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RW035
Recycling Wax back from break.
Robin Tasi
March 05, 2026
Hey there,
Freshly back after a week off. Somehow, that break felt way longer than just one week. Crazy, I honestly really missed writing. But I needed the break too, more about that in the newsletter.
And I have a little surprise for you! I’m giving away a Mystery Box of Vinyl Records worth over $100 exclusively to one of my beloved newsletter subscribers.
To enter the raffle, simply refer at least one friend to subscribe to this newsletter using your unique referral link. The more people you refer, the higher your chances of winning. As soon as one person signs up through your link, you will automatically be entered into the prize draw.
The winner will be officially announced live on the Recycling Wax Radio Show on April 2, 2026. Good luck, and make sure your friends confirm their subscription!
For now, let’s start again in the usual manner:
But first, let’s begin as usual, as follows:
Recent Cuts - Fresh vinyl and digital releases worth checking out.
Essential Oldschool - Records from the 90s and early 2000s that still matter today.
Behind the Booth - Personal stories, lessons, and perspectives from life as a DJ.
Top 5 by mojo - A handpicked selection, carefully curated each week by DJs.
1. Recent Cuts - Fresh vinyl and digital releases worth checking out.
 © decks.de |  © bandcamp.com |
#1 Various Artists - 020: To be honest, I’ve completely fallen in love with Gockel’s sound. It sounds super fanboyish, and yes, it is. Great sound, great productions, and that’s why it’s back on vinyl again. What I absolutely have to say about this wonderful five-track various artists release is that the A1 by Karenz completely blows me away. What an insanely good tune. Beautifully dreamy, yet still with rough, distorted lo-fi drums. While Gockel follows up on that A1 vibe and also stays dreamy but less distorted, the B side is a classic dub techno side that fits perfectly into the overall concept. Fifty limited copies as splattered vinyl, I would definitely grab one. | #2 Lewis Fautzi - Quatro Niveis: Guys, in the mid-2010s, there was simply no way around Lewis. If you wanted to play new tracks that perfectly captured the spirit of modern techno at the right tempo and with a certain depth, you were always in the right place with him, ever since I first read his name. At some point, though, I kind of lost track of him. Only after I started ordering records again from Black Plastic and he joined my agency, Zenith Bookings, did he come back onto my radar. And honestly, he is still just as good as he was back when I last really listened to him. A true musical talent, consistently solid output every time, and rightly pressed on vinyl again. |
 © deejay.de |  © hhv.de |
#3 JSPRV35 - Leafs EP: From an established producer talent to a newer one. JSPR, I’m guessing his name is Jasper, is as far as I know from the Netherlands, right? What I can say with one hundred percent certainty, though, is that this guy knows exactly how to produce great music. Whether it is electro, dark, melancholic, or straight-up techno. Everything works. What an amazing new EP where literally all of that is represented somehow. Maximum talent. | #4 K. Hand - Acid Nation: When you think about non-male figures in the Detroit techno and house scene, K. Hand should be the first name that comes to mind. A true legend, influential for so many people as one of the first female Detroit techno producers, carving her way through a male-dominated scene. And simply incredibly good at what she produced. Sadly, yes, past tense. She passed away in 2021 and left behind a discography full of amazing music. R.I.P. Queen of Detroit Techno. |
 © bandcamp.com | #5 Not A Headliner Presents Jose - Usofructo: I honestly don’t have much to say about this record. After listening to the four-track EP, all I could think of was the German saying locker durch die Hose atmen, which basically translates to just breathe easy or take it easy. Don’t ask me why, hahaha. |
2. Essential Oldschool - Records from the 90s and early 2000s that still matter today.
 © discogs.com |  © discogs.com |
#1 Manual - Fallen / Eden: My latest acquisition from Berlin. Sure, I’ve had this one on my USB stick for a while, but I rediscovered it at the record store and immediately dug it out again. Last added in 2015, great. Probably haven’t played it in just as long, my own fault. Both sides are exactly what you want for a proper warm-up, especially when you are already in the final third of your set before handing the booth over to the main act. | #2 The Mover - Signs Of 96: Man, I love this record. Always a brilliant way to start in a proper basement. I really think Underwater Operations is such a strong intro. I remember the last all-night long B2B with my girlfriend Kathi. For those who have been there, the basement at Fusion Club in Münster. Upstairs, it was cheerful, happy trance vibes with a decent amount of pop edits. But downstairs, you went if you were not in the mood for cheering and good vibes. Down there, it was all night long hardcore and gabber. What a blast. At least six hours of pure ecstasy. But we did not want to overdo it right away, so Kathi and I started slow. With this track by Marc Trauner, also known as Marc Acardipane also known as The Mover, that is ridiculously easy. Insanely good track. |
 © discogs.com |  © discogs.com |
#3 DJ Tim & Remco - Post Logic: Did I actually mention that today it is only records from 1996? Somehow, a magical year in a magical decade. Today I picked out records that are a bit more minimal but still push hard. This was one of the first records I bought back in the day at Record Loft on Adalbertstraße in Berlin. At that time, alongside all the newer techno productions, I really felt at home in exactly this kind of sound. The A side is super simple, and when the synth and drum rolls suddenly disappear in the middle of the track, the crowd always goes crazy. Great memory of a great record. Maximum recommendation. | #4 Space DJz - Harmonic Distortion: For a long time, I assumed Re-Load Records mostly consisted of over-the-top distorted acid techno records, until I really started digging deeper into the label. At Sound Metaphors in Berlin, I had Harmonic Distortion in my hands and could not believe my ears. I put on “Clues”, and Dennis was standing next to me, just as techno-obsessed as I am. After just one or two seconds of listening, I saw his eyes go huge, the biggest grin appear, and then that long Duuude. That is exactly how you know a track is good hahaha. Insane, absolute must have. |
 © discogs.com | #5 DJ HMC 187 / 6AM: I completely forgot about this record after the 2015 re-release of 6 AM and Marauder on Reflector Records. Why wouldn’t I? 6AM was on it, I did not need the old pressing. Last weekend, I celebrated my five-year residency as a DJ at Junkyard in Dortmund. Stranger and I played B2B, and I asked him to pick the closing track. He chose 187, and I immediately said Wait, what was that again. He told me the ID. Lol. I had literally never properly considered this track. I was so blinded by 6AM that I never paid attention to this beautiful tune. |
3. Behind the Booth - Personal stories, lessons, and perspectives from life as a DJ.
Guys, I will be honest. Being a DJ has positive and negative aspects, like everything in life. In my twenties, I was super chill and relaxed. Somehow, in my thirties, I am not as relaxed anymore.
Last Monday, I played at Tresor in Berlin, and something terrible happened. The ICE train I was on hit a person. It felt surreal and shocking, while also feeling deep compassion for the deceased person and for the train driver and emergency responders. Seeing something like that with your own eyes is definitely not easy.
We stood there on a closed track for three hours until authorities cleared the route. It felt strange to go celebrate after sitting above someone who had just died. I once wrote in this newsletter that sometimes I feel like a product that simply needs to get from A to B. After eight hours of train travel, uncertainty, and stress, I arrived at Ostbahnhof in Berlin, forced down a McD burger without sauce and without the bun, the keto diet is over now, and went straight to the club with my clothes.
It is crazy how much space, and actually, the main part of being a DJ lies in traveling and not in what you actually do. Arriving at Tresor, I first had to get my head straight and acclimate. Sometimes it is hard to travel alone. If I could not reach my girlfriend Kathi or if she was not with me, I would honestly feel pretty lost sometimes.
I recently saw a post or story from Alarico where he said If touring is too exhausting for you, I will gladly take your gigs. I found that funny, but it also showed me that I am not alone with this feeling. And for everyone who thinks you get to see a lot while touring, I have to disappoint you. On the day of the gig, you see almost nothing of the city.
How about you? Do you enjoy traveling, or do you sometimes feel lonely too, or get annoyed that Deutsche Bahn is often delayed?
4. Top 5 by mojo - A handpicked selection, carefully curated each week.
You guys know this newsletter is far from well-researched or high-quality journalism. It is simply a newsletter where I write exactly how I think and talk about what excites me, occupies my mind, and drives me. I have no idea about solid, polished journalism. Totally fine, because there are people who have a special sense for that. You can clearly see the talent in mojo.
Jonas just moved from Cologne to Berlin, works or worked, I am not even sure right now, so much for my lack of journalistic standards hahaha, for Telekom Electronic Beats, plays records in and around Germany, and is generally just deeply into music. The man with the mustache is seriously obsessed with records and has a strong focus on the sound of progressive house. In Cologne, that scene was huge, but the music always felt foreign to me. But what could you possibly say against someone who digs deep into a genre, discovers new and old music for himself and the people around him, and enriches others through music?
Moving away from progressive house, because I am not even sure if he is not already exploring completely different territories. Dub techno seems to be slowly creeping back right now, and I swear on Maurizio, this guy saw the comeback of that once-lost genre coming. That is why today he did not bring a TOP5 but seven dub-infused records and will say a few words about them. Great to have you here, mojo, and now I hand it over:
“Dub stands as more than just a genre. It’s a way of working in the studio, rethinking the mixing console as an instrument. The technique is deeply rooted in Jamaica, born from reggae culture and developed by legends such as King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry around the 1970s. They, alongside many others on the Caribbean island, would hang out in the studios, probably smoke and experiment with reggae tracks, using them as source material for something new. They rerouted the sound through effects, re-recorded it, and created something with the potential to transport the mind to outer space.
At the heart of dub are tape delays, spring reverbs, and echoes. These effects manipulate sound heavily. The spring reverb, often adding metallic or dissonant overtones, contributes a unique texture, depth, and space. The delay reshapes the rhythm of the drums, letting them decay and reconstruct, resulting in ever-evolving drum patterns. Tape distortion enriches the sound, making it fuller and more immersive, perfect for massive sound systems.
Dub came a long way, also influencing techno massively. I remember a morning at Draaimolen, a festival in the woods in Tilburg, Netherlands, experiencing a true dub techno masterclass on the legendary Sinai Soundsystem. On that system, the genre truly shines. I perceived the music as rich, warm, and earthy. Earthy: a beautiful word to describe it.
Many of my favorite genres and tracks are influenced by these dub techniques. With this curation, I want to highlight some of my favorite dub-infused tracks across genres like electro, house, and techno.”
 © bandcamp.com |  © bandcamp.com |
#1 Paul St. Hilaire - The Producers : Richard van Akingbehin continues the Basic Channel legacy with his label Kynant. For this album, Tikiman, aka Paul St. Hilaire, flipped the concept of an album by Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus: Rhythm & Sound W/ The Artists. Instead of rotating vocalists, he’s the vocalist on all tracks, rotating with different top-tier producers such as Priori and Aurora Halal. I can’t decide which one is my favorite... every track is unique on its own. | #2 Noda & Wolfers - Avant Garde Rhythm Box : Imagine electro, acid, and dub making a baby. That’s this collaboration between Japanese artist Taka Noda and Dutch Legowelt (Danny Wolfers). |
 © discogs.com |  © decks.de |
#3 Unknown Artist – Untitled II (Minimood Extra – Minimood Extra 013) : Hidden in the depths of Kompakt’s catalog is a label called Minimood with a sub-label called Minimood Extra. A label founded by Voltmar, exploring the deep, dubby realms of techno, minimal, and house. With Unknown Artist – Untitled II, you get two vinyl-only tracks called Untitled 3 & 4 by – who’d have thought – an unknown producer, delivering two avant-garde, deep, and forward-thinking extra-long dub techno tracks. | #4 SnPLO – Infinity Substance - Untitled B : PLOman and SnP 500 joined forces with their label PIN. The most recent release comes with two untitled sides, wax-only, listenable on YouTube, where a user suitably left the following comment: “Headphones on, lights out, this is doing its thing as I read a book about medieval buccaneers. Magic.” The release is dense, deep, and texture-rich. Monotonous, but on the other hand, ever-evolving, with subtle changes. Attention: It hypnotizes you when listening carefully. |
 © discogs.com |  © discogs.com |
#5 D. Diggler - Sterillium : A track I discovered through PLOman at Waking Life and later used as my opener for my research set in Cologne. This track (I would describe it as dub house) truly means something to me and works as a perfect opener, setting a proper theme for a set, soaking in the crowd from early on, while also leaving a lot of room for interpretation of where the set might go. | #6 Waldeck - Dreaming : One of the best exports of electronic music from Austria. This one comes from the Northern Lights release, produced by Waldeck in 1996. It’s tagged as downtempo on Discogs, but for me, it’s a perfect fusion of dub and house, leaning even more toward the dub side due to the heavy use of delayed chords, acoustic instruments, and dubbed-out vocals. |
 © discogs.com | #7 Per Hammar - Pathfinder LP: Great techy minimal approach with dub chords all over the place and bleepy, spaced-out sound design, meant for the dancefloor. This 3x12" from Sweden is a true gem. My faves are DX Sport, Inter City, and Novo Line. |
So much to talk about, you can really tell that one week was missing. Sometimes this newsletter feels like a diary that I am basically reading out loud to you. Just with the modest advantage that there is music involved instead of pure voyeurism. I will expose myself again next week, so until then.
And don’t forget: keep sending me your favorite track or record. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one curating the next pick in the Community section.
Simply reply to this email or comment here with a link to your favorite E.P.
Catch you next week! Be ready to drop the needle on my next picks.
Keep it spinning,
Robin Tasi @ Recycling Wax
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