Brutalismus 3000 are the duo of producer Theo Zeitner and singer Victoria Vassiliki Daldas, two musical visionaries who met on Tinder in 2018 and formed their antagonistic techno band in 2020. With an early hit titled “Satan Was a Babyboomer” and fan-favorite lyrics about “fuckface bouncers,” Brutalismus 3000’s playful attitude and aggressive sound were always too animated for Berlin’s restrictive techno scene. Even so, after rising to fame online during COVID lockdown, the band’s viral songs exploded in European clubs once live music returned, resonating deeply with younger listeners who gleefully reject stodgy genre purism. Since the release of their high-voltage 2023 debut, ULTRAKUNST (LIVE FROM EARTH), Brutalismus 3000 have been mainstays of the international festival circuit -- EDC, Primavera Sound, Coachella, Ultra, Lollapalooza, and more -- and now have friends, fans, and collaborators strewn all across the globe. For their exhilarating sophomore album, Harmony , Brutalismus 3000 aimed to emphasize their cross-continental influences in a way they never have. The record is a genre-mangling triumph that assembles elements of dubstep, trap, punk, nu-metal, and techno into an eclectic romp of wall-to-wall bangers that includes their most evolved and exciting music yet. Never have Brutalismus 3000 sounded this singular, this sophisticated, this outlandishly absorbing. Harmony consumed every spare minute of the band’s lives for two straight years, a strenuous process that involved Zeitner re-teaching himself how to produce music and Daldas challenging herself to greatly expand her vocal range. No longer inhibited by the constraints of Berlin techno and invigorated by their growing popularity abroad, Brutalismus 3000 were finally able to realize the album they always dreamed of making. “We felt the hard techno stuff getting really stale and becoming kind of a circus,” Zeitner says of their home city’s signature style. On Harmony , Brutalismus 3000 finally felt they had the leeway to break from that mold. “Ok, fuck it, we’re established now so we can do whatever the fuck we want,” he adds. Although Harmony is very much the product of Zeitner and Daldas’s special bond (they write lyrics together and work out sonic ideas in tandem), Brutalismus 3000 also enlisted help from some high-profile friends, namely Boys Noize and 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, who are both credited co-producers on the record. Brady worked with them at the beginning of the writing process to lend a fresh perspective to the band’s workflow. “Dylan Brady would think of a part that I would never think of,” Zeitner says. Meanwhile, Boys Noize came in at the end of the record to help “finesse some of the songs,” Daldas explains. “Boys Noize was the perfect mixture between club and high-brow music,” Zeitner enthuses, mentioning his work with Nine Inch Nails. “He knows big picture stuff but he also knows we come from the club scene. A lot of people forget that the songs still need to bang in a club.” Indeed, Harmony fucking bangs. Songs like “Garland” and “You Were Never Really Here (Bit I Miss Ya)” are multi-rhythmic rave rippers that eschew four-on-the-floor minimalism for headbangable trap beats and mosh-worthy dubstep drops. Those tracks also boast some of Daldas’s stickiest pop yell-alongs yet, while others like “No Friends” and “Amilli” showcase her distorted howls at their gnarliest. However, even though the tracklist is accented with metallurgic guitars and mind-wiping gabber sprints, Harmony finds Brutalismus 3000 at their most crystalline and catchy, particularly on the transcendent closer “Testoskin” and the addicting standout “I Bring My Gun to the Function.” Then again, Brutalismus 3000 are the only hyperpop-adjacent band on earth with a feature from British techno icons Underworld, whose Pigshed studio is the namesake of Harmony ’s resplendent “Friends at the Pigshed.” ”Underworld and us are really good...

Brutalismus 3000

About this show

Good to know