Interestingly, Kompakt didn't release a Total compilation last year. The Cologne label was celebrating its 20th anniversary—maybe they thought a new edition of Total would get lost among its birthday releases and events. Taking a year off from seems to have been a restorative creative breather. In recent years the quality of the Total series has dropped off alarmingly. Total 12 was reduced to a single CD, as if to acknowledge that Kompakt did not have enough essential material to go round. More recent editions have been undermined by too many of what Derek Miller once described as "half-baked ideas." The essential, mid-'00s Total collections captured not just the rise of Kompakt but a whole new wave of German (minimal) house and techno. The later instalments seemed to reflect a label which was groping for a clear sense of its future direction.
Total 14 does not unveil exciting new dimensions to the Kompakt sound. The highly-processed glam-rock of Voigt & Voigt's "Tischlein Deck Dich," the cinematic techno-pop of Superpitcher's "Delta" or Maceo Plex's storming "Conjure Superstar" all have familiar strands of the label's sound. The key difference is that on Total 14, everyone involved is at the top of their game. It's as if, after all that 20th anniversary love and reflection, a reinvigorated Kompakt has purposefully set-out to remind the world, via a mixture of exclusive and previously released tracks, just how potent it and its artists remain.
The highlights are many and varied. Graceful, melancholy, and memorably melodic, DAMH's "Black Night" is among the best electronic-pop tracks Kompakt has ever released. Gus Gus's intelligent alt-ballad "This Is What You Get When You Mess With Love" is more leftfield, but equally heart-tugging. Back on the dance floor, you may already be familiar with Justus Köhncke's irresistible 808-scape, "Loop," and the widescreen techno of John Tejada's take on The Field's "No No…" Terranova's "Headache," on which vocalist Cath Coffey riffs energetically around issues of drugs, clubs and political apathy, is compelling disco-punk—part Black Strobe, part LCD Soundsystem.
Indeed, such is the quality of the individual tracks here that you may find yourself warming to things you were ambivalent about before. On the one hand, Gui Boratto's "Take Control" (piano-driven neo-trance, breathless female vocal, New Order-mimicking guitars) verges on self-parody. On the other, it is an unusually striking distillation of his somewhat sentimental shtick. Jürgen Paape's closer, "Heuriger," is one of those cartoonish Kompakt tracks (kept to a minimum here, notably) that fuses ancient Disney soundtracks and the German folk-pop, schlager, to produce a moment of bewildering lunacy. It is, in a way, a cheeky "fuck you" at the end of a well-balanced, two-CD set that reaffirms Kompakt's status as a singular source of classy electronic music.

1 It Was Digital, And It Was Beautiful
2 You Don't Have To Tell Me About Hell
3 Renaissance
4 Hours And Days
5 Grey
6 Streets
7 In My Muscles
8 The Age Of Wire And String

This is the first full-length release for Berlin-based DJ/producer, Shed.The work at hand presents yet another stunning Ostgut Ton acquisition, revealing Shed's irresistible, intense techno sound. Shedding The Past is the culmination of years of continuous Soloaction research, Shed's very own imprint. The recordings fully unfold the total variety in his outstanding crafts of sound. Lineage can be drawn to the Saunderson Detroit sound, Aphex Twin rave and Manix hardcore, sounding like an archive document -- an archaeological history of electronic dance music. Shedding The Past captures the intensity and the purity of club and rave in the early days, without excess nostalgia. Rather, it creates new moments that leave the past behind. Full of energy and vigor, this is true techno music: concentrated and dense, but with a sheer easiness born from eastern Germany. This adeptness has captured the ears of Berghain and Hard Wax ears. As others of his social provenience, Shed took on the opportunities of the early '90s techno culture, which unfolded after the Wall went down, and developed an approach of "just do it." With this easiness in mind, Shedding The Past is just true techno music. The 2LP version includes an exclusive track, as well as two alternate versions specially crafted for vinyl.

This is the remastered original "Starlight" from the Godfather of Techno, Juan Atkins aka Model 500, originally released on 12" by Metroplex in 1995. Includes 9 new remixes specially commissioned by Echospace. This classic masterpiece was originally engineered by Basic Channel's Moritz von Oswald and recorded at the Basic Channel studio in Berlin sometime in 1993-1994. Upon release, this track quickly became a cult favorite from Derrick May to Derrick Carter, and infected house, techno, ambient and even dub DJs alike. A song so powerful, it led to a change in techno music forever and was a shining example of what Detroit was all about: innovation. Juan Atkins was the first person to apply the word "techno" to music. He found new ways of making sound, and in so doing, he influenced nearly every genre of music in the 1980s and beyond. Yet his name is not well- known beyond the world of electronic dance music. He might, in fact, be one of the most obscure of modern music's true pioneers. This CD has been mixed together seamlessly for an uninterrupted listening excursion through the many shapes and forms of this song's incarnations. First, we offer the remastered original from Ron "Motown" Murphy, who spent countless hours restoring this treasure from 1/4" tapes. Then we find ourselves captivated in the pure, refined deepness of Deepchord's towering menace of space and bass. Echospace manage to give Juan's original just enough percussion flare, with wave frequencies rushing through a field of delay which spin around your head. This leads into a widescreen electro rendition from Soultek, and Convextion serves up some Kompakt-ish schaffel grooves, but with a hypnotic Detroit effect. Mike Huckaby makes good use of the Waldorf Wave before we enter ambient territory from Echospace who combine daring production techniques with vibrant forms of texture and color. Sean Deason presents a stomping killer with devastatingly beautiful synthesized notes and a sweet 909, and Phase90 presents breathtaking pads and a slow motion effect so powerful, it could only be compared to the works of Thomas K"ner or Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project -- this is love in lo-fi. Finally, Intrusion takes it out with a dubbed-out, dreamy ambient voyage.

Ellen Allien is known as a DJ, fashion designer, and label head, but she is most famous for her production work. Dust is her fifth full-length as a producer. This time around she worked with the similarly busy Tobias Freund, who is also a mainstay in the Berlin electronica world. Dust is being handled by Allien's own Bpitch Control label, and Allien describes it as having a “warm immediacy” compared with her previous efforts.

Consumed is the fourth studio album by Canadian electronic music producer Richie Hawtin, and his third studio album under the alias Plastikman.[3] It was released in 1998 by Minus and Novamute Records.[4]
The New York Times wrote: "The thumps and the pinglike sound of searching radar create a mood in Consumed that is oceanic and hypnotic yet hardly New Age: the tension is too thick."[9]
In a retrospective article, The A.V. Club called the album "a career highlight that stripped techno to a glacial pulse and the barren sounds of a boundless alien wasteland."[10] In 2018, Pitchfork placed Consumed at number 34 on its list of the 50 best albums of 1998.[11]

Catalog#: OW010
Format: Vinyl, 12"
Big spring/summer tune for sure !! 9 minutes of groovin sub heavy tech funk at its best,styled up with nice melodic bleebs, a lot of natural atmospherics, and the talking, laughing and screaming childrens make a big smile on your face !! Incl amazing interpretation from Dreher & Sm.art. Kollektiv Turmstrasse is one of the hottest producer team at the moment in consequence of their current and forthcoming tracks and remixes on labels like Connaisseur and Connaisseur Superieur , Keno Records and Ostwind Records, of course. Dreher & Sm.art are known from Tracks on Rotary Cocktail and their stunning remix for the Depeche Mode hit "Martyr" on Mute Records. With this release these two duos bring Ostwind Records an unforgettable tenth birthday !!

The first Rhythm & Sound CD is a compilation of the first 5 releases from the electronic dub-oriented label and features their very own signature sound of spacey echoes and techy rhythms.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Alex Smoke, the young producer from Glasgow whose potent album, Incommunicado is about to be released on Soma Records. This is Alex Smoke’s eagerly awaited debut and what a masterpiece it is. Already a name to watch in the underground electronic circuit he is on the cusp of getting the recognition he deserves.

Alex Smoke is part of a new generation of producers who are blurring the boundaries between minimal, techno and electronica. This music still may live on the dancefloor but it occupies so much more. Drawing from a myriad of influences including dub, electro, grime, latin and experimental pop, Alex Smoke has concocted a deeply emotive artist album that is mysterious, melancholic and inspiring.

With ‘Incommunicado’ Alex Smoke has defined his own unique sound, which respectfully nods to DSP pioneers like Matthew Dear, Villalobos, Luciano and Lawrence, who he regards as very influential. This is an accomplished debut from a talent who is going to shine in 2005.