Something rather lovely happened this week. Clash Magazine, one of the UK's most respected voices in music, has published a long and generous profile of SEVEN. Written by Lauren Chester, it looks at our new home on Torstraße, the label, and the community we are trying to build around all of it.
You can read the full piece here: SEVEN Are Building A New Blueprint For Dance Music Community.
We could not have asked for a more thoughtful read of what we do. As the article puts it:
"This isn't really a story about a record store at all. It's a story about community."
More than a record store
Clash describes our Torstraße space as "a beautifully realised record store" set within "a striking minimalist space in Berlin-Mitte", one that brings together carefully curated vinyl, quality merchandise, and creative programming under one roof. Equal parts retail space, cultural hub and creative studio, it is also the headquarters for our filmed mix series and the rest of our output.
The piece makes a point that sits close to our hearts: in a world where so much of music culture now lives online, physical spaces have become precious again. As Glenn tells Clash, "Physical spaces matter more than ever now because so much of culture exists online. Twenty years ago this wouldn't have felt radical, but today it does."
A church where all nice people are welcome
The profile digs into what actually holds SEVEN together, and it is not genre.
Chester notes that 55 percent of SEVEN's artists identify as FLINTA, 56 percent identify as LGBTQIA+, and a third are BIPOC, and that the label runs on a 70/30 revenue split with support that goes well beyond releasing records. But she also captures the thing we care about most, which is that the numbers were never the point.
"We wanted to create something that felt queer and FLINTA-leaning, but not exclusively so," Glenn explains in the piece. "We have huge respect for queer-only spaces and labels, but we deliberately wanted SEVEN to feel like a church where all nice people are welcome."
There is a lovely retelling, too, of where "Smile When You Dance" came from: a lone dancer grinning in a sea of serious faces at Berlin club ÆDEN. "It became a reminder that music is supposed to feel joyful," says Glenn.
The music that moves us
Clash traces the label back to its almost accidental beginnings, when it started as a practical way for Lucas to release his own music as CRYME without forcing it into a genre box. The label's first release was CRYME's Hold On EP
- A1Hold On (Cinthie remix)Cinthie8A · A min131 BPM5:350:005:35
- A2Hold On (Obscure Shape remix)Obscure Shape4A · F min137 BPM4:410:004:41
- B1Hold On (Lydia Eisenblätter remix)Lydia Eisenblätter4A · F min131 BPM5:570:005:57
- B2Hold On (Volpe remix)Volpe1A · A♭ min135 BPM5:140:005:14
"When you first start producing music, you don't really know where you fit," Lucas recalls. "Is it house? Techno? Progressive? Having our own label meant I could release music without trying to fit into somebody else's mould."
From there it grew. Since 2024 the catalogue has spanned house, progressive, trance and dubby club music across ten EPs and two compilations, with releases from names like Deetron and Cinthie sitting alongside artists putting out their very first record, and a roster that includes Roza Terenzi, JakoJako, Andre Zimmer, MCR-T, Sparkly Pony and Posture. As Lucas puts it: "What connects everything isn't genre. It's whether the music moves us."
Every record has a story
The article also shines a light on Jonny (MOJO) , our vinyl curator, who relocated from Cologne to join the project full-time. Rather than placing one big order with a major distributor, he has built a network of boutique suppliers across Europe, sourcing records from independent distributors in Lisbon, Barcelona, Paris, Belgium and beyond.
"We didn't just open a catalogue and place a big order," Jonny tells Clash. "Everything grew organically through relationships we'd built over years of digging and being part of the culture." Many of the records on our shelves come from artists pressing vinyl for the very first time. "It's amazing being able to tell someone, 'We'd love to stock your first release.'"
Looking forward, not back
Perhaps our favourite moment in the whole piece comes near the end. Asked which era of music history they would most like to work in, neither of us reaches for a romanticised past. Lucas answers simply: "The future."
That optimism is really what the whole article is about. In an age of endless consumption, we want to build spaces that encourage people to slow down. To browse. To talk. To discover something unexpected. To support artists directly. To meet strangers who might become friends. And, most importantly, to smile when they dance.
Thank you to Lauren Chester and everyone at Clash Magazine for spending time with us and telling our story so warmly.
📖 Read the full feature: SEVEN Are Building A New Blueprint For Dance Music Community