ÄGAPĒ Festival, stage by stage
ÄGAPĒ comped our weekend passes for this one.
ÄGAPĒ
ÄGAPĒ started in 2021 in a Brooklyn warehouse with no plan beyond the night itself. The same people kept coming back, the rooms got bigger, and five years and more than 120 events later the platform is a label, a resident crew and one of the city's steadiest techno bookings.
September 5 and 6 is their first festival: two days at Industry City, an outdoor stage and an indoor one, noon until 6am both days, with each stage handed to a label for the day. Saturday is Hot Meal Records outside and Face 2 Face with 240 KM/H inside. Sunday belongs to 44 Label Group on both.
Expect a full day that turns into a full night, a crowd that has followed this crew since the warehouse, and a bill that runs from Brooklyn residents to the names that fill rooms in Berlin.
Hot Meal Records
Hot Meal Records runs the outdoor stage, and Bad Boombox built the label for exactly this: fun, groovy techno and trance. Daybreak simmers, Saint Velez grinds Bushwick grit, Madness Of spit acid and bars, Ollie Lishman floats hard house into 90s trance. FUMI juggles four decks, Mischluft teases, Bad Boombox and hhunter turn it loud. Joy with a heavy kick.
Daybreak Deep techno, pressure gathered slowly
Saint Velez Industrial techno, grit that grooves
Madness Of Acid techno, hard edges traded in pairs
Ollie Lishman Euphoric hard house, 90s trance blood
FUMI Bouncy hard groove and sleek techno
Mischluft Bouncy techno, sass in the topline
Bad Boombox Hard house, eurodance running loose
hhunter Industrial techno, a roar with rhythm
Face 2 Face × 240 KM/H
Two DJs, one set of decks: Adrián Mills' Face 2 Face format, run by his Karlsruhe crew 240 KM/H for seven straight rounds. Dark versus tribal, deep versus hypnotic, Latin drums versus voltage, schranz versus elastic, makina versus melody, acid versus acid trance, garage versus gloss. Fourteen names, seven duels, and to me the most alive booking of the weekend.
Ramsey Neville Dark techno, relentless pulse
Michelle Kay Tribal techno, groove as a spell
Junkfile Mental grooves, deep basslines
Diossa Hypnotic techno, rhythm in tiers
Flashgea Hard groove, Latin percussion
Conrad Taylor Genre-fluid techno, high voltage
Cloudy Bouncy techno, schranz beneath
Serafina Elastic hardgroove, trance glow
Adrián Mills Trance-laced makina, full throttle
Wilderich Techno with melody that aches
Emilija High-octane hard house, acid vein
BIIANCO Hard trance, acid-drenched
Fenrick Garage to trance, no seams
Supergloss Melodic acid, sensuality over steel
44 Label Group
44 Label Group, the Berlin crew built around Kobosil, takes both stages all Sunday. Dalton Taylor goes deep and soulful, Marco Neves and jay york share decks for Detroit tension and strange minimal, Volvox coils electro and EBM. Future.666 keeps it fast, Löhlein keeps it sultry, Aiden b2b Kobosil bring the schranz and the melody, TRIPTYKH and O.B.I. bring the hammer. Berlin weight, booked properly.
Dalton Taylor Soulful techno, old school, new blood
Marco Neves Mechanical techno, Detroit bloodline
jay york Minimal techno, strange at the edges
Volvox Punchy techno, electro coils
Future.666 High-energy techno, perpetual groove
David Löhlein Sultry techno, devious groove
Aiden Schranz and hardcore, forged fierce
Kobosil Heavy techno, melody under concrete
TRIPTYKH Hard techno, mind-melting
O.B.I. Industrial rhythms and melodic depth
44 Label Group
Indoors, 44 Label Group turns the pressure up. KAYA's stampede of drums, Ueberrest's slow-gathering storms, Somewhen's time-bending machine techno, Clara Cuvé's hardcore-and-trance blur. Four sets, no soft landing, and exactly the way I'd want a festival to end.
KAYA Fast techno, a stampede in rhythm
Ueberrest Hard techno, tectonic pressure
Somewhen Techno, deja vu from the future
Clara Cuvé Hard techno, trance-lit hardcore
