RW036

Recycling Wax loves sunshine.

Robin Tasi
March 12, 2026

Hey there,

Right now I’m sitting on our balcony, looking at a building while writing this newsletter. Two pigeons are sitting on top, beak to beak. Spring is here! The sun is shining, it’s 5:41 PM, and it’s still bright outside. The cat is sitting on the table, staring into the distance and watching the pigeons. Somehow, everything just feels nice right now. And while I’m getting distracted by King of Queens and daydreaming into the distance, Kathi has just moved with her laptop from the kitchen to the living room (which unfortunately means I can’t hear the show anymore).

That means: back to work. As usual, we’ll start in a structured way with ...

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.
What’s in my Bag? - A peek into recent gig selections, new digs, and timeless records.

1. Recent Cuts - Fresh vinyl and digital releases worth checking out.

#1 Rolando - The Syncrophone Remixes Vol. 2: Let’s start today with a remix EP by one of the most important artists in techno history: Rolando. And no, not only “Knights Of The Jaguar” is a masterpiece by him, but many other tracks are as well. And now there is something new again. DJ Qu, Detect Audio, and Anthony Shake Shakir deliver remixes that really hit hard. While the A-side lives from synth stabs and speed, the B1 shows exactly what Detroit techno is all about. Once again, we have fast stabs, but the squeaky sound that almost cannot be missing in Detroit techno is clearly recognizable here. My favorite is the B2. Very dreamy, beautiful electro, a nice full snare, and simply something to get lost in. Wonderful.

#2 Mono Junk - Mars 31 Heaven Collected Works 93 – 95: I am a huge Mono Junk fan, have I mentioned that before? Whenever I even smell the word reissue, I have to check it out. Collected Works 93 – 95? Say no more. Of course, I have told you before that Kilotoni is currently the best label from Finland by far. But when it comes to legends from Finland, at least in techno and electro, Kimmo Rapatti has to be mentioned instantly. Mono Junk is simply GOATED. And you can clearly hear that in these Heaven Collected Works. Just take the B1, for example. How well is that produced? Atmospheric, somehow even a bit humorous, and simply joyful. But Osaka House in the original version is still my favorite, I have to say. Must have.

BANDCAMP
DECKS
HHV

BANDCAMP
DECKS
TRAXSOURCE

#3 Der Zyklus - Truth Matrix: I believe I have already written a hymn of praise about Heinrich Mueller. If you are searching for dark, powerful, and very electronic electro, you cannot go wrong with Der Zyklus. The snare sounds like a mixture of two or three snares layered with a delay of one to two milliseconds, but it also has a bit of an 8-bit character. On the B-side, we find a DPX Data Sanitization remix of Truth Matrix alongside the original. This version feels more direct and less playful. A brutal kick and a snare you would easily recognize from Electronic Body Music. Absolute weapon.

#4 Red Rooms - Endurance EP: You all know it, and I have said it before. I am not necessarily an ambient ultra. Not because I do not understand it, but because sometimes the style feels a bit too similar to me. Of course, I still play it during warm-ups because I like starting with warm tones instead of going full power immediately. But I have to say that her,e Znakva really hits my taste again. For me, this is exactly right. This is how you can start a great EP. I am still stuck on the A1, though, so the other tracks have not been as present for me yet. While the A3 reminds me of typical random bleep tracks and the B1 reminds me a lot of early 2010s Bas Mooy and somehow is not really my thing, the A2 Septima and especially the B2 Endurance push me forward massively. The B2 brings a certain freshness, and I really like that here. Definitely worth checking out.

BANDCAMP
DECKS
HHV

DECKS
DEEJAY
TRAXSOURCE

#5 A Thousand Details - Lost Culture Paradise Club: Is it that time again already? Tar Hallow delivers another one. How can someone consistently produce such great output? I honestly believe that these records will easily be worth quite a lot on Discogs in ten to twenty years. Most of the time, I do not even know the artists on this label, but I do not mind because the label itself is a sure shot and deserves even more attention. No matter which track I play, I like it instantly. Simply a good life, and in this case, a beautiful 2x12-inch release.

BANDCAMP
DECKS
HHV

2. Essential Oldschool - Records from the 90s and early 2000s that still matter today.

#1 Frame Six - Dicebar EP: Short story. Recycling Wax Radio at Mono in Dortmund, the café inside the Black Plastic Record Store. New delivery. Nice. I start flipping through the records and find a record that appeared in the TOP5 section from mojo. He visited us the week before and played a one-hour dub techno set. So I found the record and wanted to show it to mojo, but something stopped me on the way to him, and I completely forgot where I had placed the record. Crisis. At Black Plastic, things work like this. Two euro records do not have sleeves. Five euro records have sleeves but no price tag. And then there are records with sleeves and price tags. I misplaced the record and spent two hours searching for it, worried that someone might have found it and bought it for two euros. On Discogs, I saw the record listed for a much higher price. So I searched through every single two-euro crate in the store. And while digging through those crates, I suddenly found a box full of absolute heavy hitters. What a find. And right there, I pulled out this record. From the outside, it looks like something from Axis Records. The tracks Dicebar and French Quarters even sound like it. I had to take it immediately, even though our rule usually is that we do not take the best records from the crates for ourselves. Customers first. Sorry for that, haha. By the way, I actually found the other record as well. It was lying in the storage area at the back, almost exactly where I first checked the new delivery. LOL.

#2 DJ Rush - Look & See (Remixes): Well, what can I say? Pro-Jex is a name you should know. If not, now you do. For me, it is one of the best labels that exists on this planet. The fact that DJ Rush is part of the catalog honestly does not surprise me at all. Look & See is an absolute classic. Beautiful, hard as you would expect from DJ Rush, but with the vocals, it becomes incredibly playful and funky. And then you also have Steve Bicknell, Killabite, and DJ Zank as remixers. I got this record as a gift from my friend Stikdorn from Cologne. He posted several stories on Instagram with records for sale, and I managed to recognize this one while quickly scrolling through them. Daniele, a friend of ours, acted as the middleman and placed the record into my compartment at the Black Plastic Record Store while he was hosting his own radio show there. By the way, his show is highly recommended if you are into house and disco. The record was heavily warped, though. You could not even scratch it because the needle would immediately jump. But luckily, some machines can flatten vinyl records again. So the record had to spend some time inside one of those machines. Now it is perfectly flat again. Simply great.

DISCOGS

#3 Robert Hood - Stereotype: I do not know how you feel about it, but whenever I find a 90s record from M-Plant, it instantly becomes a must-have. It is a label I do not actively dig for. I simply let myself be surprised. Minimal techno at its best from Robert Hood. I do not think I need to say much more here. Just listen to it yourself. Masterpiece.

#4 Jeff Mills - Steampit EP: From one US legend to the next. I think Jeff Mills needs no introduction. You all know how important he is in the world of techno. The original. The one and only. Whether it is Purpose Maker or Axis Records, everything he touches is simply great. He was already producing tribal techno in the 90s and did it with absolute dedication and precision. Must have.

DISCOGS

#5 Various Artists - The Dark Side Of The Sword 3: I am so happy that I discovered this label. Plasmek? I had never even heard of it before. Pretty bad, right? While digging, I completely and unexpectedly fell in love with the B1. It sounds like Aux 88, just with an electronic voice. What a track. It immediately grabbed me and will probably never leave my record bag again.

DISCOGS

3. Behind the Booth - Personal stories, lessons, and perspectives from life as a DJ.

People, vinyl is making a comeback. Or is that just my subjective feeling? I feel like the techno scene has been overrun for a long time, but it is slowly regenerating. Do you understand what I mean? Imagine a field of grass that has been walked over again and again. At some point, only mud and dirt remain, and you barely see any grass anymore. It takes time until the field becomes green again. Our culture has been overshadowed by industry for quite some time. And the industry often sees only one thing in the music we love so much: money. Money. Money. Money. And now something is slowly happening that I predicted a while ago. The DJs and so-called artist performers who jump around on stage and sell their unique selling points, something that often feels more functional than artistic, are slowly separating from the rest. The new generation is tired of the surface level and starts digging deeper. But they are also digging deeper into the materials that define DJ culture itself. And nowadays it is almost becoming trendy again to be a DJ with real skills. However, I also see a clear problem in our bubble that I really do not like. It is totally valid to criticize the industry and the money machine, but it is still part of the culture now. Every city has its ugly district where nobody really wants to live. But it is still part of the city. And right now, it feels like the ugly district of the scene is being gentrified by the industry and sold as a complete package. I hope you understand what I mean. I do not mean it disrespectfully, but this is the image that comes to my mind.

Now to the part that I really dislike.

Our vinyl bubble sometimes feels very elitist to me. Especially when it comes to gender roles, which I really do not like at all. Sure, I sometimes get comments on my Instagram reels when I post videos of mixing two records. But those are isolated cases. Where I see much more hate is directed toward people who are not male. There are many comments from men who categorically deny DJ skills to women and queer people. Recently, my girlfriend Kathi, who also uploads reels of herself DJing on Instagram, showed me a comment that said: “Never your collection, definitely your dad’s collection. I’m digging through music for the last 20 years, and I’m more than sure that I’m right.” And even when Kathi replies that this is not true and that she is perfectly capable of digging for her own music and building her own collection, it does not change anything for that person.

I have to say that vinyl is still very much a male-dominated thing. I do not know why. I really do not understand it. But if we do not start learning to be more open and stop judging people based on certain characteristics, then I would not say that our bubble is tolerant or inclusive. Recycling Wax exists to bring people closer to music, to celebrate the producers, to share music, and to make the world a little bit happier. And it makes me sad when compromises have to be made in that regard. That is why it is our responsibility as an established community to welcome every person with the same interest with open arms. Young or old. No matter their gender.

What do you think about that?

4. What’s in my Bag? - A peek into recent gig selections, new digs, and timeless records.

With the record Frame Six - Dicebar EP, I told you about the almost magical two-euro crate at the Black Plastic Record Store. I did not just find that one record there. I actually pulled around thirty records out of that crate and ended up taking almost twenty of them with me. What a day. The crate had been standing there for quite a while, and I thought to myself that if nobody else was taking them, then I would do it now. Today I will show you what else I picked up.

#1 Paul Johnson - Hit It Up EP

#2 Peplab - Pornstar

DISCOGS

#3 Andreas Kauffelt - Dicke Dinger

#4 Pacou - Rio Sketches Part 3

DISCOGS

#5 Ron Carroll Presents The RC Groove Project - The Sermon

DISCOGS

And just like that, we’ve reached the end again. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway: take part, and you might have the chance to win the upcoming Mystery Box. Good luck! :-)

Catch you next week! Be ready to drop the needle on my next picks.

Keep it spinning,
Robin Tasi @ Recycling Wax

Reply

or to participate.