Bio
Steve Rachmad (Life and Death // Amsterdam)
Mentioning releases, remixes, or labels on which Steve Rachmad has shown his craftsmanship is pointless and time-consuming. So is boasting about the clubs and festivals on which he has left his mark. It would just make for another list of names, places, and brands…. Let’s not do that. Feel free to visit the usual channels (Discogs, Soundcloud, Beatport) and take your pick from numerous productions and DJ sets. They all come from three decades of dedication, sweat, and polishing a one of a kind talent.
Because as Miles had his horn and Pablo took to canvas, Steve has an unequalled gift for (almost physically) connecting with every thinkable drum machine and synthesizer out there. If the man had kids, boys would listen to Roland or Robert (Moog), and a girl would surely be named Linn, after the machine made famous by Prince and others in the 80’s. Some claim it’s analogue machine telepathy, others say he was born with all the right connectors and inputs hidden somewhere underneath his trademark curly hairdo.
This ability has established Steve as one of those artists that simply last because of quality. New generations of artists from different genres recognizes his signature and therefore play his work.
As a DJ he is constantly reinventing himself. Set firmly in the best that techno and house have to offer at the moment, Rachmad draws inspiration from his love for high quality disco and electro from the past. As words can never truly describe music, we’ll end with advising you to go check him out and hear for yourself what Steve is all about.
STERAC (Klockworks, Delsin // Amsterdam)
Since his earliest days in the scene, Amsterdam’s electronic music pioneer Steve Rachmad has created a legion of monikers to cover the variety and broadness of his compositions. Black Scorpion, Tons of Tones, Rachmad Project, Scorp, Parallel 9, Ignacio, Dreg, Sterac Electronics; they all represent a different facet of Rachmad’s music.
One of the main creatures living on Planet Rachmad has always been STERAC, a side of Steve’s musical personality that’s not easily described. Let’s say that where other aliases are used for excursions to more dub-, disco-, or house- oriented records, STERAC’s focus has always been on the no-nonsense, darker, and deeper side of techno.
The STERAC discography consists of signature cuts, spread out over genre-defining labels such as M-Plant, Tresor, Klockworks, Afterlife, Mote Evolver, Indigo Aera and Delsin. Over the years it’s been reinterpreted, remixed, and reworked by peers such as Ricardo Villalobos, Vince Watson and Marc Romboy.
The work rarely fits current trends or pushes through to the absolute top of subjective charts. Rather it simmers, always ready to spark the rise of new generations, parties, and artists’ careers within the musical biotope we all love.
His effort and independent attitude have made STERAC a regular on many a stage. From his hometown’s Awakenings, to Berghain in Berlin, Movement festival in Detroit, Fabric London, Loft Barcelona, D-Edge in Sao Paulo, and more.
Parallel 9 (art.less // Amsterdam)
‘Extremely versatile and blessed with a childlike curiosity for music and its machines, yet always self-critical, modest, and soft spoken’. When asked, that’s probably more or less how most colleagues and friends will describe Steve Rachmad. Over the years, Holland’s undefeated heavyweight champ has been creating numerous alter egos to reflect the diversity in both his interests and his output.
However, so far only a few of these characters have made it into the DJ booth. As Sterac, Steve delivers straight forward, stripped down techno. This has earned him a loyal following among the heads in clubs as Berghain. If you catch him playing as Steve Rachmad, the widely interested musical hippie takes usually over. On those nights, you’ll hear the best tracks from various genres, skilfully blended with many of his own originals, edits, and reworks. Thirdly, Sterac Electronics allows for a musical excursion to the 80’s disco era, when synths produced sounds fatter than a butter and cream sandwich, and gear only came in 3-D. This of course still is the dominant format in Rachmad’s studio today.
Now it seems the time is right to add a fourth permanent protagonist to Steve’s story: Parallel 9. This guy prefers to take the listener on a ride along the hypnotizing cliffs of the underground. A P9 set pays homage to timeless deepness. Tracks come from vintage deep house imprints, legendary dub (techno) producers, or befriended craftsmen with a similar attraction to the musical abyss.
Parallel 9 allows Rachmad to show a different side of himself onstage. It’s another way of speaking with the crowd through the four to the floor framework. And, whether it’s a 20-year-old classic or a recent release, Parallel 9 productions seem to always speak this same language. A vocabulary that lies at the heart of Rachmad’s personality: pure, profound, honest, and loving.
Sterac Electronics (Voyage Direct // Amsterdam)
Since his earliest productions, Amsterdam’s electronic music pioneer Steve Rachmad has created a legion of monikers for his various compositions. We’ve seen tracks from Black Scorpion, Tons of Tones, Rachmad Project, Scorp, Parallel 9, Ignacio, Dreg, Sterac and many more come out of his studio…
A very important alias is his Sterac Electronics. Oriented towards 80’s disco, electro and funk, this moniker shows a very different side of Steve; the one that dares even more, that thinks even more out of the box, and demonstrates, for many, unexpected and surprising areas of his talent and musical affection. It’s the moniker that is deeply linked to and rooted in his youth, which is the base of him as an artist today.
As a releasing and remixing artist, Sterac Electronics appears on labels as Music Man, Kombination Research, & Kanzleramt. In 2017 he crowned this alias with a beautiful album on Tom Trago’s Voyage Direct, named “Things to think about.” Raved about by the press and the fans, this piece of timeless music shows Rachmad’s strength as a musical wonder mind of this era; and his ability to create music that stands against time and trends.
As a DJ, Sterac Electronics performs only limited and carefully selected shows. The thrive is to keep this alias special and dedicated to the right moments and audience.