Hard Wax
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hard Wax is a record shop located in the Kreuzberg borough of Berlin, Germany. It was founded in December 1989 by the Basic Channel duo, Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus. It is specialized in techno music, reggae, dub and dubstep. Hard Wax also serves as a distributor for several Berlin-based record labels linked to the Basic Channel aesthetic. Some members (or former members) of its staff are prominent DJs like DJ Hell, Modeselektor, Marcel Dettmann, DJ Rok, Gabriele „Mo“ Loschelder or Electric Indigo who 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) but a future online music store is also planned.
At its opening in 1989, the store shared its premises with the Basic Channel record label at the ground floor of an Reichenberger Straße's building. Hard Wax finally settled in 1996 at the third floor of an old factory in Paul-Lincke-Ufer street. It's one of the oldest record stores in electronic music. Playing the role of an important hub for the techno community in the world, the shop helped extensively the development of this burgeoning scene in the early 90s. Furthermore, as with Tresor club in Berlin, it shares a privileged relationship with the musicians of Detroit techno in the so-called "Berlin-Detroit axis".
