Innershades
Innershades has played Fuse in Brussels 39 times since 2021.
AKA Fatal Riot, Palermo Disco Squad, Emotive Response
Innershades is the alias of Thomas Blanckaert, a producer and DJ from Aalst, Belgium. He has been active since 2013, and his music draws on a specific constellation of Belgian and transatlantic club history: electronic body music, acid house, rude electro and nineties trance - the genres that shaped the golden age of Belgian club life - alongside the raw energy of classic Dance Mania productions. The result is something distinctly rooted in place: heavy kicks, menacing melodies and throbbing pulses, with monolithic drum sequences built from propulsive four-to-the-floor kick drums and gated snares, threaded through with analogue hardware texture and a persistent, wistful melodic undertow.
His debut 12-inch, "That Girl," set a rough and ready dancefloor vibe, and his follow-up "No Stopping" EP for Creme Organization extended that momentum, drawing early support from Ben UFO, Nina Kraviz and Serge Clone among others. Further releases on Pinkman and Unknown To Unknown consolidated his position in the harder end of European underground club music.
He co-founded the label Altered Circuits to showcase forward-thinking club music, and it has remained his most consistent outlet. His ongoing Heritage series on the imprint pays direct homage to Belgium's New Beat legacy: he has made it a focal point of attention, opting not to produce style exercises but to subtly inject his tech and progressive productions with some of New Beat's tropes. Heritage Vol. 2 followed three years after the first instalment, continuing that thread into the mid-2020s. Beyond Altered Circuits, his catalogue spans Clone Jack for Daze, Impakto Records, Time Passages, Cabaret Recordings and Cartulis, among others.
He holds a residency at Fuse in Brussels, which remains his most consistent live home. His most-played regions on the circuit extend to Berlin, London and Paris, with club appearances at venues including BAR, Studio 80, Hoppetossen and Griessmuehle. Both melancholy and upbeat, he opts for something more than pure tool music, always reaching for the more moving subtexts of the dancefloor.
