Death By A Thousand Shed's

Shed. 

Never before has a producer been met with as much fervour as the now Shedgendary René Pawlowitz.We all know him; Bombastic beat maker, retrospective rave pioneer, dull interviewee and the single most played artist by house and techno DJs everywhere.

This year I’ve yet to go to an event - including my own - without a selection of Shed tracks and alias’ being played, a credit to René Pawlowitz and his productions. But for the sake of originality, Shed, for the time being has been shelved. I’ll be the first admit I own several 12”s by Pawlowitz, but they're currently cellaring like fine wines in my familiar Ikea expedite.

It’s come to point where as soon as Head High’s "It's a Love Thing (Piano Invasion)" or WK7's "The Avalanche" starts munching into the next track, it’s time for another drink, smoke or toilet break. But it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. In 2009 and 2010, scarcely would a mix go by without the inclusion of something Dettmann or Klock, 2011 it was Shifted, today it’s Shed. The fanfare surrounding Shed however, is like nothing we have seen before. 

Shed's music simmers above the underground and as a result of Head High, WK7 and the new 50Weapons album, The Killer, Pawlowitz's productions verges on becoming entry level techno. Head High and WK7 posses the bare bones signatures of why we love techno, (some) rave and house music, and his latest LP was good timing, paired with a strong and self-propelling machine and Modeselektor's in vogue 50Weapons imprint.

The lure of Shed’s genre-bridging capabilities is what appeals to a greater demographic of listeners, more so than the dusty minimal sketches of Dettmann and Klock or the white noise submissions of CLR and Drumcode. Shed’s inclusion to the 50Weapons roster, which places him alongside the bassy nectars of Addison Groove, Cosmin TRG, Benjamin Damage and electro funny men Modeselektor, means those accustomed to sporadic drum patterns and synth heavy arrangements are now steered toward the rock hard four-four. All of a sudden it’s about techno - and always has been...

The biggest proponent of the “it’s always been about techno” rhetoric seems to be voiced most by those who made a name through the umbrella term dubstep after a splinter of the genre was defined by the likes of Scuba, Martyn and Burial. The ironic thing is, then, it was “always about house music”. House music has since handed the baton to techno, but this time its references are British and industrial, with dignitaries Luke, Tony and Karl flying the techno flag - not Detroit's star spangled banner of Juan, Derrick and Kevin.

So as Shed’s productions bang their way through the rest of 2012 and well into next year, take heed in not becoming the DJ turned commercial radio jock dampening the excitement of a good song. Rather than guzzling it down and pouring it everywhere like a cheap cask wine, give it time to breath, decanter, then dust it off and bring it out for that special occasion.