Berlin’s queer club ecosystem is a PRNCPTL speciality. The label extends the sexy, restless energy of the city’s lauded Pornceptual parties into recorded form, celebrating the community that has built up around the events. These releases are also an essential document for posterity (this third instalment in the comp series marks Pornceptual’s 13th anniversary), at a time when queer-positive underground collectives continue to carve out space against the conventions of mainstream club culture.
After skipping last year’s release, PRNCPTL returns with nine tracks across double vinyl. It’s a decisively curated journey from warm-up (or maybe that’s the comedown from the night before) towards turbo-charged territory. The first disc is devoted to the sexy afterglow; the second is a euphoric collision of seduction, sweat and sound.
Scene lynchpin Curses opens with ‘Make Me Feel’, a mechanical, new beat chugger threaded with rave-y synths and full of brusque sex appeal. Perra Inmunda’s ‘La Noche Me Asusta’ follows, all pulsing low end, Latin percussion and sultry vocals, before RAKANS’ ‘Crystal Jaccuzi’ shifts into wavy, Robert Hood-esque techno. CRYME’s ‘Tantra Tonga’ builds a honeymoon suite from spacey pads, while Spacer Woman’s progressive ‘This Is Special’, with its robust rhythm, is the soundtrack to a Berlin sunrise.
The second half turns up the heat. Julie Desire delivers playful ’90s Eurodance energy; Sparkly Pony’s ‘Wavy Blue’ paints Balearic warmth with acid hues; Rachel Noon, Dillon Lucas and Boneman team up for the sleek percussive techno of ‘Pauper’s Bluff’, and Deepneue’s ‘Crescendo’ closes on a direct high — as the track’s vocal urges, “start quiet, get louder”. Who said 13 was unlucky

