My thoughts are racing and flying around like crazy. Why was I actually hiding like a criminal? Why did this intuitive flight reflex suddenly come over me? Actually, I only passed a few signs. Besides, as part of the event, I might even be entitled to be down here. Nevertheless, the whole situation feels somehow strange, as if I had seen something that I should not have seen. The person with the unusual shoes has not come to a stop yet. She is nervously making her rounds above me and apparently keeps looking at the screen with the data. Every now and then she growls discontentedly and mumbles numbers to herself. Suddenly, however, she stops and shouts "damn that's not enough, we need more power". Following this, the person says in a command-like tone "keep ramping up the raverend's show. We are under our daily target." Then a short pause and following again the cold and harsh voice of the unknown person "Since when are you responsible for thinking. I don't care if the guests eventually collapse. The lazy pigs are supposed to dance and supply us with energy. I have to deliver good numbers to headquarters today. That's the top priority." Angrily, the person stomps out of the room and lets the door fall into the lock behind him. I slowly crawl out of my hiding place, confused. What was this dubious person just talking about? What kind of numbers does he have to provide and what does this have to do with the ravers? This makes no sense to me. I go back to the screen and look at the data again. I discover more charts from which I can read how many kilowatts of electricity are generated per hour. In addition, there is comparative data for other days. With more exact analysis of the statistics I miss on that always Saturdays are represented. Wait a minute, if I remember correctly, these are all Saturdays on which ComRa events took place. What is the meaning of all this?

Dass alles verbindende Element der Zeit führt uns wieder einmal zusammen und lässt uns abtauchen in einen Strudel aus Gegenwart, Zukunft und Vergangenheit. Ausgelöst wird dieses Ereignis durch einen Track, der wie eine Urgewalt den Augenblick entkräftet und mit Momenten aus allen Phasen des Seins durchsetzt. Der Strippenzieher hinter dieser „timebomb“ ist der berliner Produzent Schtu. Ein musikalisches Multitalent, der …

The footsteps got louder and louder, accompanied by a metallic rattle – which somehow sounded familiar to me. I looked around frantically. Where in this room could I hide so as not to be discovered? I started to analyze the situation systematically because I had little time. Don't panic now, I said quietly to myself. My eyes wandered around the room. The equipment was reduced to the bare minimum, but what else could I expect from a technical room. The idea of hiding in a closet would have been too good to be true. The boilers and machines in front of me gave me little cover. I would have been discovered there with ease. My eyes wandered across the room, before getting drawn to the corner with the server farm. For a fraction of a second it seemed to me as if I saw a brief flash, almost like a reflection of a small mirror in direct sunlight. As if magically attracted, I walked in the direction from which I suspected the light was coming. There was something on the floor there. I looked down and noticed a chunky silver ring with an engraving on it. I'll take a closer look at it later. When I pick up the ring I noticed that I was standing in front of a cable duct sunk into the floor. A base plate protruded a little. A flash of thought came to me! If I did manage to move the base plate, I could hide in the shaft. I grabbed the base plate with my hands and a shudder traveled through my spine. It felt like putting my bare hand into a bag of ice cubes. With all my strength I managed to push the base plate aside, just enough to have a gap that could be wide enough for me. I slid down feet first and touched the ground below. Then I noticed that I was standing on thick cables that lead from the server farm into the cable duct. I reassured myself by mumbling that it was not the worst hiding place and lied down on my back in the cable duct. My hands reached to the extinguisher on the floor plate lying over me. After that is just needed to move the base plate back into the anchoring. Done! The door to the technical room slammed shut and I held my breath in shock. The steps were getting closer to the place I was hiding. Above me I suddenly noticed a black pair of shoes with silver heels. So that's where the metallic clatter came from … Today's deep story, which is presented to you by Miss Monique, is also full of energy. Born in Ukraine, she travels around the globe as a DJ and producer and, with her label Siona Records, is known for its unmistakable progressive sound.

After arriving at the lowest level, a door blocked my way, with a notice that unauthorized access is prohibited. I slowly pushed the handle down and to my surprise it actually went open. This made me field emboldened. When I closed the door, however, I noticed another sign on the other side of the door: "Always lock this door after entering and leaving!" Apparently another ComRa employee didn't take the instructions that seriously. Since I hadn't received a key yet, I couldn't lock it either. I decided to think about it later because my current assignment seemed more important to me. Only then I noticed the eerie atmosphere down here. The corridor in front of me exuded a strange coldness. Low temperatures are actually nothing unusual in vaulted cellars, but down here it was not the usual “moldy cold” that had been locked in the depths for decades. Instead, everything seemed sterile and impersonal. It felt more like a fresh chill that has just moved in. Mixed with the neon lights, a futuristic dystopian atmosphere was created. The next thing I noticed was the smooth walls. These were not the kind of walls one would expect in such an old building. Instead, the walls were almost as smooth as glass without the slightest rough edge. This is exactly what the walls at ComRa headquarters looked like. From this I concluded that ComRa had carried out structural measures down here and that there must be something important here. Maybe I even found the well-hidden backstage area that even Lighter didn't know about. I was speculating that the Djs could be brought here through the same entrance and on the other side there could be direct access to the stage. Exhilarated by the prospect of having discovered something special, I walked down the long corridor. The pipes hanging on the ceiling caught my eye. These also must have been installed later. After a few meters I came to a junction. No matter which direction I watched, it all looked the same. I thought about which direction to go for a while, until I noticed that the pipes merged on the ceiling into even thicker pipes. These tubes should show me the way. I followed them until I stood in front of a door again. This was also not locked, although it should actually have been. Unfortunately, the backstage area was not in the room. Instead, there were huge boilers and machines in front of me. These looked just as sterile and new as the corridors. Lots of colorful control lights were flashing on them and next to them in the corner was a gigantic computer rack. At this moment I was very disappointed. There was no beer nor famous people down here. Apparently I had stumbled into a technical room. Maybe the ventilation was being controlled down here. I discovered a monitor on which data could be seen. Among other things, the number of guests, dance steps per minute and average dance steps per hour were displayed. Before I could see more, I was startled by loud footsteps that echoed through the large room. There is also a lot to discover in Herr Oppermann's new deep story. The Hamburg resident and curator of the Klangextase series skilfully mixed atmospheric tracks into a stylish overall experience that many would like to experience over and over again.

My odyssey drags on unexpectedly. After half an hour I have completely lost my sense of orientation and am also considering rather unorthodox methods. Maybe I should descend deeper into the catacombs to find another way up further back. I give the next turn another chance and desperately take a deep breath. Again, nothing looks familiar to me and I decide to put my plan B into practice. I go back to the next staircase and try my luck by going down. I just ignore the warning “No trespassing for unauthorized persons”. In my current job, I consider myself fully authorized to visit the lower levels. After all, I'm on an all-important mission to quelch the thirst of the guests with liquid delicacies. Sometimes you have to jump over your own shadow and take an unexpected road… Our guest today, Darkside Vinyl, thought the same. Not only is his name extraordinary, but so are his own productions. They end up in the Beatport Top 100 again and again and stand for high-quality sound. This is exactly what you can expect from his deep story.

We are in the middle of the most beautiful season of the year. On days like these, even rain can't affect our radiant mood. The festival season lets us be playful children again and awakens our creativity. We see opportunities instead of obstacles and live during the weekend in a mesmerizing parallel world. Driven solely by our basic needs, we glide through the hours of freedom, released from social constraints. This year we deliberately plunged into the hustle and bustle in broad daylight. At that time of the day, festivals and their visitors show themselves again from a different side. It's usually a bit cozier on the dance floors and the DJs also like to play some surprising finds from the depths of their record box. And if you catch the worm as a very early bird, you can also avoid the big snakes later on and there is more time for the beloved dancing activities or the consistently diverse cultural side program, which is otherwise often ignored. The small attractions away from the big stages can also sweeten the day. We can only encourage everyone to turn day into night and enjoy the partying under the blue sky. So let's celebrate the little freedoms we have regained in this year's open-air dance season and appreciate all the good encounters and experiences. Solidmind will surely bring you in the right mood, so you may put on your dancing shoes for his set.

In this heated mood, it was difficult for me to focus on my actual task. I was already looking forward to mingle with the raving crowd later that night. But first of all, many thirsty throats were waiting for supplies. So I put a crate on my shoulder and pushed my way through the crowd to the next bar. There I was impatiently awaited. “It's good that you're here. I’m worried about the beer supply. After this crate there is only one more left. ” The bartender yelled in my ear. I understood his statement as a hint to take my job a little more seriously. In order not to disappoint anyone at my first event, I rushed towards the pantry. The beer supply there looked even worse than at the bars. Two colleagues were just grabbing the last crates and grinning at me in a mocking way. A little puzzled, I stood in the empty beer room for a few seconds. Then the thought occurred to me that with such a large location there must be several warehouses. So I went to have a look. However, due to the dancing crowd, I couldn't really get ahead very quickly. There had to be a way to cross the dance floor faster. At that moment I wished that I was able to swing across the hall like Tarzan on a vine. That would be a good show too. Unfortunately, this daydreaming wasn’t really helpful to solve my problem. Then I got the idea to use the catacombs. In any case, that should be faster than plodding through the crowd. Colleagues would stop mocking me when they realized that I was always one step ahead of them. Having arrived underground, my plan didn’t turn out to be that brilliant. The corridors below the event level were winding and misleading. It's unbelievable that we found our way so effortlessly when we entered the place. Where, if I remember correctly, we actually just followed the light. The people at ComRa organized this whole thing damn well. I wished they had thought out the beer supply equally well. Lost in thought I kept getting lost in the labyrinth…

In dieser neuen Rubrik präsentieren euch wöchentlich die Mitglieder des Teams und ausgewählte Gäste ihre aktuellen 4 Lieblingstracks. Dabei wird ein Track etwas ausführlicher im dazugehörigen Blogbeitrag vorgestellt. Die aktuelle Playlist wird immer im Spotlight auf unseren Soundcloud Kanal zu finden sein. Diese Woche präsentiert euch unser Mitbegründer und Manager Kork seine aktuellen Top Hits. By loading the content from …

  Unser Mastering Ingenieur Shahin von Collected gibt jetzt auch einen Workshop zum Umgang mit Ableton Live. Dabei legt er im Kurs „creating spaces“ besonderen Fokus auf die räumliche Gestaltung von Beat- sowie Melodieelementen. Kerninhalte sind 3-Dimensionalität, Tiefenstaffelung und Stereo-Klanggestaltung. Ziel des Workshops ist somit die Vermittlung von Techniken und Tricks für kreative Stereo-Audio-Bearbeitung sowie Soundgestaltung. Diese Arbeitsweisen sind sowohl …

In dieser neuen Rubrik präsentieren euch wöchentlich die Mitglieder des Teams und ausgewählte Gäste ihre aktuellen 4 Lieblingstracks. Dabei wird ein Track etwas ausführlicher im dazugehörigen Blogbeitrag vorgestellt. Die aktuelle Playlist wird immer im Spotlight auf unseren Soundcloud Kanal zu finden sein. Diese Woche präsentiert euch Nico Tober seine aktuellen Top Hits. Der Hildesheimer ist eine der treibenden Kräfte der …