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While Miami’s techno scene becomes increasingly robust, most of the major out-of-towners rolling through ply similarly minimal, relatively low-bpm styles. Still, an entire internationally growing subgenre has been largely ignored in the city, even during Winter Music Conference.
So-called Schranz or hard techno hails from the same country — Germany — as the stripped-down sounds of the minimal titans. And though it shares the same general rhythmic patterns, it goes harder, and its window-dressing owes much to early trance. Kick drums are hard, synth patterns are acid-drenched, and beats per minute are pushed to 150 and even beyond.
Long at the helm of this scene-within-a-scene is producer Chris Liebing. He’s not the hardest or most extreme artist on the scene, but he’s long been the most influential, helping to define the style on releases such as The Real Schranz series. He also cohelmed the influential Stigmata record label, but these days his main project is an eponymous imprint, CLR (Chris Liebing Recordings). Though he’s a regular at top party spots across Europe — especially the Spanish circuit over the summer — he pops his Miami superclub cherry this Saturday at Space.
