Tracks

Tracks reports on geek culture, current music, film and emerging artistic forms

Culture From the Other Side of the Tracks

During the Covid pandemic, techno went big online. Whether on TikTok, in the charts or analogue at raves: Generation-Z is addicted to raving. Tracks meets rapper Ski Aggu and DJs Tham and Alva and asks what all the hype means for the techno scene.

Techno & TikTok

Whether on TikTok, in the charts or analogue at raves: Generation-Z is addicted to raving. Tracks finds out what all the fuss is about. 

Tracks Inside

It’s the sound from South Africa that went global during lockdown: Amapiano mixes deep house with traditional music to create a sound that is spiritual and celebratory, and for some its a way of life. Tracks went to find out more about it.

Amapiano: The Sound of South Africa

House music was born in Chicago but South Africa has given the genre its own spin: Amapiano.

Some people who hold religious beliefs feel excluded from organised religion and are finding new ways of reaching God, ways that traditional churches may find blasphemous. Tracks meets artists who are reinventing Christian iconography and creating inclusive queer religious spaces.

Blasphemy: The Way to Faith?

Tracks meets artists who are reinventing Christian iconography and creating inclusive queer religious spaces.

When Brian Shimkovitz, heard Ata Kak's tape for the first time in Kumasi, he knew that the world needed to hear it and set off in search of the Ghanian producer and his unique sound.  His Awesome Tapes from Africa label operates to discover and promote music from all over Africa.

Tapemania: West Africa

Brian Shimkovitz's Awesome Tapes from Africa label operates to discover and promote music from all over Africa.

German rapper Skinny Finsta tells us about his passion for tapes of Memphis Rap, Memphis Tennessee’s own subgenre.

Memphis Rap

Tracks: Tapemania

German-Polish singer Alli Neumann travels to Warsaw, as the new Polish government is sworn in, to meet people from the city's arts scene. What are their hopes do they have for the new government? Neumann talks to burlesque dancer Betty Q and music agent Paulina Żaczek.

Turning Point in Poland

German-Polish singer Alli Neumann travels to Warsaw, as the new Polish government is sworn in, to meet people from the city's arts scene.

Tones and I became famous with the hit "Dance Monkey". Today she tours the world with Macklemore. Before her concert in Hamburg, we visited the singer with her record box and asked her to play her favourite vinyl. She talks about the fake wedding she organised for her grandparents, what Johnny Cash has to do with it and why Eminem would be a good dinner guest.

Tones and I

During her visit to Hamburg, the Australian singer rummaged through the TRACKS record box.

Afrobeat or afrobeats, a more general overarching term, is taking the world by storm. Nigerian artists are at the forefront of a genre that is gaining recognition in Europe. Tracks goes to Berlin to meet singer Rose May Alaba at the Afrobeats Festival.

The Power of Afrobeat

Afrobeat or afrobeats is taking the world by storm. Tracks goes to Berlin to meet singer Rose May Alaba at the Afrobeats Festival.

In Berlin, clubs and alternative spaces are closing and rents are soaring. But in one of the capital's richest districts, there is resistance. On the shores of Rummelsburg lake, behind Ostkreuz station, alternative groups have built makeshift barges in defiance of the Berlin property market.

Berlin's Floating Alternative Scene

In Berlin, clubs and alternative spaces are closing and rents are soaring. But in one of the capital's richest districts, there is resistance

Influencers and musicians in Germany are stepping into the Mixed Martial Arts ring to fight in front of sell-out crowds. What does this mean for professionals in the sport?

Influencers in MMA

Russian artists have two choices: silence, or exile. There's been a mass creative exodus in recent weeks, including Russian rap stars like Face and Oxxxymiron. Art rockers IC3PEAK post protest videos that would get them arrested in Russia. TikTok star Nikita Sass bravely continues to post his opinion and stays. Few dare to do that.

Russian Artists Against the War

Russian artists have two choices: silence, or exile

Have you ever wondered why pop songs sometimes sound a little too familiar? Welcome to the world of pop-recycling where borrowing, sampling and interpolation are the order of the day. Featuring interviews with Placebo, Ed Sheeran, Charlie XCX and Lauv.

Pop Music: The Great Recycling Business

Have you ever wondered why pop songs sometimes sound a little too familiar? Welcome to the world of pop-recycling. Featuring interviews with Placebo, Ed Sheeran, Charlie XCX and Lauv.

Tracks

Culture From the Other Side of the Tracks

All videos

Tracks Inside

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks: Tapemania

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks

Tracks: Songwriting Special