Stream the Final Installment of Paul Kalkbrenner’s ‘Back to the Future’ Mixtape Series

When most people share a #ThrowbackThursday post on social media, they're lucky to get a few dozen Likes, RTs, and comments. After German techno stalwart Paul Kalkbrenner posted his version of a #TBT—in this case, throwback techno in the form of his Back to the Future mixtape series—earlier this summer, he fared much better by becoming the first techno artist to perform on the main stage at last month's Tomorrowland festival in Belgium.

The mix trilogy, which Kalkbrenner made while creating his latest album 7 over Christmas 2014, is a time portal to his teenaged years in East Berlin during the late 80s and early 90s, when he discovered electronic music by listening to the radio. To date, the first two mixtapes have accumulated nearly 260,000 downloads and 448,000 streams. "The reaction to the tapes surprised me," he tells THUMP. "I didn't expect such a personal project to connect with so many people, especially as lots are hearing these tunes for the first time, and maybe were not even born when they first came out. But there is a timeless quality to this period of electronic music."

Today, Kalkbrenner is sharing the third and final installment of the series. Featuring tracks from artists such as Friends of Matthew, Nu Tro Gen, Dream Frequency, Department of Dance (aka Robert Babicz), and Moby alias Voodoo Child, it bangs and grooves from start to finish. Listen to it and catch the full tracklist below.

The series may have wrapped, but the concept of Back to the Future doesn't necessarily have to end there. Is there any chance of seeing it in a live setting, for nostalgia's sake? "I haven't DJ'd in a long time, so we have to figure out how we could make it work," Kalkbrenner says. "Going up there with a USB stick seems totally wrong, especially with this type of music, but maybe some vinyls could remind me of my old DJ days… I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Tracklisting:
Egma - Let the Bass kick (Mid-Town, Netherlands, 1991)
Friends of Matthew - Out there (Pulse-8, UK, 1991)
Hallucination Generation - Atmosphere 92 (Thunderpussy, Netherlands, 1992)
Neutron 9000 - Tranceplant (MFS, Germany, 1992)
Drug Free America - Cyberspace (Haad Rin at Dawn) (Cybersound, UK, 1992)
DJ Vox - Finally dissin' you (non-copyrighted , 1991)
Megabeat - Es Imposible, No Puede Ser (Invisible, Spain, 1990)
René et Gaston - Vallée de Larmes (Fresh Fruit, Netherlands, 1993)
Rush till Dawn - I think about you (Sound Entity, UK, 1991)
CJ Bolland - Camargue (R&S, Belgium, 1992)
33 1/3 Queen - Searchin' (Nu Groove, US, 1990)
Fierce Ruling Diva - Rubb it in (Lower East Side, Netherlands, 1991)
Dream Frequency - Live the Dream (City Beat, UK, 1990)
Department of Dance - An Outdoor Overture (Junkfood, Germany, 1993)
Halogen - Bliss (Ind-X, US, 1993)
Fix - Flash (KMS, US, 1992)
Voodoo Child - Voodoo Child (Instinct, US, 1990)
Hole in One - X-Paradise (See Saw, Belgium, 1992)
Microbots - Cosmic Evolution (Overdrive, Germany, 1992)
Nu Tro Gen - Rollin' Reptiles (Thunderpussy, Netherlands, 1992)
Illuminatae - Brick House (XVX , UK, 1993)
Marmion - Schöneberg (Superstition, Germany, 1993)
μ Zig - μ Zig Theme (Rephlex, UK, 1993)