Lysergic bass lines spinning through voids like whirling dervishes. Deep impenetrable kick drums puncturing holes in the fabric of space-time. Sonic atmospheres, laden with the weight of the world cling to the outer extremities of a percussive onslaught, while the sheer power of their inertia writhe and twist human bodies to their command. This is the sound of Boston 168.



The Italian duo make heart-palpitating Techno, crafted from singular machines with a singular vision. Music made for dystopian futures, where cavernous warehouses echo with the sounds of a new industry… A music industry, is where Boston 168’s music lives. Their music thrives in the darkened corners of some concrete dungeon, where it modulates between the abstract and corporeal, channeling all its energy onto the dance floor.



Boston 168 are Sergio Pace and Vincenzo Ferramosca, who have been making terrifying Acid Techno together since 2014. After dabbling in music individually, they found their voice as a duo, with a penchant for the more salacious apatites of the dance floor. They released their first EP together on “Old and Young” in the same year, embarking on a sound together, a sound conjured from bolshie machines for corporeal delights.



“The Drill EP” set them on a tangent that took them to the extreme edges of Techno and Acid where they’ve cultivated a sound uniquely theres across records for the likes of Odd/Even, Attic records and more recently BPitch Control where tracks like “Oblivion” have made them household names on club floors the world over.



Across the last few records on BPitch where their sound has evolved even further, adding an element of transient melodies to their core acid-focussed sound, but retaining that awesome might of their sonic assault as producers. It’s a sound that they’ve completely commanded in the live context, where their machines contort and writhe between beats and bass lines, capturing that same intensity and brute power that they’ve seized across their records. With their next show looming at Jaeger in Oslo, we sent them a few questions over email to find out more about Boston 168 and their music.

Hello Sergio and Vincenzo. How did you guys meet and what made you want to start working together?

Hello guys, we always have been friends since we have memory. We were sharing the same passion so we begin building it together. We never decided to work together, we were making music together, everything that happened after was not predicted.

What’s the story behind the name, Boston 168?



Our first studio, was located in Via Boston 168 in Torino.

You both had solo careers before Boston 168. What sets this project apart from your previous solo endeavours?



As written above, our career started as Boston 168. Before Boston 168 everything was just passion, years in the studio and loads of struggles, we were making music by ourselves but we were already working on mutual projects like Old and Young. Our friendship is one of the main points of our lives, everything that we did individually was shared with the other in the end and for sure also our individual productions.

The 303 and Acid obviously plays an important role in your music, but what other influences did you draw on in the beginning?



Spaceships, Solar system, Berlin techno, Detroit, Torino…and weed 😉

How did each of you get into this thing called Techno and what part did the italian scene play in your formative years?



Everything belongs to our first record on odd/even and involve, unfortunately the Italian scene didn’t help us so much, our first dates have been mostly in France.



There’s obviously a huge legacy with Techno in Italy, but who were some of the people and what were some of the places that played a role in your development?



Donato Dozzy and 90’s Italian progressive has always been a source of inspiration.

What went into your first release, “The Drill” and when did you realise you had something that you’d like to present to the world?



We just did what we wanted and still now we cannot say how a track has born or where it guided us.

How do you usually approach a track when working together and how do you share the roles between you?



We don’t have a scheme we use all the machines and we just have fun.



There’s obviously that focus on the kick and acid bass-line in your work, but then you also seem to turn a lot of your attention to creating a particular atmosphere in your work through sound design. What usually draws you to a sound?



Yes we like reverbs and ambient sound that we try to fill in our music. We don’t use compressors to maintain our music more dynamic. Melody is always an ear game.



It seems that over the last few releases your sound has evolved from your earlier releases, where you seem to indulge bubbling synths and arps, adding a more melodic dimension to the heretofore straight Techno. What inspired or influenced this evolution in your work?



It is the natural evolution of our work and our taste.

Odd/Even and now Bpitch control regularly make appearances in your discography. What’s your relationship with these labels and how have they affected your music?



We are friends and colleagues, we do our music how we like and if Odd/even or Bpitch like it too we are happy and proud to release on those labels.

You seem to favour the live context over the DJ set if requested to perform. This is something that has been very popular in Techno for the last few years. What is it about Techno today that makes it so susceptible to the live context?



For sure in techno scene there is much more attention to analogue production and this for sure inspires more artists to play live instead of djing. Ah, and also not all the good producers are for sure good djs. 🙂

When you play live, do you try to recreate the recorded material or is about improvising a different set each time?



50/50 also improvising is the reason why we love to play live.

And where do you see the Boston 168 project evolving to next and what should we expect in the near future from you?



There are no limits, we never expected anything from anyone, this is the key.

