Robag Wruhme

Both solo and as one half of the Wighnomy Brothers, Robag Wruhme helped mastermind minimal techno at its most hyperkinetic. Born Gabor Schablitzki in 1974 in the small town of Rudolstadt, in the former East Germany, he grew up breakdancing before discovering rave culture; by 1997, he and fellow Wighnomy Brother Monkey Maffia (Sören Bodner) were residents at Jena’s Kassablanca club, a key outpost in the burgeoning minimal movement. Recording first on local labels like Freude am Tanzen and Musik Krause, Robag Wruhme developed an idiosyncratic style built on rapid-fire percussive bursts and plangent synth melodies. By the 2010s, he’d become a regular contributor to Kompakt, doling out some of his heaviest tracks for their Speicher series, and also to DJ Koze’s Pampa label, where he explored more nuanced sounds on albums like 2011’s Thora Vukk and 2019’s Venq Tolep.