Amelie Lens has risen rapidly through the European techno ranks over the past couple of years. She’s now consistently high up the bill (if not topping it) at events like Awakenings, DGTL and Ibiza staples DC-10 and Hï, and this year debuts in the Top 100 DJs poll. The Belgian’s Lenske label has simultaneously gone from strength to strength, building its name around the five-person crew of AIROD, Farrago, Milo Spkyers, Ahl Iver and Lens herself. Granite-tough techno is the name of the game; epic vibes suited to the cavernous hangars Lens fills on a regular basis. And with its newest addition — Lens’ ‘Higher’ EP — the label has now dropped 13 releases in just two years. ~ DJMag

Wildly diverse, infused with exuberance and inspired by a slap of the absurd, Modeselektor’s inarguable grooves seem to emanate from every conceivable musical genre, creating a controlled chaos whose sonic expression elevates the eyebrows of critics and the heartbeats of dance floors around the world. ‘Boundary breaking’ is a phrase that today almost every artist wants to claim. However, Modeselektor’s description as such does not come as an afterthought or marketing ploy. The idea of breaking boundaries permeates their music because this dissolution of cultural borders is ingrained in their very identities. The electronic production team of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary came of age in Berlin shortly after the fall of the infamous Wall in 1989. It was a place and time when breaking down boundaries was not a convenient meme, but rather a literal description of what was going on outside their front doors.

Through his recordings, epic-length DJ sets, dozens of commercial mix albums, and label operations, Sven Väth is one German trance and techno's most popular proponents. Originally the lead singer of a dance-pop group named OFF, Väth hit the big time in 1986 when OFF's "Electrica Salsa (Baba Baba)" became a number three pop hit in their native country. The band later disintegrated, leaving Väth free to pursue his interest in the hard trance underground of Frankfurt. An Accident in ParadiseVäth became a DJ of note for his marathon sets, which sometimes approached 24 hours, and his 1992 co-founding of Harthouse Records. His own releases on the label included those by Barbarella, Astral Pilot, and Metal Masters with the help of his partner, Ralf Hildenbeutel. Blessed with an agreement connecting Harthouse and its subsidiaries to the American major label Warner Bros., Väth released Accident in Paradise, again with contributions from Hildenbeutel, as his first solo album.