been known to DJ with him, most recently during a Boiler Room performance last fall and at on as big a stage as Movement Detroit in 2014. She co-produced several of the tracks on Victorious, set to be released in full on June 10th through Hood’s own M-Plant label.
This past week Hood was featured in our celebration for Black History Month and billed for a Hip-Hop set to take place during Weather Festival in Paris.
Connect with Robert Hood on Facebook, SoundCloud and Resident Advisor
Twenty-five years is an eternity in club years. But Tresor is more than just a club, as evidenced by the plans to celebrate its milestone 25 year anniversary with a world tour that will touch down in Detroit, Paris, London, Sydney, Madrid and beyond.
Founded in Berlin in 1991, Tresor played a catalyst role in connecting the techno scene born in the US with the emerging love for the genre in Germany. Thanks to Tresor the likes of Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Kenny Larkin, Blake Baxter and Mike Banks made their international debut with gigs at the club’s old home in Leipziger StraĂe.
Tresor has since moved to a disused power plant in Berlin’s Mitte district, which will also host six of the birthday events part of the announced world tour. Although the line-ups are still TBA, you can expect a slew of techno talent, old and new, to provide the soundtrack for the celebrations. The Tresor Festival is included in those six dates, taking place at the club from July 21st until the 23rd.
In the past we have heard of Tresor founder Dimitri Hegemann’s plans to open a club in Detroit, so it perhaps comes as no surprise that Tresor is set to play its first party in the Motor City on May 28th during Movement weekend – the only leg of the tour on US soil. The other stops will be throughout Europe and Australia.
The club as also announced a mega-compilation set to come out later in the year. While details on that are still vague, they have announced some of the names associated with the release: Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald (as Borderland), Objekt, Mike Huckaby, Dasha Rush and Marcelus.
Hegemann reiterated the club’s mission in a statement reported by Resident Advisor, “The message from 25 years of Tresor is just as its always been, and as topical as ever: Give young people space to realize their ideas. Say yes to their experiments.”
Full tour dates and info: Resident Advisor
If you have plans to attend Bloc festival this year you’re in luck. And if you don’t yet, it may be time to start looking up travel information.
Bloc’s co-founder Alex Benson has just announced in an interview with Resident Advisor that 2016 will be the last edition of the festival, as the team prepares to launch a “super club” in London with surrounding music recording studios.
“It’s the last ever one because weekenders are strange, beautiful things,” said Benson. Bloc’s last weekend runs a month from now from March 11th through 13th at Butlins Resort in Minehead. The festival released Phase I and Phase II line-ups of monstrous proportions with the likes of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Jeff Mills, Four Tet, Floating Points (live), Speedy J and plenty more set to play.
Benson went on to assert that they “won’t be doing any curtain calls, encores, reunion tours or one-last-jobs.”
Source: RA
Ovum Recordings released a ten-track acid-centric compilation titled Ovum Acid Volume 1 on February 5. Ovum Acid Volume 1 is all ears for fans of the classic 303 sound and pushes the boundaries in 2016 as a wholesome selection of great and nostalgic acid tracks including tracks by DJ Dozia, DJ Sneak, Nacho Marco, Ryogo Yamamori, and more. Read more
Prolific German producer Stephan Bodzin has been an influential part in shaping the global techno scene since establishing his label Hertzblut in 2006. Now ten years later, BBC Radio 1 invites Stephan for the latest Essential Mix with the techno producer from Bremen. Read more
Photo: DJ Tech Tools
As we reported in January, Richie Hawtin partnered up with former Allen & Heath pioneer Andy Rigby-Jones to create Play Differently, a collaborative partnership that aims to expand the spectrum of DJ creativity through new technology and hardware.
At NAMM 2016 (in Annheim, California), Richie officially unveiled the project as a working collaboration of friends new and old, including a partnership with the Audiotonix group responsible for the innovation and distribution of such renowned audio brands as DiGiCo and the aforementioned Allen & Heath. The first prototype went into testing use as early as 2014, and we learned that it had since been made available through various stages of its project at select leading worldwide events, including Glastonbury in the UK and the ENTER.Ibiza party series that Richie spearheaded at Space.
Richie has now released a video promoting Play Differently and highlighting some of the key events of the past couple of years. Footage shows the M_nus boss introducing the still-to-be-unveiled product to the likes of Chris Liebing, Marcell Dettmann, Josh Wink, Tiga and DJ Tech Tool’s Ean Golden.
While unclear whether this is the case, the video includes clips of Dubfire, Recondite, Matador and Gaiser performing during the last few seasons of ENTER’s now ended residency in Ibiza, leading to the assumption that they tested out the prototype live at Space.
See the video below.
M.A.N.D.Y. invites the enigmatic Belgian production duo GoldFFinch for radio session six on M.A.N.D.Y. Radio. Yoann and Gilles make a fiery team as GoldFFinch when it comes down to pushing the boundaries of new music. Their dark and melodic sounds flow into a calculative minimalism that is timeless and engaging on a spiritual level. With releases on Innervisions, Turbo Recordings, Dirtybird, and Jackmaster’s Numbers label, GoldFFinch are a techno storm waiting to take to lands far beyond the mundane. Read more
Weather Festival. Pic by Jacob Christ
Weather Festival released its initial line-up for 2016, and it’s BIG. Nearly 100 names have been announced (with more still to come) for the Parisian festival set to take place from June 3rd through the 5th at Paris Le Bourget Exhibition Center. House and techno is the name of the game with an illustrious roster of acts from both genres featured.
Techno fans can rejoice with such acts as Marcel Dettmann, Richie Hawtin, Magda, DVS1, Len Faki, Ben Klock and RÞdhÄd, while House is brilliantly represented by Dixon, Apollonia, Tuskegee (Seth Troxler & The Martinez Brothers), The Black Madonna and Ricardo Villalobos just to name a few.
Some other interesting billings include Robert Hood playing a Hip-Hop set, the Hessle Audio trio (Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangea), RPR Soundsystem (Raresh, Petre Inspirescu and Rhadoo) as well as Donato Dozzy and Nuel as Aquaplano.
See the full line-up below:
Visit the Official FB Event and Ticket site for more info. Early Bird tickets already sold out but 3-Day Advance tickets are currently priced at 86 Euros. The festival is also providing camping and hostel packages through their website.
Time Warp US did every techno and house music fan a favor this past November by finally bringing Ricardo Villalobos back to this side of the pond for a three-hour set in Brooklyn that was the talk of many for weeks after.
Then, the German festival teased fans when it hinted on social media that a recording of the set would follow. Now it’s finally here, originally released exclusively on RecMix.
You can also directly listen to the near-three hour set via Soundcloud below:
Follow Time Warp: Online | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud
Follow Ricardo Villalobos: RA | Facebook | Soundcloud
