Hard Wax

Berlin and Detroit will be forever linked by techno. Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus started their Basic channel imprint in the late 80s to begin releasing the analogue, richly-textured techno being produced at the time in America’s Motor City. This was in massive contrast to the acid house and rave music that was the primary electronic music in Europe at the time, so they began to form a community of like-minded music lovers around their Hard Wax record shop and their ground-breaking Basic Channel dub techno releases. Up an anonymous staircase in the back of a Kreuzberg courtyard lies this vinyl mecca, famous for its flawless selection of dub, techno and reggae, many of the city’s biggest DJs like Marcel Dettmann and DJ Hell having started out working here. Record shop staff are generally not known to suffer fools gladly, but Hard Wax is infamous for its haughty service. They take sound seriously here: best not to ask for the latest Madonna record.