What is a residency at Tresor’s Globus floor about? For LNS, it means „generally going for deep and driving“ music, for DJ Sotofett, it is „slapping people with the exactly right amount of energy“. However, it is safe to say, that together, they shaped the sound of Tresor’s upper floor, opting for a rough, warehous-y sound signature and paying homage to sung and unsung heroes that helped define dance music–like they do in their episode of the GROOVE Resident Podcast.
In the interview, they tell us how their EP Globus Trax came about, how the rebuilding of the Globus floor changed their sets and quiet bluntly let us know what to expect from them on the decks: „If you want to hear club music with dope basslines, you can come and check out our nights“.
What’s the sound of your residency at Globus?
LNS: At Globus I generally go for deep and driving but the genre, tempo, and energy shift along with when I play. I play classic House, Electro, Detroit and UK Techno, Braindance, and Bass Music, so a pretty wide variety for these days. I don’t play anything too hard or cold as in general my taste lies on the warmer end. I also like a lot of vocals and variety, putting importance on funkiness and basslines, something which oddly I find to be disappearing from the wider scene.
Sotofett: Detroit Techno, Electro and real House Music. That’s a pretty wide spectrum but definitely the core of my WANIA nights at Globus. If I start early it’s really everything from soulful warm Vocal House to the deepest Dub Techno, beautiful synthethic cuts by Carl Craig or masterful New York classics. Later it usually transcends towards the field of classic Techno, Acid and big productions that are rugged or slick but always carry a groove, and the melodies stretch from anthemic strings to dark hard stabs. It’s about slapping people with the exactly right amount of energy, and when it’s a bit late and people are extra sensitive I take them on a very deep and psychedelic ride, ending early morning with something that sounds more like crystals than a drum machine. Throughout the years I had many guests playing on my night and no matter how our styles vary, we all meet in these genres. It’s not only about these classic styles of club music mentioned above but also how they are mixed. These days too many DJ’s follow one genre and a style like slaves, and they stick to exactly one specific tempo, or even play everything in one key. I’m from a very different school, where Hip-Hop DJ’s would mix Cybotron and James Brown effortlessly while keeping the groove consistently. I love layering stuff for a long time, but also favor quick mixing, cutting, dropping basslines, or even some scratching when it feels right.
For those who know me, there’s no secret I’m a die hard vinyl DJ and even though music is more important than any format, I really love how records make me play in certain ways–the sound, the physical transitions, and also what types of tracks I find. If you’re a real digger, records are very cheap, and I only buy cheap records. If you see me play CDJ’s it’s only my own unreleased music, and I have 1000s of unreleased tracks, which also colour the sound of my Globus residency very much. Many things can only be heard when I play them, secret remixes, or unreleased tracks that will never see the light of the day. Both LNS and myself have noted there are so many DJ’s who play Techno with no basslines these days, it’s pretty insane and a very strange development, so if you want to hear club music with dope basslines, you can come and check out our nights.
How do you react to the location and the audience? How is it special?
LNS: The location is special because it offers quite consistently busy club nights. I don’t worry about attendance and focus on delivering for the club size and floor which demands a fair bit of energy. It’s a big sound system and a big floor and requires consistency in the music’s drive. In general I like the audience a lot! It has a great range of ages and more diversity than many Berlin clubs.
Sotofett: The DJ booth is exquisite, both at the Globus floor and Tresor basement, and that’s something that makes my days and nights as a DJ just pure joy. In this case Globus has given real DJ’s, especially those who play vinyl, a place to express music for real dancers, so big respect to the tech crew at Tresor! Apart from that I feel it’s the audience who deserves attention in terms of being exposed to real quality underground music. Any bar or regular money driven night club can play commercial music, Trance or generic Tech-House, so playing in a big club like Tresor where people absorb quality underground tracks is very special in itself.
What works at Globus which doesn’t work in any other place?
LNS: I don’t think there is anything that works at Globus and nowhere else. But the sound quality certainly allows my records to shine in a unique way!
Sotofett: The key to the cash register at Globus probably only works there.
Tresor represents brittle, demanding techno by the likes of Jeff Mills, Surgeon or DJ Rok. Is this fact on your mind as you play at Globus? How do you set yourself apart?
LNS: Tresor represents classic American Techno and House in Europe and always has. I carry a lot of inspiration and music from this style, so I am a natural fit at Globus. The Globus floor of course represents the less hard and more housey side which is also very comfortable for me.
Sotofett: Jeff Mills and Surgeon are considered hero’s in Techno music, and they established their trademark sound way back in the days, so calling it „demanding techno“ in 2025 is a very outdated opinion. Tresor is more than 30 years old and I have invited friends who are 60 and 70 years old to perform in the club on regular club nights. Even my mother has been to the basement on a regular Saturday. And Tresor has always been a space for so much different styles of club music–the club and label is from a time when „Techno“ was much more similar to what we now call „House Music“, or even „Electro“.
Drexciya’s beautifully brilliant Harnessed The Storm and Neptune’s Lair albums, Blake Baxter’s monsterous tracks „Soul Stirring“ and „La La Song“, not to mention Baxter’s „Reach Out“ which we covered on our Globus Trax EP, or the much more unknown but jubilantly warped „Terminally Yours“ by Dave Tarrida are all seminal pieces of club music released by Tresor. These records are crucial to the identity of the club and label, and this style of varied club music is what I play at Globus.
Globus was redesigned about three years ago–how does this architectural fact change your residency, your sound?
LNS: I started this residency three years ago, before this I had played the old Globus a small handful of times and also enjoyed that floor, but the massive sound upgrade gave me the best situation I could hope for. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best sound system I have played on. The sound is incredibly comfortable, detailed, clear, and powerful, with excellent balance.
Sotofett: It’s fair to say that most clubs that rebuild actually do not succeed, it’s just a tax write off and simply feels „new“ to the owners. But the Globus rebuild was impressive from day one, and it is a tremendous success as we know. It’s more intimate than before and the sound is objectively much better, but more importantly we can now play a much wider spectrum of music at Globus. Since 2015 I’ve been playing regularly in the Tresor basement, and a few times in the old Globus–since 3 years I have exclusively played upstairs, and apart from my regular WANIA and Sex Tags Mania nights, there’s my „Resonance of Dub“ concept at Globus–that’s a night with Dub music. And no, that’s not just Dub Techno, but Steppers, Digital Dub, Lovers Rock, Disco Dub, Roots, basically all music directly resonating from Dub that can and should be mixed for the dance floor! These styles of music sound really great at the new Globus, and because of this, the audience seem to welcome a wider style of sounds than they might expect when entering the door at this Techno institution.
How did your EP Globus Trax evolve from the sound of your residency?
LNS: DJ Sotofett and myself set out to finish it together and the different types of tracks happened organically. We are both pretty diverse DJ’s and producers, Sotofett especially so, and it’s natural for us to make different styles. What came on top were tracks we would like to play at Globus, therefore Globus Trax. It’s all clubby and classic, yet reaching different corners of underground warehouse genres.
Sotofett: There’s a few things that made our EP develop the way it did. LNS and I have made two Tresor releases that are much more in the vain of Electro, and this time both Tresor and we wanted to make something more 4/4 club oriented. Also I have my WANIA label which recently released very club ready merges of Techno, House, and Dub, so I was already fully set on producing records that are great to play in clubs. This means lots of TR-909 mixed in various ways–it’s the same machine I use at a lot of my Globus night’s live sets–and we also looked for great melodic hooks and heavy basslines. Like our sets at Globus, the EP had to be varied, so we got four tracks that each fit into different parts of the night, or on different nights.
But there’s also another crucial element to how it sounds the way it does. Last year Mike Grinser, owner of Manmade Mastering in Berlin, took me under his wings and has been educating me about cutting records, so as of this year I’m part of the Manmade Mastering team as a cutting engineer. That means I can work full circle, produce and record in my studio, test the tracks at Globus, and then cut the records myself with very loud volume for perfect club conditions. Globus Trax is the first record I ever cut and it has been designed from start to end for LNS‘ and my own DJ sets. It’s a special record and process, and I believe this approach hasn’t been done by a real vinyl DJ in Berlin, Europe or the world in many years, safe to say probably in several decades.
With „Reach Out“, you cover a Blake Baxter track from 1995, which was originally released on Tresor Records. What attracted you to it?
LNS: DJ Sotofett had the idea to make this cover and I agreed it would be interesting to do a female vocal version. Blake is known for these whispery sexy vocals that he does as well as producing female vocals in a similar way. I got super inspired and had a lot of fun with that.
Sotofett: I love playing records in the club, but sometimes I take time off, maybe a month or three to only look for records and produce music. It’s a great period, and at some point during this period, everything comes together. One day in the middle of our densest work period with Globus Trax, I was digging for records at the Audio-In second hand shop in Berlin where LNS works. I stumbled across Blake Baxter’s „Reach Out“ which I actually never heard before, and I was pretty much instantly mocking LNS for not buying it.
A few weeks later we had 4 or 5 tracks ready for Tresor, but the track list didn’t really sit. At that point we made music every day from 10 AM to midnight and during a break I fiddled around with a sketch. That sketch was a cover of „Reach Out“, and it struck me that LNS could do the vocals instead of me doing vocoder style singing. To my surprise, LNS was really into it and we did two takes, I’m sure the first take would pass with most people but LNS wanted another try and the second take sounds beautifully effortless. It was really fun to program the TR-909 in the same fashion as they did back in the days and upon finishing the track a „wave of Blake Baxter“ hit me. I realized that I had been listening to his music more than half my life, at all our parties, Blake Baxter’s records are with us. There are also memories of us standing outside in Bergen while its pissing rain and Skatebård sings an accappella of „Sexuality„–bassline included. Or hearing Laurent Garnier introduce his brilliant Excess Luggage: Mix At Sonar with „When We Used To Play“. The joy of great music brought us all here and i’m very grateful for making this happen with both Tresor and LNS.
Track list:
01. Carl Craig – Sandstorm + LNS & DJ Sotofett – Reach Out (Acappella)
02. White Label – No Title
03. Blake Baxter – One More Time (Da Bass Mix)
04. Vegas Soul – Junk Funk
05. K.Hand – Come Now Baby
06. Josh Wink – How’s the Music? (Headroom Deep Remix)
07. Roy Davis Jr. – Heart Attack
08. Nukubus – Europa (Aux 88 Detroit Mix)
09. Acid Warrior – Drop In
10. The Vision – Explain The Style
11. Josh Wink – You Are The One (DJ Sneak Remix)
12. Parallel 9 – Index
13. Steven Brown – Atomic Radiation
14. OM Theorem – Lemma1 B2 (DJ Sotofett Remix feat. LNS & Ekowmania)
15. Skatebård – Sneglkab
16. Bandulu – Lifestyle
17. Carl Craig – Country Boy Goes Dub (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
18. E-Dancer – Banjo (Hi-Tech Funk Remix)
19. K.Hand – Starz
20. Ferrer & Sydenham – Sandcastle
21. Mystica Tribe – DJ Sotofett’s Ash Of Dub Mix
22. F.U.S.E – Into The Space
