Hard Wax is a

record shop A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of t ...

located in the

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

borough of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was founded in 1989 by Mark Ernestus of

Basic Channel Basic Channel is a German music duo and record label, composed of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, that originated in Berlin in 1993. The duo have also worked under other names, including Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio, and have founded offsho ...

at the ground floor of a Reichenberger Straße building. It is specialized in

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

music,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

, dub and

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

. Hard Wax also serves as a distributor for several Berlin-based record labels linked to the

aesthetic. Some members (or former members) of its staff include prominent DJs like

DJ Hell Helmut Josef Geier (born 6 September 1962), known professionally as DJ Hell, is a German DJ. Biography 1970s and 1980s DJ Hell described his musical beginnings in an interview with '' The European'', telling them “I was socialized with Ge ...

, Gernot Bronsert of

Modeselektor Modeselektor is a German electronic music duo consisting of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. History The group members met in 1992 in Berlin with group member Szary performing live acid house music at illegal underground parties, under th ...

Marcel Dettmann Marcel Dettmann (born 26 October 1977) is a German DJ, producer, and record label owner. Dettmann is a resident DJ at the Berghain nightclub in Berlin. He used to work at Berlin's record store Hard Wax between 2002 and 2012. In addition to be ...

, DJ Rok, Gabriele "Mo" Loschelder or

Susanne Kirchmayr Susanne Kirchmayr aka Electric Indigo (born 15 December 1965) is an Austrian music producer, Techno DJ and feminist who performs under the name Electric Indigo. Her stage name is a combined reference to her favorite color indigo and her affinity ...

. The latter was in charge of sales from 1993 to 1996. The shop sets place a mail order system through its website, which represented 50% of the sales in 2009. In 1996, Hard Wax moved to the third floor of an old factory in

Paul-Lincke-Ufer Paul-Lincke-Ufer is a street in Berlin running along the Landwehr Canal in the Kreuzberg quarter of the city. The street runs from Kottbusser Brücke all the way to the Treptow Canal. Opposite it is the Maybach Ufer where the Turkish Market ta ...

44A sharing its premises with the

record label and the Dubplates and Mastering studio. It's one of the oldest record stores in electronic music in Berlin. Playing the role of an important hub for the

community in the world, the shop helped extensively the development of this burgeoning scene in the 90s. Furthermore, as with

Tresor TRESOR (recursive acronym for "TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM", and also the German word for a safe) is a Linux kernel patch which provides encryption using only the CPU to defend against cold boot attacks on computer systems by perf ...

club in

, it shares a privileged relationship with the musicians of

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...

in the so-called "Berlin-Detroit axis". In 2023, Hard Wax moved to Kraftwerk Berlin on Köpenicker Straße, alongside

References

External links

* * {{Official website, https://hardwax.com Music in Berlin 1989 establishments in West Germany Techno Dub music Reggae culture Dubstep