Rebekah talks the top 10 tracks that inspired her: LISTEN

Rebekah Teasdale first earned her techno stripes on the dancefloor at Que Club in her home city of Birmingham in the 1990s, dancing to DJs like Dave Clarke and Richie Hawtin. She now shares a bill with jocks of this calibre, having built up her rep steadily in the preceding years. Here, she talks us through the ten tracks that have most inspired her...

Moving to Germany a few years back to be at the epicentre of the European techno sound, Rebekah fell in with Chris Liebing’s CLR imprint and released a number of EPs and helmed mixes for the imprint. She’s also put material out on Stolen Moments, Naked Lunch, Sleaze, EarToGround, Gynoid Audio and her own Decoy Records, as well as Scottish label Soma — helmed by techno stalwarts Slam.

It’s with the latter that she released her debut LP ‘Fear Paralysis’ with earlier this year. A dense and rich journey through pitch-black techno sonics, the long-player kicks off with a great slamming techno workout, ‘Breakfast With Jeff’, before dropping down into a trilogy of thought-provoking atmospheric moments. The title track picks it up again, and cuts like edgy piledriver ‘Code Black’ drive it home. It’s well worth an hour of anyone’s time.

“The album was a project which took place over a two-and-a-half year period, in varying stages, so to have it completed is a great feeling,” Rebekah tells DJ Mag. “I wanted to create a cleaner, more well-produced aesthetic, and hope this can be heard in the pieces. Having a body of work completed, you can see what areas you need to work on next as a producer too, so I am looking forward to the next chapter in my creativity.”

In the wake of the LP's release, we meet up with Rebekah to talk us through the tracks that have inspired her musical journey... 

Hole ‘Violet’
“My teenage angst years. I loved Nirvana too, but there is something raw and so brutally honest about Courtney Love which I connect to. The self-titled album is a masterpiece and a real snapshot of the grunge period.”

Aphex Twin ‘To Cure A Weakling Child’
“Back in 1997, I would have the Richard D. James album on pretty much all the time — with its weird vocal and breakbeat, this record was something I had never heard before. I love Aphex Twin, as it’s just impossible for people to copy him — many have tried and failed.”

Luke Slater ‘Are You There?’
“Taken from the ‘Free Funk’ LP, I loved this whole album — my first introduction to Luke Slater, still as masterful back then as he is now. It showed me the different influences that can be used to create techno, and it was more than just the music I was hearing in club sets.” 

Sabres Of Paradise ‘Smokebelch II’
“A beautiful piece that will always be timeless and hugely reminiscent of my early years with electronic music.  

Paperclip People ‘The Climax’
“I bought ‘The Secret Tapes Of Dr Eich’ on vinyl, although I didn’t know so much about Carl Craig back in the ‘90s. I just liked the funk that he encapsulated on this record, and how you’re just not really expecting it to go that way, proving that the Detroit influences are so far away from what the younger artists are influenced by nowadays." 

Jeff Mills ‘The Bells’
“Hearing this at the Que Club at some of my very first techno parties was just insane, and really my first introduction to the genre. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with techno — in a big room this never fails to deliver, and I expect to hear this record well into my 70s at a local tea dance.”

Dave Clarke ‘Red 3’
“The classic ‘Red’ series... Dave Clarke has been an inspiration with my DJing, and I love the energy he brings forth in these two tracks. ‘Thunder’ makes me immensely happy to listen to, despite how sinister ‘Storm’ is on the flip. I missed out on the hardcore era, but I suspect these symbolise the ending of that period and the beginning of the new darker one.” 

John Tejada ‘The End Of It All’
“As the title describes, a time when I was transitioning from house music back to techno. Somewhere in the early 2000s I totally lost myself, and this was one record that opened my ears back up — that hardcore riff calling me to find my way back home.” 

Nathan Fake ‘The Sky Is Pink (James Holden Remix)’
“Such an incredible piece of music, goosebumps all the way! I love the way Holden manages to fuse his indie roots into this with the use of reverb. On the floor it literally encompasses you. I truly believe he mastered the art of 3-D mixing for this remix.” 

Woody McBride ‘Electris’
“This whole EP is hard-hitting and exactly the techno I enjoy playing and listening to on the floor — especially the distorted kicks. It’s brutal and unforgiving.”