Producer & DJ · Amsterdam, Netherlands
Steve Rachmad
Steve Rachmad linked Amsterdam and Detroit techno as Sterac in the 90s, and in 2026 he traded drum machines for a full orchestra on Dekmantel.
Steve Rachmad bought his first record at 11, started DJing at 15, and picked up his first Roland TR-808 in 1985. Four decades later, in 2026, he released his first album for Dekmantel by teaching himself orchestral arrangement, a genuine late-career pivot from an artist widely credited as one of the people who first connected Amsterdam's techno scene to Detroit's.
The Wire Between Two Cities
Born in Amsterdam on November 19, 1969, Rachmad was drawn early to Juan Atkins and Cybotron, describing Detroit techno as carrying "dark technical stuff with beautiful string chords." Derrick May was living in Amsterdam near Outland Records in the early 1990s, and Rachmad handed him cassette tapes, hoping for a Transmat release. It paid off in 1993, when Rachmad, under the alias A Scorpion's Dream, released "Aqua Dance / Graphics" on May's Transmat sublabel Fragile, a direct, catalogued link between the two scenes rather than just a shared influence.
Sterac and Secret Life of Machines
Two years later came the record that made his name. Secret Life of Machines, released in 1995 under the alias Sterac, was the first album on 100% Pure, the Amsterdam label founded by Dylan Hermelijn and Sandy Huner, built in a home studio around a TR-808, an R-8m, and a handful of Roland and Yamaha synths. It was reissued and remastered in 2012 with remixes from Ricardo Villalobos, Joris Voorn, and Marc Romboy. Sterac is only the best known of a genuinely long list of aliases Rachmad has recorded under, including Black Scorpion, Tons of Tones, Rachmad Project, Scorp, Ignacio, Dreg, Parallel 9, and Sterac Electronics. "It's usually just the sound that makes me choose an alias," he has said, describing the different names as a way to "express different sides of myself freely, without feeling boxed into one specific sound."
Amsterdam's Own Room
For years, Rachmad's regular home has been the "kis." (keep it simple) night at Studio 80 in Amsterdam, a room he has said evokes his 1990s residency at the club Mazzo. His catalogue runs across labels including M-Plant, Robert Hood's Detroit imprint, Tresor, Klockworks, Cocoon Recordings, and Delsin, spanning more than three decades without a real gap.
Light And Time
The pivot toward orchestral work actually began in 2020, during a separate project, The Beauty and The Sea, when Rachmad told Dekmantel's own editorial arm, "I felt I had to look into scoring for films, games or documentaries." That interest carried through the pandemic and into Light And Time, his first album for Dekmantel, released August 7, 2026: fifteen tracks and roughly 71 minutes, built after he taught himself orchestral arrangement using sample-library software, a deliberate step away from the hardware-techno identity that built his reputation. Press materials describe it as marking 45 years working in electronic music, a count that only really makes sense counting back to his earliest childhood exposure rather than his professional discography, but the record itself is a real, audible departure: club rhythm rebuilt as something closer to a film score.
FAQ
Who is Steve Rachmad?
Steve Rachmad is an Amsterdam-born DJ and producer, active since the mid-1980s, widely credited as one of the first artists to connect the Amsterdam and Detroit techno scenes. He is best known for his Sterac alias and released his first Dekmantel album, Light And Time, in 2026.
What is Sterac?
Sterac is Steve Rachmad's best-known production alias, under which he released Secret Life of Machines in 1995, the debut album on Amsterdam label 100% Pure, later reissued with remixes from Ricardo Villalobos and Joris Voorn.
How many aliases has Steve Rachmad recorded under?
At least a dozen, including Sterac, A Scorpion's Dream, Black Scorpion, Tons of Tones, Rachmad Project, Scorp, Ignacio, Dreg, Parallel 9, and Sterac Electronics, each associated with a different sound.
What is Light And Time?
Light And Time is Steve Rachmad's first album for Dekmantel, released August 7, 2026. He taught himself orchestral arrangement to make it, a shift away from the hardware-techno productions he is best known for.
What was Steve Rachmad's connection to Derrick May?
Rachmad gave Derrick May cassette tapes while May was living in Amsterdam in the early 1990s, which led to a 1993 release, "Aqua Dance / Graphics," under the alias A Scorpion's Dream, on May's Transmat sublabel Fragile.