Let’s wait and see what they got in store for 2012. Who knows, maybe more 3D shows?

Berlin-based Modeselektor members Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary met in 1992. At that time, they felt there was a lot of anarchy after the Berlin Wall came down. They started creating music together as ‘Fundamental Knowledge’. In 1996, they chose to name themselves Modeselektor. Because they saw their surroundings as a sort of jungle, they matched their sound – no boundaries – to that jungle. The result is a wildly diverse, slightly absurd mix of almost anything. Modeselektor doesn’t care about genre or rules, they just play whatever they feel like.

The name Modeselektor was taken from a function on the classic Roland RE-201 space echo analog delay effects unit. It fits them perfectly. After renaming themselves to Modeselektor, they bonded with others, such as Apparat, Ellen Allien and Radiohead. Today, they have gigs all over the world and are appreciated by many outside of the expected audience.

Although Modeselektor see themselves more as a live act, instead of studio musicians, I beg to differ. They are in fact great producers, listen for example to their latest album ‘Monkeytown’. That album alone proves my point. For now, enjoy the mixtape below that was done for BBC’s legendary Essential Mix!

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Sammy Dee (aka Mario Uwe Radecki) is a true Berlin house veteran that has been active in the scene for almost two decades. He has been releasing high quality music on prestegious labels like Poker Flat, Perlon and Kanzleramt, both under his Sammy Dee moniker and in the duo’s Pantytec and Half Hawaii. Next to this, he has been a resident DJ at renowed clubs like Robert Johnson, Ostgut, and Tresor. With all these activities he’s been a great influencer in Berlin’s electronic music scene.

During the last decade the Berlin minimal scene has constantly been evolving: First it was the new underground sound, then it became THE soundtrack of the noughties, and nowadays minimal is almost a dirty word. The minimal scene saw dozens of labels and artists come and go and the quality of the releases and DJs went up and down. During all these developments there have been a few labels and artists that have been constantly pushing the minimal sound by releasing high quality music and delivering splendid DJ-sets. Sammy Dee is one of those artists.

In the mixtape below, from Phonanza.fm, you can listen to Sammy Dee’s skills in action. Spend your day or night listening to Berlin’s electronic music in its truest sense. Minimal the way it’s meant to be.

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Nihao was built last weekend by Marcel Corso and Michiel Gardner during the Kings of Code Hack Battle in Amsterdam. At this hackathon, developers were given 36 hours to create innovative hacks. Nihao won the The Next Web vote and is expected to present the game during the Kings of Code conference later today.

Let me play the game!

Warning: Since all translations are in Dutch, the game’s standard modus might be ‘very very difficult’ for you. I’m sure though if you’ll ask them nicely, Marcel and Michiel will spend a spare hour for you to make the game available in your language!

Sammy Dee – Minimal The Way It’s Meant To Be

Vakula – From Ukraine With Love

Africa Hitech – Futuristic Beats Inspired By Africa

Axel Boman – If You Ever Feel Down, Put This Mix On

Rick Wade – Live At Dommune Tokyo

Âme – Four Hours Of Innervisions

Moodymann – Rare Liveset Recorded Back In 1995

Ramadanman (aka Pearson Sound) – Mix For Bestival

Lone – Meet This Exciting Producer

Anton Zap – Hypnotizing Russian Deephouse

Underground Resistance - Hommage To The Legendary Detroit Techno Label

Larry Heard – Recorded In Tokyo, Two Days After The 2011 Tsunami

SCB – Mix For MNML SSGS

Paul White – Magic Carpet Ride Of Crate-Digging Psychedelia

EQD aka Shed – Techno In The Truest Sense

FaltyDL – Mix For ID Magazine

Rhythm & Sound – Dub Dub Dub Dub Dub Dub

Kerri Chandler – Old School Breaks, Beats And Rare Groove

Jacques Renault – NYC Disco

Mojuba Records – World Class Deephouse

Nebraska – Mix For Louche

Funk D’Void – King Of The Strings Mix

Bok Bok – Mix For Fact

SBTRKT – The Man With The Mask

Jamie XX – Mixtape For Collette

TLR – I Found My Place In Outer Space

Antal Heitlager – Nothing But 45s

W&P HGG – Irresistible Warm Rhodes

Bullion – Sometimes Silver, Moretimes Gold

Robag Wruhme – Börneböll Mikks

Until recently, Eastern Europe and Russia have been a rather blind spot on the musical map. Artists like Nina Kraviz and the earlier featured Anton Zap change this and the latest talent to emerge from the East is Vakula. He was born in the Ukranian city Konotop and became famous for holding a residency at Moscow’s Propaganda Club. His high quality releases on respected labels helped to establish his name and during the last months the name Vakula has been emerging more and more often.

Vakula got his name from a character in a classic novel by the Ukranian writer Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol. Just like the writer, Vakula gets his inspiration from the Ukrainian history and nature, he remarked in an interview with MLAT. Next to influences by the tranquility and the diversity of the Ukranian nature, one can recognize influences of jazz, deephouse and dub rhythms in his music.

Vakula’s music stays away from bold statements and subtly lays out patterns, textures and beats that result in a diverse pallet of sounds. To discover this versatility, head over to his packed SoundCloud page. Here you’ll discover jazzy pieces like ‘Sleepily’ but also the track ‘Remix part 2 (love minimal version)’ that could easily be released on Detroit finest Axis imprint.

The mixtape below was done for the Juno Plus Podcast series and consists entirely of his own productions, “Music which is simple and melodious as Taras Shevchenko poetry and fat as Ukrainian lard”

Africa Hitech is a project by the Englishmen Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek. Both of them aren’t newcomers. On the contrary: Pritchard released on labels like Hyperdub and Sonar Kollektiv before, while Spacek has been active for more than a decade, most notably in the band Spacek.

The two began bonding over their shared passion for the seemingly disparate spheres of bubbling Detroit techno, soul and fierce Jamaican digital dancehall. They decided to combine their experiences and skills which lead to the exciting Africa Hitech project. A project that has managed to fetch one of the best electronic albums of this year.

While acknowledging that the roots of much of today’s electronic music can be traced back to Africa (mind the name), the music sounds innovative and futuristic. The mixtape below contains most of the genres that influenced the music of Africa Hitech ranging from African music to hip-hop and from UK bass to Drum ‘n Bass. If you enjoy it, make sure to check out their album 93 Million Miles too!

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During the last weeks, I had talks with various interesting companies and got a lot of emails and phonecalls from recruitment agencies. After these appointments and talks, the company that will be my new home is ZEO Webmarketing.

For the last years the company, based in a beautiful monumental building in Utrecht, has been rapidly growing. Thus far, their activities have been mainly centered around search engine marketing and webdevelopment, but just as the team and their customer base is growing, so are their activities. This is where I come in!

Research & Development

New media are constantly evolving, which is why the company always tries to make the most out of new technologies by implementing them in an effective way. In line with this vision, I’ll be researching and developing new products for them, focused both on social media and usability / conversion optimization. I look forward to start on these new projects on the first of July!

To you all: Thanks again for your help and thanks for reading!