The Sound Of: Mechatronica

“It’s this intersection between the machine and the human being,” says Casper Mejlholm, co-founder of Mechatronica, on the atmosphere and ethos behind the label. “It’s what we’re looking for in the soundscapes we want to put out.”

Since its beginnings in 2016, this Berlin-based imprint has become a crucial source of adventurous electro, showcasing the breadth and depth of the genre, while maintaining the grimy futurist aesthetic that binds all its releases together. Browse the ever-expanding catalogue, and you might tune into the glowering acidic basslines and relentless drum machine funk of Shedbug’s ‘The Chase’, or discover the spine-chilling bass tones and Shining samples of /DL/MS/’s ‘Play With Us’. 

You might jack into the offworld abstract bleeps, psychedelic wubs and shuddering kick-drums of Poly Chain’s ‘Leopard 2A4’, or bop to Serge Geyzel’s ‘Ready?’, with its rolling breakbeats and distorted bursts of noise. All would slay dancefloors, but they’re also possessed of a certain kind of cyberpunk feel that makes a Mechatronica release easily identifiable. “We have a big fascination with science fiction and dystopian electronic futures,” adds Mejlholm.

Mechatronica releases often crop up in the sets of DJs like DJ Stingray 313 and Helena Hauff, while also providing nitro for upcoming artists like DJ MELL G and Viikatory. Although the label’s output is primarily powered by 808 booms and snappy snares, there’s an experimental edge here too that makes way for the scuffed jungle influences of No Moon’s ‘Sirens’ and the spacey atmospheric breaks of Norwell’s ‘Ultima Thule’. Then there’s the sub-label Mechatronica White, which focuses on such styles as coldwave and new beat, and proffers gems like L.F.T.’s creeping EBM cut ‘Keine Angst’, with its arpeggiated bass, gated snares and vocoder vocal. For Mejlholm, this openness to different styles is a key part of what the label is about.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to fall into that super-classic sound of drum programming or melodies or stuff like that,” he says. “We’re looking for artists who want to experiment a bit and show a bit more width, because it’s never been our goal to be a purely electro label, we do tonnes of different stuff. The releases from Ctrls and Poly Chain, for example, have gone in more of an experimental direction of what electro and breakbeats can sound like.”

Casper Mejlholm grew up in the countryside in Denmark. When he moved to the capital, Copenhagen, he started skateboarding, and made friends with skaters who introduced him to UK garage, grime, and dubstep artists like Digital Mystikz. He fell in love with sub-bass after his new pals took him out to experience the music in a club. “It’s how I got into it, when I realised you could feel bass on your skin, not just listen to it,” he says. In later years, in his workplace, a colleague left their turntables in the office after a divorce, and Mejlholm taught himself how to mix by playing every evening after his shift. Other work colleagues introduced him to other styles, like Italo, hip-hop, house and techno. “Slowly my horizons expanded a little bit more, so that’s where electro and breakbeat and those kinds of things came into the picture.”

Mechatronica started as a club night in 2012, a year before Mejlholm moved to Berlin. Two other members of the Mechatronica collective, Federico Benedetti and Daniel Boubet, threw a party in the German capital in a dingy small club, inviting DMX Krew, Alienata and Privacy to play. Casper met them in 2013 at their other event, Cheap Acid, and started regularly DJing at their shows. He joined the crew, and they began throwing bigger, 24-hour Mechatronica parties at the now-defunct Griessmuehle in the city.

In the process of asking many like-minded artists to play their parties, the Mechatronica trio decided they wanted to contribute more to the electro scene. “All the people we were booking turned out to be really nice people, and we thought it was a shame that our own connection with them would be once a year for a night, so we thought, ‘Let’s do something more together’. It turns out it was a really effective way for us to find out who we wanted to work with on the label, as we got a chance to meet everyone in person at the parties all the time, see who we had a good vibe with.”

The name Mechatronica referred to the fact that the party bookings often played live hardware at the events, in the symbiosis between human and machine that has come to characterise the label’s sound. The imprint started in 2016 with a four-track VA release, featuring electro champions Sync 24 & Luke Eargoggle, Privacy, -=UHU=- and Etcher, and has gone on to feature artists like Ben Pest, Credit 00, Luz1e, Anthony Rother, Aux 88’s Keith Tucker and Jensen Interceptor in its catalogue. The label’s artwork, nowadays designed by collective member Daniel Boubet, depicts sci-fi scenes in vector graphic backdrops, cementing their compelling futuristic vision. 

Certain artists have continued to contribute to the label: Mejlholm mentions two in particular who have come to define Mechatronica’s expansive, yet distinctive sound. “L.F.T., because he has a diverse sound and he can produce in ways that apply both to our main label of more clubby music, but also to our White label, which has more of a new wave sound. He’s been a very important figure for us. Also, someone like Dez Williams. In the early years of the record label, his sound was a huge inspiration for us, and his records were also big with us — a great guy too.”=

After the difficult pandemic years, the label has begun to really expand. In 2023, Mechatronica put out no less than eight vinyl and digital releases, including EPs by Second Storey, Alex Jann, Luz1e and Ctrls. The parties, meanwhile, are popping off in Berlin and other European cities like Barcelona. “We thought that the time was right for us to take the next step and try to see if we can release records with this frequency,” says Mejlholm, “see if people really want to buy them and if they have the appetite for it. But we want to do everything we can to not put out records that are disposable.”

Looking ahead, there’s plenty planned for 2024, including new music from The Spy, Rome producer Noroi, Minsk’s Viikatory and Zeta Reticula (AKA Umek). Mechatronica will host a residency at RSO in Berlin, with other events around Europe in the planning stages. Most of all, the label wants to keep experimenting with sound. “I think that’s what we really want to explore,” concludes Mejlholm. “What does the future of the sound look like, how does it sound when you take more liberties with the rules?”

Tracklist: 

Datawave 'Interflow’ MTRONAID
Gamma Intel ‘Fluid Theory’ MTRON023
Noroi ‘Heart Under Blade’ MTRON037
Serge Geyzel ‘Energy Status’ MTRON036
Ben Pest ‘VCS Wig’ MTRON027
Luz1e ‘Escapism’ MTRON029
Zeta Reticula ‘Formation Of Life’ MTRON013
Ctrls ‘The Wash’ MTRON030
Maelstrom ‘Archaea’ MTRON021
Ersatz Olfolks ‘Stella’ MTRON009
L.F.T. ‘Endless Octopus’ MTRON018
Alex Jann ‘Psy Culture’ MTRON031
Second Storey ‘E Honda’ MTRON034
Ctrls ‘NP Soup’ MTRON030
Late Night Approach ‘Nausology’ MTRON024
No Moon ‘All Roads Lead To Here’ MTRON026