The Exaltics

After producing music in the German city of Jena from the late '90s, Robert Witschakowski's underground electro and techno bass alias the Exaltics became one of the stalwarts of the burgeoning electro revival wave of the mid-2000s. Starting in 2007, he set up Solar One Music with Nico Jageiella (Crotaphytus); this would become the main creative outlet for the Exaltics' production of pulsating dark synth beats as well as the home to contemporaries such as Impakt and Komarken. Sculpting dark, bleak, and electronic atmospherics, Witschakowski released his debut album, Invasion, and the 2009 follow-up, The Arriving, on Transient Force. However, it was in 2010 that he started to draw audiences when he recorded his three-part EP series 100 Lights in the Sky for Bunker Records. Drawing favorable comparisons to the likes of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt, he released the six-track EP They Arrive in 2011 on the much-respected Crème Organization label. Throughout 2010 and 2011, he recorded three singles for Last Known Trajectory and continued to produce and release material for his own label. With a raft of remixes and DJ dates across Europe throughout this period, the Exaltics became one of the most formidable purveyors of the modern European electro sound. ~ Aneet Nijjar