Just after the highgrade-crew celebrated their 8th anniversary with a great compilation and a successfull clubtour across Europe, they field one of their best teams with their first album. Everybody who knows their releases can estimate what this means: Format:B in best shape. And the result speaks for itself: "Steam circuit" comes with a lot of pressure and fun, but is by all means everything else than just a load of hot air. The Berlin based Guys Franziskus Sell and Jakob Hildenbrand did allways stand with their highly energetic tracks for those parts of the Highgrade labelsound, which are strongly orientated on the club without loosing musical sense, funkyness and the joy of playing around. Their releases "Like a techmachine" or the extrem successfull EP "Bronson Road 69" used to be little milestones in Highgrade's label history. So it's nothing more that consequent to release "Steam Circuit" in two different versions: the double-vinyl features 8 brandnew tracks and the CD-version contains additionally some of their most successfull tracks so far, being presented in form of a DJ-mix. So they can demonstrate the whole spectrum they‘ve got to offer, from the dark bouncing "Edding 850" to trips into more acid-like areas with "Boot cut" or the easy rollin' stuff "Like a techmachine". When vocals are in the game, Format:B goes one step further. As with "Si pero no" which has the clear potential to hit the scene like "hay consuelo" did. Or in cooperation with Jake the Rapper in "Something suitable" - where they combine their trademark sub-basslines with hypnotic sounds and deliver in combination with Jake's vocals the perfect instant-clubbanger. All in all, it's a wild ride on the zeitgeist of clubsound, powerfull tracks which seem to never loose their breath. In this context the question, how this release can be introduced befitting one's rank hasn't to be asked.

review by: Highgrade