It all started in a record store, as many good stories do. It must’ve been a good decade ago, whilst in the IDM / electronica section of a long-gone store in Berlin, when I found a few intricately designed blue sleeves, completely covered in futuristic typography and graphic elements that spoke to me of a bright technological future. The tracklists represented electronic music heaven to me. All my heroes (Richard Devine! Jimmy Edgar! Funckarma! Even Modeselektor!) gathered in what seemed an inexplicable clash of titans.

The name of the label itself resonated on a mythological level with me: Detroit Underground. Motor City, the Shangri-La of techno. At that time, Detroit was the stuff of legends, with tales that you’d read about in magazines. Combine this with the clear-cut aesthetics of electronica futurism usually associated with labels like Mille Plateaux, Planet Mu or Sublight. I was in love from the very first minute.

Anyhow, I’m getting sentimental… Detund (as it's called by fans) has built a legacy that is not matched by many other labels. Even though they always stayed below the radar of most media and music fans, they established themselves as an outlet for some of the most cutting-edge and futuristic sounding music. Not only that, they continue to constantly renew, rethink and question the idea of what a music label can be – both in terms of design and product. As this multidisciplinary arts collective approaches its 20th anniversary, it's about time we pay our own tribute to their work.