One development I didn't have room to include in my interview with Team Shadetek in this month's Dazed is the German music scene taking an unexpected turn: towards grime, dubstep, dub and dancehall. Matt from Team Shadetek may be an American abroad, but native acts like Modeselektor, Jahcoozi, Ellen Allien, Apparat, Muallem, and Tolcha are all trying to make you do the dutty wine. 'There's definitely a little scene going on,' Matt told me, 'although it's quite close-knit - there's probably around ten people who are doing stuff, including promoters and producers and DJs. There's a lot of energy around it.'

So Berlin - minimal capital of the world, robot fiefdom, home of Perlon and Tresor - is waking up to the bumpy, weed-hazed sounds of Jamaica and south London. Wow. (Of course, producers like Basic Channel have been bringing a heavy dub influence to techno for ages, but without any of that hedonism.) And these Germans are applying their intimidating production powers to genres which, with the exception of dubstep, are frequently a little bit shoddy on the technical side. That means loads more bass weight and spannered beats. Fantastic. My favourite tracks so far showcasing this sound are Modeselektor's 'Silikon', a collaboration with Jahcoozi singer Sasha Perera from their Hello Mum! LP, and Ellen Allien/Apparat's 'Metric' from their Orchestra of Bubbles LP. And a good MP3 blog for this kind of

thing is Ready Rock Moe Rex out of San Francisco.