Shed

German techno producer René Pawlowitz maintains a steady presence at Berlin’s Berghain nightclub and issues material under no fewer than a dozen aliases, yet the output issued as Shed has earned the widest recognition. His atmospheric, richly textured productions draw on vivid recollections of 1990s Detroit techno and jungle while incorporating sufficient low-end weight and reverberation to attract listeners from the dubstep and dub-techno communities. Alongside numerous 12-inch singles, he has issued widely praised full-lengths for Ostgut Ton—beginning with the 2008 debut Shedding the Past—and for Monkeytown with The Final Experiment in 2017.

Born in Frankfurt in 1975, Pawlowitz first experimented with electronic production throughout the 1990s. After relocating to Berlin in 2002 he took a position at the renowned Hard Wax record shop. Beginning with Red Planet Express in 2004, he issued a steady stream of EPs on his own Soloaction Records imprint and quickly attracted attention within underground dance circles. Delsin and Styrax soon followed with further Shed EPs, while Pawlowitz simultaneously circulated white-label 12-inches under additional names including EQD, Wax, and STP. Ostgut Ton presented Shed’s debut album, Shedding the Past, in 2008; the record received strong support from the underground techno audience, and Resident Advisor selected it as album of the year.

The Traveller appeared in 2010, coinciding with the launch of additional projects such as WK7, Head High, and Panamax Project. In 2011 Pawlowitz delivered a remix of Radiohead’s “Little by Little.” The following year he joined Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons roster for the album The Killer together with the singles “The Praetorian” and “The Dirt.” Shed’s Constant Power EP surfaced in 2015 on Hard Wax’s the Final Experiment label, while “Dark Planet” was issued on 50 Weapons shortly before that imprint closed. The fourth Shed album, also titled The Final Experiment, arrived on Monkeytown in 2017. Pawlowitz returned to Ostgut Ton in 2019 with his fifth long-player, Oderbruch.