Our favorite sets from Stone Techno
Benjamin Damage
This was our first Stone Techno, and the best festivals reward you for wandering in without a plan. The first reward came early, in the Salzlager, where Benjamin Damage opened our Friday.
He was the first artist Modeselektor signed to 50 Weapons, and he has burrowed deeper into techno ever since without losing his roots. He plays entirely on hardware, no computer, reshaping tracks live until they answer the room, hard-hitting kicks driving under melodic, anthemic highs and dark, industrial lows, the rave, jungle and 90s house he grew up on still humming underneath.
And we caught him at the right moment: 2026 brings a full EP on The Third Room, the collective behind Stone Techno itself. Start with his 052 mix, restless and hardware-built.
052Akua
The best back-to-backs blur the line between two artists until you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Akua brought exactly that to the Salzlager, patient and quietly in control beside Henning Baer.
Ghanaian-American and Brooklyn-raised, Akua cut her teeth on the floors we grew up on, Basement and Nowadays, before the bookings went global and a move to Berlin opened the next chapter. She is now one of the clearest names in American machine funk.
Her sets pull the machine techno of Detroit, Chicago and New York into the present tense, raw and mechanical. Her live set for Fuse in Brussels is where it lands hardest.
Live at Fuse, BrusselsHenning Baer
On the other side of that Salzlager back-to-back stood Henning Baer. Next to Akua's machine funk, his weight and instinct locked with her groove into one patient, unbroken current.
Henning Baer came up the long way, from working the counter at Hardwax to his own records on its shelves, from the Berghain floor to its booth. He co-founded Grounded Theory in 2009, now a Berlin institution, and runs his own MANHIGH label, playing like the record obsessive he is: techno at the center, forward UK and experimental edges around it.
For the range, his BPitch podcast: a live opening set that moves from ambient stillness to a hard, driving floor.
BPitch 065AMORAL
Friday at the Eisbahn belonged to AMORAL. A resident of Amsterdam's Eerste Communie parties, she plays techno that rolls and lifts at once, melodic and euphoric over a bassline that never lets up.
We caught her again on Saturday night, back to back with Alarico in the Grand Hall, and it turned into one of the highlights of the weekend. Curated by London's FOLD, the room was flawless: the sound system, the atmosphere, the vibe, all of it dialed, a packed floor moving as one.
Her three hours at RSO.Berlin give that sound room to breathe: a long, deep set that rolls and turns hypnotic without ever losing its vibrancy.
3HRS at RSO.BerlinAlarico
Friday at the Eisbahn was Alarico's to shape. His Curation Series programme ran the whole stage, ABS8LUTE, Amotik b2b Lea Occhi, Toru Ikemoto and AMORAL, before he closed it live and back to back with Yanamaste, one of the weekend's most circled pairings.
Alarico is a restless kind of music lover. The Milan DJ and producer, one half of Funk Assault with Chlär and boss of the Katana Records vinyl label, keeps testing the edges of techno with fast, kinky grooves that run hard and hypnotic, an instinct fed as much by hip-hop and Japanese culture as by the floor.
His set from RIFT's Abandoned Warehouse night with Mutual Rytm is that sound with the lights off: fast, kinky and hypnotic, warehouse techno at full pressure.
Abandoned WarehouseYanamaste
If the Alarico b2b was the most anticipated set on our list, it also became one of the best. Yanamaste laced it with his signature percussive grooves and high-energy clap patterns, hypnotic and physical, more than living up to the billing.
Born Irakli Danelia in the Georgian seaside town of Batumi and a KHIDI resident since 2017, he builds a raw, twisting sound around oxidized chimes and a punchy 909 kick, most of it played live on modular gear.
His Yanamaste Invites set at ADE is that intensity on his own terms: driving and hypnotic, relentless from the first record.
Yanamaste Invites, ADE 2025Sons Of Hidden
Few names sat higher on our list than Sons Of Hidden, and his Saturday live set at Koksofen-Batterie earned it. The Colombian producer builds hypnotic techno on a bed of tribal rhythm and Andean storytelling, organic textures folded into modern production, atmosphere and narrative moving as one.
He runs the techno label Mammboh Rhythms, and his Vault Sessions live set captures it: fast and groove-driven, hardware techno with Andean rhythm threaded underneath, roots showing.
Vault Sessions 186Freddy K
Freddy K didn't just play Stone Techno, he shaped part of it. On Saturday his Curation Series programme ran the whole Koksofen-Batterie stage, Jin Synth, Toobris, Sons Of Hidden and Ogazón b2b Quelza, before he closed it himself, unhurried and completely in command. Later that night we caught him again in the Grand Hall, back to back with Ogazón, in a room FOLD had curated to perfection: the space, the sound and the vibe all handled beautifully.
Freddy K has been a fixture of techno since the early nineties, Roman by birth and Berliner since 2009, a vinyl lifer to the core. As head of KEY Vinyl he still champions raw, unfiltered sound with a no-nonsense ethos, and across his intense, extended vinyl-only sets, he simply cannot disappoint you.
For the range, his Reclaim Your City set: trippy grooves that beam you to unknown dimensions one moment, hard-hitting tools the next, an ode to the diversity that binds the scene.
Reclaim Your City 454Marcal
Marcal was another name we'd circled, and his back-to-back with Neel at the Werksschwimmbad delivered. A leading figure in South America's electronic scene, the Goiânia producer has a rare feel for groove, building meticulous loops that hold a room for long stretches. Beside Neel, who releases his music on Spazio Disponibile, that shared patience made the set click.
Intense groove, intelligent rhythms, intricate patterns and hypnotic soundscapes are the pillars of Marcal's sound. His club tracks are built to pull a floor into a trance and then combust, commanded with fearless swagger.
His Reclaim Your City set summons his boundary-pushing best, a mind-bending ride through raucous sine waves and brooding, reverb-soaked space, techno pushed to its edge.
Reclaim Your City 657Neel
Beside Marcal stood Neel, the ideal counterweight. Where Marcal drove, Neel opened up space, threading atmosphere and restraint through the b2b so the tension never broke, only deepened.
Neel is Giuseppe Tillieci, an Italian producer and mastering engineer as respected behind the desk as in the booth, his Enisslab studio a go-to for the scene. Co-founder of Spazio Disponibile with Donato Dozzy and one half of Voices From The Lake, he's renowned for hypnotic, ambient-infused techno built on patience and depth.
His HATE podcast is that instinct at length: atmospheric, hypnotic, in no rush to arrive.
HATE Podcast 256VNNN.
VNNN. is an Essen native and longtime Third Room resident, and much of his weekend went into making sure the festival ran smoothly. That made his Saturday opening of the Grand Hall his own moment to let go: three hot, trance-like hours, the crowd locked in from the first record, the start of what became our favorite night of the entire weekend.
His live recording for The Third Room is the full shape on record: a slow, hypnotic start that accelerates into rougher, house-tinged techno and holds its charge to the end.
Third Room x FuseOgazón
Ogazón and Freddy K in the Grand Hall was a meeting of equals, two vinyl obsessives who trust the records to do the talking. The Berlin-based Luxembourgish selector refuses to pick a lane, threading percussive techno through stripped-down house, and the pair locked into an effortless back-to-back, her warmth alongside the intensity of his legacy.
For the full picture, her set at Houghton, the non-stop 72-hour festival the Gottwood crew run in a lush Norfolk woodland: groovy and propulsive, vinyl-led and unbothered by genre lines.
Live at Houghton 2025BASHKKA
We started our Sunday in the Salzlager with BASHKKA and Magda, two selectors who chose contrast over consistency. Munich-born and a fierce advocate for queer dancefloors, BASHKKA plays a sultry, hypnotic, driving take on house, streaked with acid and never far from techno or electro. Alongside Magda the set stayed playful and unpredictable, alive to the room.
Her Dekmantel mix homes in on that groove: seductive, hypnotic, full of selection flair, moving through classic Chicago, bouncy old-school and deep, indulgent lows.
Dekmantel Mix 508Magda
Magda was the calm to BASHKKA's spark, the two going back to back in the Salzlager to open our Sunday. The Poland-born, Detroit-raised veteran came up through Richie Hawtin's Minus and co-founded Items & Things, and decades on she still plays minimal techno like no one else: patient, unhurried, layering odd records into intricate patchwork sets that move without ever rushing. Their chemistry let curiosity lead every turn.
Her CircoLoco Radio mix is that calm at work: patient and textured, minimal techno layered with unexpected records into a quietly thrilling set.
CircoLoco Radio 424D.Dan
D.Dan and Rene Wise turned the Eisbahn into one of Sunday's defining rooms. Based in Berlin and a resident of Mala Junta, D.Dan plays revved-up, high-BPM techno anchored in the music's classic roots. What we loved most were the unexpected rhythmic detours, moments with a subtle hip-hop swagger that dissolved back into rolling techno without ever losing the thread.
His RA.994 podcast shows the discipline: pulsing, layered techno reduced to its essentials, loops woven into hypnotic momentum, with just enough sweetness to keep it human.
RA.994Rene Wise
One great set could have been enough; Rene Wise gave us two. Born in Brighton and now based in Lisbon, Andrew Shobeiri makes what he calls body music: groovy, loopy, dark and hypnotic, with a jungle-like snap under the kick, released on labels like Mord and Token. The first came at the Eisbahn, back to back with D.Dan.
We closed the whole weekend with him again, beside Rødhåd at the Mischanlage. It was our first time in the space, hosted by Delirium & Gitter, and they got it exactly right: a striking, unfamiliar room that felt like the festival carried on, the sound and the vibe pitched to perfection.
His all-night live recording for LUST is the deep end: hypnotic, rhythm-driven, paced across hours.
LUST All Night LongThe Lady Machine
The Lady Machine was one of the sets we anticipated most, and she gave us two of our favorites of the weekend. Camila Milieme was born in Rio and now works out of Berlin, where she holds residencies at Pornceptual and Laster Club, and she plays vinyl only, an intense, powerful strain of techno that never eases its grip. Her Werksschwimmbad show was already a highlight before an absolutely divine b2b with D-Leria at the Mischanlage that night.
Her Bassiani set is that energy bottled: rapid-fire basslines and rampant grooves fused to deep low-end, all built on the ageless Detroit techno at the genre's foundation.
Bassiani Podcast 266D-Leria
D-Leria played Stone Techno twice over the weekend. Giuseppe Scaccia opened with a live set at the Eisbahn on Saturday before returning to close things out on Sunday night, and he builds a set like a slow journey: hypnotic, tribal techno that drifts into avant-garde territory before settling somewhere quietly emotional.
He closed at the Mischanlage beside The Lady Machine, a back-to-back where the hand-offs simply disappeared. Delirium & Gitter had dialed the room in completely, and the pair delivered one of the most immersive stretches of the weekend, less an ending than a final chapter.
His Awakenings podcast traces that arc: tribal and hypnotic, then bass-heavy, then a melodic ambient finale.
Awakenings Podcast S354Rødhåd
Every festival deserves a fitting ending, and ours came at the Mischanlage, where Rødhåd joined Rene Wise to close out Stone Techno. Born and raised in East Berlin, Mike Bierbach co-founded Dystopian and has spent years shaping the city's techno, his sound dubby and multi-layered, almost cinematic, drawn to both darkness and beauty. It was expansive and deeply felt, the perfect way to leave Zollverein: one last floor, one last sunrise, and a reminder of why we will be back.
His Boiler Room set from Glitch Festival in sun-kissed Malta is all momentum: smashers from the get-go, moving through the hard and heavy into the atmospheric and energetic.
Rødhåd at Glitch Festival