With his new album, his first in six years, Yore Records founder Andy Vaz makes an impressive case for timeless house music. We caught up with the Düsseldorf-based producer right before he went straight vacationing.

Andy Vaz is a man attached to distant places. One is India, where part of his family is from and where Vaz travels once a year, the other is Detroit, his secret musical home. In the geographic middle between the two lies Düsseldorf, the West-German city known as the home of Kraftwerk and the focal point of Andy Vaz's musical endeavours. Since 1998 Andy Vaz has been busy running...

Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer have just released an album on Germany's ECM label, reworking jazz and classical pieces from the legendary imprint's vast catalogue. zero" met up with the two idiosyncratic producers to talk about the project, music cultures, and how they spent their last weekend.

Founded by Manfred Eicher in 1969, ECM (short for Edition of Contemporary Music) is one of the world's leading labels in the field of modern jazz and contemporary classical music. Well over one thousand albums have been released on the Munich-based imprint over the course of more than four decades by...

Ever since the success of 'Berlin Calling' Paul Kalkbrenner has been selling out concert arenas rather than clubs. As his new album and recent tour documentary become available on zero", we look at the career of Germany's currently most popular techno artist.

On first glance Paul Kalkbrenner's success might be somewhat of a mystery: A balding techno producer in his mid-thirties who can neither sing nor dance, he is definitely not your run-of-the-mill pop star. He is however a decent actor - his portrayal of a jet-setting techno producer battling drug addiction in 2008's indie film 'Berlin Calling'...

For the first time Tin Man brings together the disparate acid house and experimental pop strains in his music on an album. Richard Brophy talks to him on the occasion of the release of his fourth full-length, 'Perfume'.

Inspired by both classic Chicago acid and experimental pop music, Tin Man has been lauded for his combination of timelessly raw 303 patterns with strangely accessible pop sensibilities. This unusual concoction is often rounded off by the producer's own drawling vocals. Of Finnish descent, but born and raised in the US, Johannes Auvinen a.k.a. Tin Man started releasing records back in...

Exploring warped techno as A Made Up Sound and organic dubstep as 2562, The Netherlands' Dave Huismans is one of electronic music's most gifted and versatile artists. On the occasion of the release of his third 2562 album, 'Fever', Richard Brophy interviews the multi-faceted producer.

What's in a name? Well, quite a lot if you're Dave Huismans, known as 2562 and A Made Up Sound. Over the past five years the Dutch producer has been, along with fellow countryman Martyn, at the forefront of the techno/bass crossover. With releases on Tectonic, Clone, Delsin and his own AMUS label, Huismans' crackling...

His unique productions as Portable and Bodycode have made Alan Abrahams one of house music's most interesting and idiosyncratic artist. In anticipation of his upcoming album Richard Brophy tracks him down for an interview.

Originally from South Africa, Alan Abrahams has spent close to 20 years living in Europe. Working as Portable and Bodycode, Abrahams has released on labels like Perlon, Spectral Sound, Background, Yore, ~scape and his own Süd Electronic. Despite maintaining a relatively low profile, he has been responsible for some of the most evocative house and techno of the past decade. ...

Jacob Korn is Germany's great new house music hope, combining sophistication and rawness in his productions for labels like Running Back and Dolly. We talk to the up and coming producer about his music, his background in media art, and Dresden's new Uncanny Valley imprint.

Over the past few years small but highly noteworthy scenes for electronic music have been flourishing in the cities of former East Germany. Labels like Moon Harbour have put Leipzig on the map, Jena became known for its Wighnomy Brothers, and lately things have been stirring in Dresden as well, the home-town of current house music...

Say hello, wave good-bye... As the year draws to a close we look back on our favourite tracks of 2010.

It is this special time of the year again: We will be counting down the days to 2011 with our favourite tracks of 2010, giving them away for free every day during December! Our selection will include some of the defining tracks of 2010, from some of the biggest names and some of the hottest newcomers - one track a day until we reach zero! Many of the artists and labels that have put forward the freshest sounds of 2010 will appear in our selection, and there are no genre blinders either: Expect...

As Bunker Records approaches its 20th year of existence, we talk to the label's owner, Guy Tavares, about the history of The Hague's most infamous electronic music imprint.

The Hague, Netherlands, 1990. This is where the story of Bunker Records begins, the label which was soon to become known as one of the most uncompromising, provocative, and influential techno imprints this side of the Atlantic. No other European label has been so consistently devoted to releasing innovative electronic music with complete disregard for fashions, trends, and the commercial music business. No other European label has...

Following up on his debut album 'Shedding The Past', the Berlin based producer has just released his second full-length, 'The Traveller'. We talk to Shed about 1990s UK hardcore, careless clothing choices, and his reluctance to travel.

Ever since his first releases appeared on Delsin and his own Soloaction label around six years ago, Shed has been perfecting the art of balancing dance-floor appeal with sonic experimentalism. His Detroit-techno inspired synth sections are frequently met with stumbling rhythms, which refuse to mimic the straight simplicity of modern-day club music. Over the past few...

Ten years after pioneering the fusion of classical and electronic music with his 'Pieces In A Modern Style', William Orbit revisits the concept for a second volume. We talk to the British synth wizard and superstar producer about mash-up culture, protesting computers, and his passion for early electronica.

William Orbit is without a doubt one of the grandmasters of British electronic music, a restless traveller between the worlds of hazy dancefloors and pop glamour. From his beginnings as a member of 80s synth-pop group Torch Song, Orbit has established himself as one of the world's busiest producers and...

With only two EPs on Scuba's Hotflush label Mount Kimbie managed to blast the gates of the dubstep genre wide open. On the occasion of the release of their highly anticipated debut album, 'Crooks & Lovers', we talk to the red-hot production duo.

Sunday morning, 3 a.m., Berlin's Berghain club. The headliners of Scuba's Sub:stance party, Mount Kimbie, open their set. Carefully layering loops of fragile electronica sounds, strummed guitars and angelic vocals, their music feels strangely at odds with the hard-hitting sounds dominating the rest of the night. It's the fate of pioneers who have both grown...

The latest edition of the Recomposed series has Matthew Herbert rework Gustav Mahler's tenth and final symphony. For zero" Patrick Pulsinger, who contributed to the project by recording violas on Mahler's grave, talks to the British maestro about absent birds, chords played out of coffins, and a symphony about George Bush's farm.

As far as abstract electronic music goes, Matthew Herbert might well be the genre's greatest storyteller. Not with lyrics or spoken words, but with the way he records and manipulates sound itself. Ever since his Wishmountain and Doctor Rockit days, the British producer has been...

Richie Hawtin's Minus label releases Ali Demirel's documentary of the imprint's massive 10th anniversary tour. The 'MAKING CONTAKT' movie and soundtrack are now available for digital download from zero".

In 2008 the Minus bandwagon embarked on a tour of proportions previously unheard of in electronic music. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Richie Hawtin's genre-defining label, the CONTAKT tour visited nine cities on three continents over the course of a year. The exceptional series of events not only featured the label's most prominent artists, such as Magda, Troy Pierce, Marc Houle, Heartthrob...

Her debut album 'Polyamour' has made Clara Moto one of the most talked-about young artists this year, showcasing a unique take on melodic, electronica-tinged minimal techno. We interview the up and coming Austrian producer.

Producing music and DJing since her teens, Clara Moto goes about her sets and live PAs with a sense of seriousness and determination. Her musical style on the other hand is characterised by a distinct and light-hearted playfulness, with which the young Austrian combines elements from minimal house, electronica and pop. Weightless, drifting melodies and subtle, disciplined grooves...

New York's Drew Lustman has won over countless fans last year, mixing up abstract hip-hop, UK garage, and Rephlex-style electronica in his productions for Planet Mu and Ramp Recordings. Right in time for the release of his new EP we conduct a brief Q&A session with the man known to most as FaltyDL.

On rare occasions barriers of time, space and musical cultures seem to melt down, condense and solidify into something new and outrageous at the hands of a gifted individual. Take the example of Drew Lustman, whose recordings as FaltyDL have been among the most hyped of the year 2009. Growing up in New...

French beat maker Débruit has recently been setting dance floors on fire with his mixture of electronic hip hop, 2Step and globalised funk. We track the neo-Londoner down for an interview.

A whole generation of artists seems to be currently conspiring against the dogma of rhythmic precision in electronic music. Injecting the groove back into the music, most of these artists reject their easy categorisation under the 'wonky' label - a term coined by the music press to subsume the groove-infused electronic hip-hop that has lately been coming forward from many corners of the world - via L.A. and Amsterdam,...

Berlin's unique festival for 'adventurous music and related visual arts' opens its doors tomorrow. We have assembled a small guide to the festival's many highlights.

Club Transmediale is famous for its diverse line-up, dedicating the different nights of the festival to specific genres or topics. With 'Overlap' being the motto of this years 11th edition, the breadth and scope of musical styles on display is as dazzling as ever, ranging from experimental noise and neo-classic to broken beats and disco-pop. 'Overlap' further not only stands for the cross-overs in music itself, but also for the presence...

It has been two decades since the most political group in the history of techno set out to change the course of electronic music: Underground Resistance. Time to pay tribute to the heralds of a sonic revolution.

In late 1989, on November 2 to be precise, two individuals from Detroit, Michigan, decided it was time for a change: 'Mad' Mike Banks, formerly a bass player for Parliament and producer for a dance music crew called Members of House, and Jeff 'The Wizard' Mills, at the time a DJ on local radio station WJLB, formed a collective henceforth known as the Underground Resistance. Inspired by...

Thirty to Zero: Our favourites of 2009 - 31 free tracks in 31 days.

As 2009 draws to a close we can't help but get all misty-eyed and start to reminisce over what an outstanding year it has been for new, exciting music. We'd like to take advantage of the end of year quiet spell to look back on 31 of our favourite tracks for 2009. To tip our hats in appreciation to all of you who have supported zero" this year, we are giving one of these 31 tracks away for free download every day the entire month of December! Each day a different code will be given out - sometimes on a zero" page, sometimes on one...