Since it started releasing music in 2020, the Berlin-based multidisciplinary platform, label, and brand Never Sleep has been pushing a forward-thinking version of rave culture. To celebrate their last five years of output, label founder Alberto Guerrini—also known as Gabber Eleganza—has put together an eclectic mix that jumps through genres while always staying banging. What styles are not touched on here? That question might be easier to answer than the reverse. It makes for a satisfying listen. Give the mix a go and read our interview Never Sleep's Guerrini and Joe Coghill, below.

Where are you based? 

Alberto: Label was founded in Berlin via London, headquarters are still in Berlin with our team, but I recently moved back to Italy in Sardinia.

Joe: I’m based in the UK and originally from Glasgow, Scotland.

Can you describe your label mix? 

Alberto: In five years, we published 25 EPs and 4 LPs, so I just wanna cover the whole sonic spectrum of the label, dedicated to every artist, with a crescendo flow.

What inspired you to start a label? 

Alberto: It feels like an organic step into the discovery of music after the experience of the digital curated archive: having a platform where I can express and publish material with likeminded people, thinking global, but keeping grounded.

Joe: Alberto and I had been actively sending each other music, ideas, and had been working together for a few years, and it just felt like a natural progression of what we wanted to achieve. It’s very much a labor of love and you need to feel inspired most days running an indie label.

Does your label have a sound or a mission? 

Joe: The sound is very broad and the scope of working without a specific genre as a backbone allows us to broaden that palette consistently. If anything, the mission for the label is always to champion artists who need help, do something unprecedented sonically and achieve cultural milestones by educating and imprinting good quality musicality again in the electronic music sphere.

Tell us about your scene(s).

Alberto: I try to be involved less in specific scenes, scenes are limited by codes and that’s not really a thing that I wanna pitch for Never Sleep. That sounds a bit like a paradox from a subcultural gatekeeper, but I just wanna keep myself as genuine as possible, to always be curious and excited about discovering things.

Joe: The UK has an amazing reputation for its artistry and its ideals in music, but it struggles with its middle-class identity a bit just now. Places like Salford, Todmorden, and Hull are definitely healthy but London has become a victim of its own success and DIY culture suffers in its growing shadow. Lots of great artists, but a lack of grassroots venues.

What’s your A&R process? 

Alberto: Spending hours discovering music for my set and DJ set in order to get an adventurous sound helps me to get in touch with many artists in person and online. I really like the idea of helping newcomers, giving them a place to amplify their voices and music, but first of all it is about feeling and building relationships, many people I signed for the label are friends or they became friends.

Joe: I can spend up to six hours a day finding new music and I’m completely obsessed at times. I tend to work my way through micropockets of online collectives, correlate what they are doing and represent and always try to meet in person/catch a show if possible. With Never Sleep I have been actively trying to work my way through genre, specifically on the charity tape series, so slowly been releasing drum and bass, dubstep, jungle, techno, etc. So we represent the broad spanning ideologies of dance music and avoid being pigeonholed.

What labels do you look up to? 

Alberto: I like PRSPCT, Hyperdub, Rotterdam Records, PAN, Cramps and many more, mostly labels with a strong and unapologetic approach.

Joe: I very much respect XL Recordings historically but recently been listening to a lot of music on AP Life, Appointment1 and FXCK RXP.