It’s been over a decade since Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann released their first record together, and they’ve been friends for just as long. As frequent back-to-back DJ partners, their marathon sets have gone down as the stuff of clubbing legend. In fact, the duo play together so well and so regularly that people like to suggest that they can read each other’s minds on stage.

As I put this idea to them as they sit side-by-side at the Ostgut Ton office in Berlin, they glance at each other before Dettmann laughs a laugh that fills the room. “Read each other’s minds? I wouldn’t go that far…” Klock, on the other hand, entertains the theory: “Well, maybe sometimes.” Dettmann laughs again.

It didn’t take long for Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann to become two of the best-known names in techno — but clearly they take it all in their stride. Klock and Dettmann have been producers and DJs in their own right since the nineties, releasing driving techno cuts on their respective self-made labels as well as the likes of BPitch Control, WMF Records, Memo, 50Weapons, and most notably, Ostgut Ton. Ostgut was founded in 2005 as an off-shoot of the iconic Berghain/ Panorama Bar club, where both Dettmann and Klock are resident DJs. The label had been putting out mix CDs before debuting their first vinyl release in 2006: an EP by Klock and Dettmann. “At the time, Ostgut had no plans to release any EPs,” Dettmann explains. “Maybe they were just waiting for this moment when somebody comes up and offers them music!”