This week the master of «Back To Minimal» landed in our inbox. Lady Waks and Orebeat gave it to us so it can be heard in full on Optimal Breaks: not the store clip, but the whole 3:56, free and with no sign-up. Play it in the list above, on Charts and on both artists' pages.
For an independent site like this one, having one of the biggest DJs in world breakbeat and a producer who has been running a label in Cádiz for more than twenty years share their full track is a huge gesture. Thank you both. And a good excuse to tell where this «Back To Minimal» comes from.
2007: «Minimal», the track that laughed at techno
In the mid-2000s minimal techno ruled the clubs of Berlin and half of Europe. That is when Lady Waks and German producer Hardy Hard released «Minimal» on the British label Menu Music (catalogue MENU008; out digitally on 16 April 2007). On the mic, Mr X, introduced by Resident Advisor as the son of Afrika Bambaataa. The lyrics are a declaration of war: «You call your music minimal but… I call it simple» and «Yo DJ, producer, you're just a button-pusher!».
Resident Advisor reviewed it in June 2007 as a «breakbeat versus techno» fight and, joke aside, rated it: a gritty, stripped-down bassline, electro stabs and a filtered «you whack» that sticks in your head. The B side was The Rogue Element remix. At the 2008 Breakspoll, the international breakbeat awards, «Minimal» was nominated for Best Single, the remix for Best Remix and Lady Waks for Best Breakthrough DJ. That record put her on the map outside Russia, and people still hunt for it second-hand.
Lady Waks and Hardy Hard stopped producing together in 2008 and got back in the studio in 2014. In 2020 she reissued «Minimal» on her own label, InBeatWeTrust Music: that version is in this article's list too. Nineteen years after the original, the new title leaves no doubt.
Lady Waks, «a one-woman industry»
Behind the name is Alexandra Seregina, from Saint Petersburg. She comes from hip-hop and breakdance: in 1999 she had a hip-hop show on Radio Record, Russia's big dance radio, and in 2000 she left it to build In Beat We Trust, first as a club night (Time Out named it the city's best night in 2004) and then as a promoter, agency, festival and label. She calls herself «a one-woman industry»: events, booking, a label, radio, production, graphic design and a clothing line.
She went back to Radio Record with a weekly all-breakbeat show, Record Club, which won Breakspoll's Best Radio Show in 2012. Fan votes also gave her Breakspoll Best DJ in 2014 and 2015, after several years as a nominee, and Best Breakthrough Producer before that, in 2009. She has released on Menu Music, West, Bass Planet, RAT Records and her own InBeatWeTrust Music, and has played from Miami to Siberia, from China to Australia.
Spain is almost her second home. On this site we have seen her at Breakbeat Fest Granada (February 2026), at Heat Closing Boiler XL in Málaga and at Crazy World in Córdoba, and she is back in Córdoba on 14 November for We Love Breaks. Back in 2014 she was already talking about her «Spanish homies» Mutantbreakz, a producer who has released on Distorsion Records. She released «Paradise» with him on Distorsion in March this year.
Orebeat, from San Fernando
Orebeat lives in San Fernando (Cádiz) and has been playing all over Andalusia since 2009. He founded and runs Distorsion Records, and has also released on Elektroshock, Raveart, 83 and Guachinche. At the I.B.A. Awards he was runner-up national breakthrough DJ in 2016 and fifth best national DJ in 2017. He has played Summer Festival, Floridance, Winter Festival, Trafalgar Festival and Elrow, sharing bills with Pendulum, Netsky, Stanton Warriors and Krafty Kuts.
His 2026 has been non-stop. On Optimal Breaks his most saved tracks are «Now Or Never», with Hankook, and «Deja Vu», with Xwile on Raveart, released yesterday. Then come «Get Da Phonk» with Air Baxx and «Grooving». In September he was on the Floridance line-up in Rota.
His bond with Lady Waks goes way back. Orebeat recorded a guest mix for Record Club years ago (number 470), and on 9 October, six days before the track came out, he was back on the show: the Record Club #905 session is in our mixes section.
Distorsion Records, a label from the bay
Distorsion Records was founded by Orebeat in Cádiz around 2000. The label speaks of more than twenty years on the go and a clear aim: taking Andalusian and Spanish artists to a national and international level. Breaks, bass and UK garage, with a simple idea: people having fun on the dancefloor. It won Best International Label at the 2012 Symphonic Distribution Awards and Best National Label at the 2017 I.B.A. Awards.
Its catalogue includes Colombo, Yo Speed, Mutantbreakz, Hankook, Valery M, Miss Trouble, Xwile and Air Baxx. On Charts we have more than 560 Distorsion tracks, and this year Air Baxx's «Bailame», «California» by Wizard, Sporty-O and DJ WAVS, and Hankook and Xwile's «Lost In You» are among the most saved.
«Back To Minimal»
Released on 15 October 2026 on Distorsion Records: 3:56, 134 BPM, in E-flat minor according to Beatport. Credited «Lady Waks x Orebeat», with a black vinyl, white label cover. It was already on Charts, in the week of 12 October, and it is among the most saved tracks on both artists' pages. From today it also plays in full.
It opens the list above, and right below sits the 2007 «Minimal», in its 2020 reissue: the original and its return, back to back. If you like it, support them where it counts: buy it on Beatport and follow them: @ladywaks, @distorsionrecords and Orebeat on SoundCloud.