Once alive with noise and neon, Beijing’s underground live houses now exist only in memory. Through animated fragments of past summers and winters, this project traces a personal rhythm for a vanished scene, where sound once gave shape to youth and defiance. Captured by Wenhe Zhao.

Broken glass. Strobe scars. Bass shaking the bones of an abandoned forest. FJAAK came up on raw instinct—hacked gear, illegal raves, no sleep, no plan B. Before the bookings, before the Boiler Rooms, it was just a basement in Spandau and the thrill of noise with nowhere to go but louder. Now they’re closing Berghain for 11 hours, running a label that’s more like a syndicate, and still building everything by hand. This isn’t a nostalgia act. It’s muscle memory. It’s resistance through rhythm. Spandau20, the Berlin-based collective label rooted in underground rave culture, celebrates its 10th VA with 10 tracks from its co-founders—each one a reflection of the label’s raw, percussive, hardware-driven ethos. To mark the occasion, we sat down with FJAAK for a a deep dive.

From underground beginnings to headlining global festivals, Indira Paganotto’s journey through the world of psy-techno has been shaped by a relentless drive to create a space where music transcends and connects people on a deeper level.

Nasty's handpicked selection of the best parties this week.