Hand-written starters from our editors — the fastest way in.
The year-round calendar of the world's great house and techno festivals — Time Warp, DGTL, Movement, Sónar, Awakenings, Glitch, CRSSD, ADE and the Ibiza closings — ordered by season, with dates, the sound, and a link to a full planning guide for each. Conclusion-first: which to pick, when the season runs, and how foreigners buy in.
Two cities, two sounds, born almost together in the early 1980s. Chicago house is soulful and disco-rooted; Detroit techno is futuristic and machine-driven. The people, the places and the philosophy that set them apart — and how they fed each other.
Afro house is house music built on African rhythm — hand percussion, hypnotic polyrhythms and soulful, spiritual grooves around 118–125 BPM. Where it came from, how to recognise it, and the artists (Black Coffee, Keinemusik, Caiiro) to start with.
Tokyo has a world-class, welcoming house and techno scene hiding in plain sight. The clubs that matter — WOMB, Vent, Circus — plus the rules visitors get wrong: ID, the cover charge, smoking, last trains and when the night really starts.
Which Ibiza club on which night — DC10, Hï, Pacha, Amnesia, Ushuaïa and more — for real house and tech house. Season and opening-party dates, how foreigners buy tickets, cashless wristbands, dress and getting home.
Skip the EDM tourist traps. This is where Amsterdam plays real house and techno — Shelter, Garage Noord, RADION and more — with door, tickets, dress and payment sorted, plus how it all peaks during ADE in October.
House music began in 1980s Chicago — at The Warehouse, with Frankie Knuckles, drum machines and the ashes of disco. A clear origin story, the machines that shaped the sound, and how it conquered the world.
Deep house is warm, soulful and chord-driven; tech house is stripped-back, percussive and built for peak time. A clear, side-by-side breakdown with BPM, mood and reference artists.
Where house actually plays in Berlin — Panorama Bar and beyond — plus the real rules of the door: how to dress, behave, and which nights are house, not just techno.