In November, legendary German techno fest Time Warp touched down for its annual bash in Brooklyn, N.Y. Held at the Brooklyn Storehouse, the two-day event featured a techno league of legends, with Ricardo Villalobos, Sven Väth, Indira Paganotto, DJ Tennis playing b2b with Jimi Jules all gracing the stage.
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Among these many stars was American-born, Germany-based producer Afriqua, who played a two-hour set that took its time warming up, before getting wonderfully spatial and far out, then blooming into a full on groovefest. Russian titan Nina Kraviz played 90 minutes of her characteristically sharp-edged techno, while Dutch star Kevin de Vries played two hours of pummeling and undeniable melodic techno.
Hear all three of these sets exclusively below.
Time Warp USA 2024 was part of the German festival’s 30-year anniversary celebrations, with the party first making the jump to the U.S. in 2014, in partnership with New York City-based promoter Teksupport. Teksupport founder Rob Toma first encountered Time Warp in Germany back in 2010, and was immediately convinced he needed to bring the party and its music to the States.
“In America, it’s usually, like, nine EDM stages and a dubstep stage, [but] this had all great artists,” Toma told Billboard in 2023 of the U.S. electronic events market back in 2010. Determined to shift things, he got in touch with the festival’s owner, Steffen Charles, to see about bringing Time Warp across the Atlantic.
As Toma recalls, Charles’ response was icy: “I’ll never do New York. America is not ready.”
Toma eventually convinced him otherwise, and in 2014 Time Warp made it’s U.S. debut in Brooklyn. The show was a logistical nightmare. Toma lost his license for the Brooklyn Armory days before the festival, and had to relocate to another venue, The Shed. The event lost $400,000. Toma considered it a success.
“It was just kind of a dream,” he said in 2023. “I looked at it as, ‘This is not a loss, this is an investment.’”
A decade later, the investment has clearly paid off.
Kevin de Vries
Nina Kraviz
Afriqua
