Beat Wala

In our last Episode recorded at ADE we hear from NYC born and raised techno Queen Louisa Pilot about her struggles in the music industry and how she is now working with those suffering with mental health issues and to help create a safer dance floor and world where these conversations can be had.

Archie Hamilton joins us at the Amsterdam Dance Event to talk us through his remarkable rise through the ranks of the house and techno world and gives us his take on how Ibiza Summer 2024 went down at Paradise, where he played five gigs, headlining the final affair. Archie used lockdown to create a lot of music and talks to us about those moments he felt his career could have taken a nose dive but luckily he soon re-boarded his International touring train and the trajectory of his has been high rolling ver since. He was an early originator of a new European sound, with his unique take on minimal house and techno: his signature sound of rugged basslines and ethereal atmospherics has established itself firmly on dance floors around the world.
  2022 marked the launch of Archie's MicroHertz label, a venture that curates and releases music from a diverse array of artists within the scene. The label has quickly made its mark as a go-to for cutting-edge music, consistently appearing in the charts across the platforms and regularly included in the DJ sets of the best in the industry.

We meet Detroit duo, Octave One, at ADE [https://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/en/live/] in the first of three shows recorded at the Andaz Hotel in Amsterdam last month. Brothers Lenny and Lawrence Burden made their techno debut on Derrick May´s Transmat label with I Believe in 1989. It was the start of their 35 year career and was included on the compilation Techno 2: The Next Generation. It marked the start of their LIVE performance and shows they deliver in a very hardware heavy fashion. With their other brother Lynell, they formed the record label 430 West Records to release the vinyl record Octave One "The Octivation EP" and have remixed recordings for Massive Attack, Joey Negro, DJ Rolando, Steve Bug amongst many others. In 2000 they released their most commercially successful recording, "Blackwater" but say it took them in a direction they didn´t want to go and returned quickly to a more underground style.

After nearly a decade producing mostly mainstream artists in LA, Osunlade headed East, took a two-year spiritual sabbatical and launched Yoruba Records. Early on, he established two rules: 1) only sign artists willing to be mentored, and 2) only release works you believe in. In today´s podcast with Jo Youle, he explains how these artists have become his family and he only starts to release records after roughly four years and he really gets to know people. He created five albums in the pandemic and is in the process of putting this music out after a hugely prolific spell whilst the world slowed down. Taking time out to become ordained as a Yorubian Priest also had a huge impact on his sound. He moved to NYC, went to a lot of house parties in the late 90´s and crafted a more folklore focussed style of electronic music we hear in his sets today.

Henrik Schwarz, an internationally renowned music producer and composer known for his eclectic musical approach to composition and sound design, joins us in Ibiza for Episode 11 at Sunset overlooking Dalt Vila. As a producer and performer, he has successfully maintained a balance between electronic music, classical and jazz, and between energetic, highly charged dance sets at huge Techno events and concert performances in seated auditoriums. He explains his love for techno to podcast host Jo Youle in todsays episode and says that when he first heard it in his local club, he found it "horrible," until Jeff Mills turned up one day, took charge and literally "opened the door" for him, so that he could finally wrap his head around it. He says for him techno "is the most open music he can think of," and he hasn´t looked back. Amongst those whose work he’s tailored for the global dance floor are Michael Jackson, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Boy George, Coldplay and Mary J. Blige. Since 2002, Schwarz has been releasing his own music, and has accrued over 250 music releases.