For five years EXHALE has been at the cutting edge of underground club culture, rewriting the
rulebook of future techno, powered by shared love of uncompromising rave culture. A dynamic
community-driven label, platform and event series bridging the gap between DIY warehouse culture
and mainstage sonics, EXHALE has grown exponentially from its early seeds on the legendary dance
floor of Labyrinth Club in Hasselt.
The brainchild of then resident Amelie Lens, whose talent for curating unreal line-ups, including
artists such as Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Ellen Allien, Rødhåd and Kobosil, helped build the
foundation of the EXHALE ethos – unearthing raw talent and helping it grow by platforming alongside
bigger names. Since those early days in 2020, Lens has brought EXHALE to some of the world’s most
respected dance floors, with showcases in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Paris, Athens,
Istanbul as well as colossal stage hosting for Awakenings ADE, Creamfields UK, Tomorrowland and
many more.
In just half a decade EXHALE’s unique brand of boundary-pushing, futuristic electronic music has
marked them out as one of techno’s all-time greats, bringing together rising artists with
heavyweight international names like no-one else. Evidenced succinctly on their highly impressive
VA series, now on its seventh release, the compilations are a testament to the brilliance of Lens’
curatorial skill and the remarkable pool of talent in her orbit making waves in techno’s global
underground.
Across thirteen tracks, ‘Exhale VA007’ is a magnificent taster menu of some of the best in the game
right now, featuring a number of familiar faces from the EXHALE roster including Flour, fresh from
his recent ‘Visitors’ EP on the label, previous VA returnees GALLØ and FLKN and EXHALE regular
AIROD. Fittingly 5th birthday celebrations are opened here by label boss herself, with the incredible
‘Activate.’ The track is everything you could want from Amelie Lens: pummeling kick, flawless, high
impact production, trancy big room arps and a gargantuan drop that will put you in spin mode.
The ‘Exhale VA007’ is available here