Berlin-based techno duo Pan-Pot close out 2025 with their newest single ‘Phantaxxxy’, released on 18th December via their own imprint HUMAN.

‘Phantaxxxy’ is more than a track – it’s a full-body experience. A study in forbidden stimulation, the record unfolds like an interstellar customs seizure: leather-bound, USB-encoded, and reportedly banned on three moons for being “too suggestive for zero gravity.” Extracted from a bass-driven artificial intelligence that allegedly achieved sentience mid-breakdown in a velvet-draped server room, the track pulses with teasing tension. Slithering synths, hypnotic grooves, and a drop that practically demands a safe word place ‘Phantaxxxy’ somewhere between cosmic kink and dancefloor hypnosis.

Composed of Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix, Pan-Pot have spent 2025 expanding their creative universe through HUMAN, a platform that exists as both label and event series. Over the past year, HUMAN has hosted events across the Netherlands, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, alongside the official Street Parade afterparty in Zurich, which drew over 1.3 million attendees. The release follows a run of standout singles including ‘KALSTROM’, ‘OPERA (Street Parade Anthem)’, ‘Nightcode’, and ‘TDD’.

Launched as a new chapter in Pan-Pot’s evolution, HUMAN bridges raw techno energy with something deeper – emotional, warm, and unapologetically human. The ethos is rooted in connection, pushing past fleeting trends to place feeling back at the center of the dancefloor.

Looking ahead, the duo have announced a special all-night-long ‘Back to the Warehouse’ event on 21st February, echoing the early rave spirit of the 90s with a pounding soundsystem and a full lineup to be revealed (see ticket info here).

Set for release on 18th December ‘Phantaxxxy’ stands as one of the final statements of 2025 on HUMAN – bold, provocative, and unmistakably Pan-Pot.

Follow Pan-Pot:
Instagram | Spotify | SoundCloud

The London-based artist delivers an explosive two-track release that explores shadow, resilience and the emotional extremes of modern Techno

London-based DJ, producer and TMPL Music label boss ADRIANNA caps off an impressive year in the studio with Demon Mind, a gripping two-track EP marking her eagerly anticipated debut on Simina Grigoriu’s Kuukou Records. With previous standout releases on We Are The Brave, Terminal M and Kurai, ADRIANNA continues her sharp ascent, carving out a signature sound defined by emotional depth, precision engineering and an unapologetically kinetic approach to Techno.

On Demon Mind, ADRIANNA opens a portal into her shadow side, delivering one of her most uncompromising works to date. The title track is a tense, pressure-cooked burner designed to provoke and unsettle in the best possible way. Through frenetic sonics, strained atmospherics and a blistering low end, she channels fear, angst and internal conflict into a track that hits with rig-levelling ferocity. It’s a raw, urgent release of energy; dark, cathartic and impossible to ignore.

On the flip, Jack sees ADRIANNA reunite with regular collaborator Reaktive for a contrasting surge of momentum and melodic force. Bursting out with immediate intent, the duo strike a razor-sharp balance between emotive musicality and industrial edge. Propelled by thunderous drums, serrated textures, acid streaks and powerful prog stabs, “Jack” captures a spirit of grit, determination and forward motion. It’s eyes-down, mobile Techno engineered for late-night endurance; an anthem of challenge and triumph that crescendos into a potent, floor-commanding peak.

With this release, ADRIANNA reinforces her position as one of Techno’s most compelling emerging voices, while Kuukou Records once again proves its commitment to high-impact, meaningful club music. True to the label’s ethos – techno for techno – Demon Mind lands as a bold addition to Kuukou’s runway of hard-hitting, emotionally charged productions built to leave a lasting mark on the dancefloor.

ADRIANNA – Demon Mind EP is out now via Kuukou Records.

Some collaborations feel inevitable. When two artists who helped define the sound of an entire movement walk back into the studio together, the result carries a certain weight. That weight turns into momentum on From XS To Eternity, the new full length album from German techno mainstays Tom Wax and Mijk van Dijk, arriving this November via Phuture Wax.

These two names are more than historical footnotes. Tom Wax was a central force in Frankfurt’s techno explosion, shaping the city’s identity through his long running work at Dorian Gray and through AWeX, a project that influenced producers far beyond Germany.

Mijk van Dijk did the same for Berlin. His fingerprints are all over the formative years of the city’s scene. Marmion’s Schöneberg, which he co created, remains one of the most enduring tracks in the global techno catalog.

What makes From XS To Eternity compelling is that both artists resisted the temptation to lean on nostalgia. Instead of revisiting classic formulas, they approached the studio as two producers still hungry for new ideas. The result is a collection of 13 original tracks that feel current, sharp, and fully invested in the present energy of techno.

The album is driven by tight percussion, bold synth work, and a sense of motion that never lets go. Each track reflects the intuition of seasoned creators who understand how to move a room without resorting to predictable structures. There is history behind every sound, but no moment feels stuck in the past. This is techno that respects the roots while aiming directly toward the future.

For techno dance fans, the project offers a rare opportunity to hear two foundational voices in a modern context. It is a reminder that longevity and relevance can absolutely co exist when the intention is sincere.

From XS To Eternity is an album that deserves to be heard on a proper system. It is a body of work built for late nights, open minds, and the kind of dancefloors where experience meets energy. Wax and van Dijk prove once again that evolution is not about leaving history behind. It is about carrying it forward with purpose.

PURCHASE

Originally released in 2005, Vitalic’s debut album, OK Cowboy, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary and is being reissued in several formats (box set, double vinyl, CD, digital) featuring rare tracks and previously unreleased version.

OK Cowboy is a seminal album in electronic music, a pivotal record between eras – with the double vinyl, CD, digital releasing 14th November, and the box set version to follow on 5th December.

In the early 2000s, France firmly established itself on the electronic music map. French Touch had conquered the planet in just a few years. However, this movement, essentially house disco, was already beginning to lose steam. Originally underground, this scene had been courted by multinational record companies, and productions labeled “French Touch” were now flooded radio stations and record store shelves. The innovative spirit of the movement gradually disappeared, and it was from the underground that another wave would emerge. While the original French Touch was based in Paris and Versailles, a new generation of artists arrived from all over France. Like Miss Kittin & The Hacker in Grenoble, David Carretta in Marseille, or Vitalic in Dijon. These producers invented a new sound, rawer, more electro, more rock.

Active on the techno rave scene since the mid-1990s under the alias Dima, Pascal Arbez-Nicolas became Vitalic with the release of Poney EP, his debut maxi-single, in 2001. A dazzling and daring maxi, Poney EP notably contains the title “La Rock 01″ which quickly became a hit in both clubs and raves. The single is an electro storm driven by a metronomic rhythm on which dense and menacing synth layers fall. The French magazine Les Inrockuptibles spoke at the time of a track “on which Nirvana seems to collide with Daft Punk”. The title “La Rock 01” was played by many DJs (Aphex Twin, Sven Väth, Felix Da Housecat, Tiësto) and appeared on several mixed CDs, including one by Miss Kittin (On The Road) and most notably, another by Belgian duo 2manydjs, then at the height of their popularity (As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2).

The Poney EP maxi also contains “Poney Part 1” and “Poney Part 2”, two strong tracks in the spirit of “La Rock 01.” Together, these three tracks form the backbone of the OK Cowboy album. Released in 2005 by the Different label, a division of PIAS, this first album imposes Vitalic’s signature: an electro, energetic, robotic discharge, humanized by voices (his own voice, distorted through his machines). One standout example is “My Friend Dario”, the new single and another key moment on the album, with its guitar-like synths and a chorus that epitomizes electroclash. OK Cowboy also features other powerful electro/techno tracks like “No Fun” and “Newman”, driven by pounding rhythms and distorted, acidic melodies.

This first full-length album also gives Vitalic the freedom to explore a wide range of genres with his synthesizers: electronic polka (“Polkamatic”), sixties-style boogie driven by organs (“Wooo”), a pop ballad with vocoded vocals (“The Past”), seventies electronic experimentation (“Repair Machines”), cinematic synthetic soundscapes (“Trahison”), a hypnotic electroclash loop (“U and I”), and crackling drum patterns (“Valletta Fanfares”). With OK Cowboy, Vitalic showcases a vast palette of rhythms and contrasts, all in a style uniquely his own. The result is a retrofuturistic, baroque, synthetic, magical, and epic work—a landmark record in a time of transition.

During the four years between the Poney EP and the album OK Cowboy, Vitalic also established his live stature. His incendiary performances were acclaimed, from the Sónar festival in Barcelona to the Montreux Jazz Festival and the BBC in London. The release of OK Cowboy then propelled the artist onto stages across the globe—from the United States to Japan and Australia

Vitalic’s music has received very positive reviews worldwide. “Synthetic, epic, euphoric, his techno resembles a funfair,” writes Stéphane Davet in the French newspaper Le Monde. While his colleague Odile de Plas, from the same newspaper, states: “Vitalic is establishing himself as the most credible successor to Daft Punk, in terms of efficiency and unifying power.” Éléonore Colin of the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles enthuses: “Vitalic has established himself as the Wagner of BPM, the Muhammad Ali of rave.” Meanwhile, still in France, Trax magazine declares: “If electronic music were a question, Vitalic would be the answer.” Before analyzing the phenomenon: “Merging on the dance floors of clubs in a hysterical and volcanic fervor of fans of feverish pogos as well as adepts of the psychedelic loop, Vitalic has elevated the dancefloor to unsuspected heights, multiplying the energy of headbangers with the madness of techno freaks”.

The album OK Cowboy was also praised abroad. It received a 9/10 in the English magazine New Musical Express (NME), which wrote: “Vitalic is the mysterious metal disco warrior with the power to turn dancefloors into moshpits.” In the United States, the highly demanding website Pitchfork awarded the album an 8.6/10 and gave it the “Best New Music” label. The review ended with this admiring conclusion: “Vitalic made a record that’s in the same league as Homework or Discovery.”

Finally, in 2010, the English site Resident Advisor published its Top 100 albums of the 2000s. OK Cowboy was ranked at number 50, with this glowing comment: “Very few French producers can claim to have had a first album as primitively raw as Vitalic. The power of early, heavily compressed tracks like ‘Poney Pt. 1’ and ‘La Rock 01’ were so stunning it blew electroclash’s self-absorbed mind and even turned James Murphy from punk to techno.”

Beyond the glowing reviews and critical acclaim it received upon its release, the album OK Cowboy undeniably marked its era and became a classic. It perfectly encapsulated that moment in time while foreshadowing the rawer, noisier sounds of French Touch 2.0 (the new wave led by Justice and the artists of the Ed Banger label). Twenty years later, the impact and power of this landmark record still make it a defining marker of the mid-2000s—and one whose sound remains just as relevant today.

Stream ‘Ok Cowboy 20Y’ in full HERE

Follow Vitalic on socials:

Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Soundcloud

The 250-capacity space will be about building real musical community with cultured bookings in a sensory stimulating space

From the accomplished team behind KU Barcelona, Opium, Bling Bling and Bastian Beach, Boris is a brand-new, 250-capacity club built for people who prize music and sound above all else. It’s the first new club from nightlife powerhouse Costa Este since 2018, and it’s here to serve up low-lit, high-thrills events across a spectrum of serious sound from the worlds of techno, afro-house, deep house, tech and melodic techno alongside exciting movements like Afrobeat and amapiano.

This up close and personal club is the first electronic music space in the Upper Barcelona region has been fully renovated and reimagined. Every single detail has been finely tuned from the lights to the impressive d&b audiotechnik sound system, with subtle textures and warm colours throughout to ensure maximum immersion in the vibes and with high-spec acoustics keeping full focus on the music. Expect selectors who know how to read a room and artists who thrive in intimate spaces where the crowd is just a few steps from the booth.

Production throughout has been taken care of by Futur2, with careful layering of design aspects that nod to classic European nightlife but all reworked for now. It’s a new blueprint for the city that is intimate, minimal and alive, while the club’s key emblem, quietly hints that inside is a place to escape where understated elegance meets underground edge.

Boris opens Thursday to Saturday, running late from 11:59pm to 5am on Thursdays (over 23 years only) and until 6am on weekends (over 27 years only) and offers a contemporary hideout for real heads.

For lineups and tickets head to borisbcn.com or follow at @boris.club

On The Ghost, Martel opens his Zaire project with a track that feels more like excavation than composition. Layering Donato Dozzy-esque polyrhythms with hand-played percussion and synthetic textures that seem to sweat under their own humidity, the piece unfolds as a slow-motion descent into the sonic underbrush of the Congo Rainforest.

There’s nothing ornamental about the tribal elements here. Drums stagger and loop in uneven cycles, brushed with distortion and echo, as though eroded by time or conflict. Synths rasp and swell in the background, hovering between presence and memory. Fragments of field recordings and sampled voices flicker at the edges—ghosts of histories that refuse to stay buried.

It’s a stark introduction to Zaire, an EP that positions itself in opposition to the polished piety of gentrified Afro-house and the generic uplift of festival-ready “world music.” Instead, Martel traces the political fault lines running through the sonic landscape: colonial extraction, corporate plunder, and the uneasy persistence of life amid systemic violence.

Martel comes at this from an oblique angle. A former architect turned composer, his path cuts across film, underground parties, and the gaming world—most recently scoring Bleak Faith: Forsaken. That breadth shows in his sense of scale and texture, but it’s his ideological commitment that gives The Ghost its force.

Music is 4 Lovers releases two big tracks from Ukrainian duo, MASOUL.

MASOUL – Pressure EP will be released exclusively on Beatport on Friday, July 18, 2025; then all platforms on Friday, August 1, 2025.

Tracklisting:
01) MASOUL – Pressure (Original Mix)
02) MASOUL – Cuatro (Original Mix)

Artists: MASOUL
Title: Pressure
Label: Music is 4 Lovers
Catalogue: MI4L111
Release Date: 2024-08-01

– jams
Jimbo James
Editor-in-Chief
jams@musicis4lovers.com

Legendary techno duo Pan-Pot have announced the launch of the label and event brand HUMAN, which followed with two seminal releases “AERO” and “Nightcode”. Looking ahead to August, the Berlin artists will perform at the official Street Parade Afterparade (9th August), Cologne (KESSEL on 17th August), and Los Angeles (Venue TBA on 22nd August).

As the world eagerly anticipates the return of the iconic Street Parade – the duo will have an active dual role in shaping this year’s experience: curating the official anthem ‘OPERA’ß, and launching the new event series HUMAN as the official afterparty.

With over 1.2 million techno lovers expected to flood Zurich’s streets for the world’s largest celebration of electronic music, Pan-Pot will release the anthem that promises to define this monumental gathering. Titled “OPERA (Street Parade Anthem)”, the track blends cinematic grandeur with Pan-Pot’s signature driving techno energy — a sonic embodiment of the parade’s spirit of unity, freedom, and euphoria.

Set for release today on July 31st, 2025, just a week before the Parade, “OPERA” [Listen on Spotify] is already hailed as a future classic. The anthem’s hypnotic build and soaring drops are designed to ignite every float and sound system, making it the heartbeat of this year’s celebration.

When the sun sets on the Parade, the night opens to HUMAN, the official afterparty curated by Pan-Pot under their brand-new label and event series of the same name. Held at Halle 622 in Zurich, HUMAN is a call to gather, connect, and transcend the ordinary through music.

Joining Pan-Pot behind the decks are international talents Adiel, Ancho, Kevin De Vries, and Massano, promising a lineup as unforgettable as the day itself. The production will echo HUMAN’s core ethos: an immersive, soul-stirring journey through sound and light.

The Netherlands has always been a breeding ground for rave culture. From iconic festivals to underground warehouse nights, the Dutch scene has shaped electronic music in Europe for decades. Stepping right into that legacy is Sacha Harland with his latest single Let Me Be.

This one hits with full rave energy. Relentless drums, ecstatic piano stabs and a soaring vocal hook drive the track straight into peak-time territory. It doesn’t just nod to the spirit of classic rave culture. It reignites it. The high BPM tension and hands-in-the-air moments are engineered for maximum dancefloor impact.

Subtle breakbeat flourishes add punch and character but it is the steady forward momentum that defines Let Me Be From the very first kick to the final drop this is a track built for strobe lights sweat and that shared feeling of euphoria. Whether it is unleashed during a late night club set or blasting through the speakers at an open-air festival this one is designed to move bodies.

Following the buzz around Filthy Rich which gained support from names like Indira Paganotto Hannah Laing Oliver Heldens and ØTTA Sacha Harland continues to carve out his own bold space in the global electronic scene. Let Me Be is proof that rave culture in the Netherlands and beyond is alive well and still evolving.

PURCHASE

Lützenkirchen’s 2008 chart hit, about “partying for three days without sleep”, gets a techno makeover from the Dutch techno tastemaker

To celebrate 20 years of Berlin label Stil vor Talent, mainstay Reinier Zonneveld remixes one of the imprint’s key singles, the early electro house classic ‘3 Tage Wach’ by German DJ and producer Lützenkirchen, dropping on 13th June.

‘3 Tage Wach’ (“three days awake”), the 60th best-selling single of 2008 in Germany, is a satirical, humorous “mirror of the [techno] scene”. Through gritty vocoder-sung lyrics, it captures the chaos of “partying for three days without sleep, ingesting lots of alcohol and drugs”.

Zonneveld’s ‘20yrs SVT Remix’ is an elegantly executed take, retaining the original’s singalong vocals, boosting the BPM, and combining heavy techno drums with a raw acid bassline – a signature touch from the Filth On Acid founder. All the vibes of the tongue-in-cheek original remain, now reimagined for the cavernous confines of a hard-hitting techno rave.

Celebrating two decades, Reinier’s remix of ‘3 Tage Wach’ is part of a year-long schedule of remixes of some of Stil Vor Talent’s biggest hits from an impressive 400-strong catalogue. So far, these have consisted of remixes of classic tracks by Oliver Koletzki, from Hidden Empire and Ede & Deckert.

The 20yrs SVT Remix of Lützenkirchen’s 2008 classic ‘3 Tage Wach’, from Reinier Zonneveld, drops on Friday 13th June via Stil vor Talent.

Tour Dates

JUN 20
A Summer Story
Barajas de Madrid, Spain

JUL 06
Kappa Futur Festival 2025
Torino, Italy

JUL 11
Awakenings Festival
Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands

JUL 13
Ostend Beach
Oostende, Belgium

JUL 18
Sea You Festival
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

JUL 26
Junction 2 Festival
Brentford, United Kingdom

AUG 02
Nature One
Hasselbach, Germany

AUG 09
SonneMondSterne
Saalburg-Ebersdorf, Germany

AUG 10
Reinier Zonneveld pres. HARDKAR
Mannheim, Germany

AUG 13
Frequency Festival 2025
ST. PÖLTEN, Austria

AUG 16
R² Festival 2025
Velsen-Zuid, Netherlands

AUG 20
Sonus Festival 2025
Novalja, Croatia

AUG 22
TBA
Zurich, Switzerland

AUG 23
TBA
Marbella, Spain

AUG 27
Delta Festival
Marseille, France

AUG 30
Initial Festival
Bordeaux, France

SEP 4
TBA
San Francisco, USA

SEP 5
TBA
Los Angeles, USA

SEP 6
TBA
San Diego, USA

SEP 14
Amnesia Ibiza
Eivissa, Spain

SEP 26
Parc des expositions Paris Nord Villepinte
Villepinte, France

OCT 11
Tomorrowland Brasil 2025
Itu, Brazil