German Techno

While techno certainly got its start in the underground '80s clubs of Chicago, Detroit, and New York, it's thrived in Germany for the past decade. Especially in the morning, noon, and night party scene of Berlin, a decadent, dance-till-dawn support system for shifty singles from underground stars like Digitalism (the slam dance synths of "Idealistic"), Isolée (the icy, jazz-infused minimalism of his instant classic, "Beau Mot Plage"), and Kompakt co-owner/Cologne icon Michael Mayer (the sinister but strangely romantic rave soundtrack of "Lovefood").

True to the spirit of Germany's party-on policy, our Next Steps keep the beats coming until you're left blaming those iTunes Essentials people for a sleepless night.

If you're wondering why our German Techno Next Steps playlist is packed with many of the same artists as our Basics playlist, it's not because the scene is limited in scope. Quite the contrary: As artists like Lawrence (the deep, droning, Hitchcock-ian throb of "Titel 2"), Ellen Allien (the rising synths and canon-like percussion patterns of "Alles sehen"), and Monolake (the sewer-dipping depths of "Tangent I") repeatedly prove, Germany's crawling with career-driven producers. No wonder why our Deep Cuts sound like a disorienting but delightful case of déjà vu.

German techno's treasured fringe status among taste-making DJs and listeners with well-oiled turntables has ensured its ahead-of-the-curve edginess for years now. Meaning music that constantly redefines itself, from the dance floor-bound choke holds of DJ Hell, Steve Bug, M.A.N.D.Y., and Metope to the moody, song-driven movements of Apparat, Ricardo Villalobos, Isolée, Ghostcauldron, and Michael Mayer — artists who hand-sculpt their singles for superclub speakers and headphones without losing the wandering ears of either.

While seedy stories of Berlin's "wasted youth" subculture may suggest Germans care only about 18-hour warehouse parties, the truth is this: The future-forward, post-World War II streets of Germany have turned out to be one of the world's premier proactive breeding grounds for techno ⎯ especially during the past decade, as labels like Get Physical (Booka Shade, DJ T., M.A.N.D.Y.), BPitch Control (Apparat, Ellen Allien, Sascha Funke), and Kompakt (Superpitcher, Michael Mayer, DJ Koze) continue to curate an incomparable world where raw human emotion is expressed through blips and beeps on a daily basis, much like Trax Records and Carl Craig's Planet E Records out in the Midwest in the '80s and '90s.