Five-Year Surge
EXHALE VA007 techno arrives as Amelie Lens marks five years of her high-velocity imprint. The anniversary lands with the explosive single Activate and a seventh volume in the label’s coveted compilation series, fresh off a major ADE 2025 showcase. EXHALE’s ascent from Hasselt’s Labyrinth Club to global mainstages mirrors techno’s current hybrid moment, where DIY grit meets arena-scale power.
Community To Mainstage
Born from Lens’ curatorial instincts, EXHALE consistently pairs raw newcomers with titans like Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Ellen Allien, Rødhåd, and Kobosil. That balancing act has shaped a scene-spanning ecosystem, connecting warehouse intensity to festival impact.
It is a model increasingly defining modern techno: community-led platforms building robust identities beyond a single star’s orbit.
Key Track, Clear Intent
Activate sets the tone with pummeling kicks, trancy big-room arps, and a gargantuan drop engineered for peak-time detonation. The message is simple: futurism with no compromise. Across thirteen tracks, EXHALE VA007 techno functions like a club-season compass, spotlighting rising names while stress-testing the sound system.
Rave-Hardened Palette
Flour’s Love It injects melodic vocals into a pounding techno-trance sphere, chasing instant earworm status. Blondex’s Zor frames crisp, thumping kicks with dark urgency, built for post-midnight endurance. FLKN’s The Light fuses hard techno, punk bite, and emotive vocal lines, erupting into behemoth 303s. AISHA’s Pill Crusher nods to ’90s eurodance through an addictive synth-horn loop, breathing euphoria into the mix.
Established Firepower
Parisian regular AIROD contributes LSD with gated vox and muscular propulsion, a proven EXHALE accelerant. Scottish innovator GALLØ answers with Vul Dica, weaving squelchy acid and diaphanous melodies for tension and release. Ellen Trenn’s Regulate welds electro-break grit to metallic futurism, while Jomaa’s Free Bird channels resilience and hope from Gaza through urgent, driving sonics.
New Voices, Big Rooms
Carla Schmitt’s Look At Me is progressive and groovy, its dancer’s phrasing sculpting dark, sensual momentum.
Alexa Borzyk’s Just A Friend drifts into dubby, underwater textures that stretch the compilation’s emotional bandwidth. VE/RA’s No One Else lifts with relentless rhythm and choral lift, prepping the finale. Lawyn’s Nami closes with tubular-bell drama and gothic color, sealing a cinematic arc.
Future-Proof Techno
EXHALE VA007 techno underscores Lens’ enduring thesis: bridge the underground and the mainstage without dulling edges. The series remains a bellwether for where peak-time techno is headed, prioritizing impact, clarity, and community. Five years in, EXHALE sounds both road-tested and restless, already primed for the next chapter. Activate is the spark; the compilation is the proof.
