For our podcast Guestlist, Stubru presenter Rik De Bruycker goes behind the scenes at AB. This month he looks at why the BPM level in dance music is increasing. 

The presence and popularity of hard and fast techno has exploded in recent years. At small and not so small techno events the BPMs (beats per minute) easily top 140. Previously dismissed subgenres such as gabber, hardcore and trance are now seen as credible by hip collectives such as Burenhinder or big names like The Subs. 

Why is that? We put the question to:

• Yves Deruyter, driving force at the influential Bonzaï label and creator of classics such as "The Rebel" and "The House Of House"
• WLTR, hardcore DJ and founder of the women’s DJ collective Burenhinder
• Fuse resident Sara Dziri, who with Not Your Techno promotes diversity in electronic music - and composer of our podcast jingle

We also ask Sasha Van der Speeten (Bruzz / De Morgen), Thibault Christiaensen (StuBru / Equal Idiots) and Jana Tricot (Arenberg / OLT) whether they see ticket prices rising sharply in the post-COVID era. 

The musical tip comes from Btissam Bechrouri, crowd security & hospitality manager at AB.