Techno is a genre that thrives underground, where fans and aficionados pride themselves on finding hidden gems in the depths of Beatport or record crates.
But if you’re just getting into discovering underground techno, or you’re running out of new avenues to find new and undiscovered music, it can be frustrating to feel like you don’t know where to turn to continue your exploration of the genre.
So to celebrate his release on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels, we recruited Jonathan Kaspar to share his favorite labels that are releasing some of the best and most forwarding-thinking underground techno in the game.
Stream Jonathan Kaspar’s Latest EP
Jonathan Kaspar’s latest release hit the airwaves towards the end of last August, and already the reception has been fantastic. The EP perfectly bridges the gap between melodic techno’s driving and somber worlds and the groove-centric genres of tech and house.
Reflecting on his Overfree EP, Kaspar says he is:
“[I am] super happy about my first full solo EP with Crosstown Rebels and also about the four tracks which Damian selected for it. They somehow show a whole DJ Set of mine, containing different emotions and feelings: starting deep, peaking, and ending conciliatory.”
Jonathan Kaspar – Overfree EP Out Now on Crosstown Rebels. Stream // Buy
Nous’klaer Audio
This is an exceptional boutique Label with brilliant tracks from Ambient to Techno.
I check every release, and I love that I am surprised by them because you can never know what to expect. I also love their artwork; it feels like they put the right effort into every detail on every release.
Crosstown Rebels
I’m a huge fan since I heard Damian playing for the first time at Sonar some years ago and discovered his label after the set. Besides super fresh newcomers, I love finding music and releases by big names and absolute legends.
I am super happy about my debut EP, “Overfree EP“ whose four tracks were just released in August. I put my first release with Crosstown Rebels as an example track; it is called ‘Zarun’ and was released on the first various artists’ “Spirits” compilation in 2017.
AD 93
I check every release and follow the label since they were called ‚Whities‘ – Brilliant different releases and a lot to discover in their back stock, a mainstay in my DJ sets.
I recommend re-listen to the whole backstock – for me, most of the music is timeless and always ready to still play out in a DJ set. From my point of view, this should be the main goal for a label – releasing timeless music.
Kompakt
The Mothership.
I just released my third EP with my home label. I love the variety of music released there for nearly 30 years – From popish techno to ambient and Electro.
I love the A&R selection by Michael Mayer, as it is quite a thing to impress him with music, and he always goes for the weirder music, not the apparent hits. I hope for 30 more years of Cologne techno!
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
