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"We have been introducing diversity to the club society of Berlin since 1997", explains Ellen Allien, DJ, fashion designer and Bpitch label owner.

In that last decade Berlin has risen to become the contemporary crown jewel of dance music culture with Bpitch forcibly shaping the ascent of its home city's repute. That said, 2008 was an immense year for the German imprint.

Pioneers of the minimal and techno sounds that have dominated dance floors in recent years, label stalwarts Paul Kalkbrenner and Sascha Funke had been preaching that sound since before the turn of the century. Then 2008 saw Kalkbrenner star brilliantly in feature film Berlin Calling and the man like Sascha Funke release a much lauded artist album Mango.

Chief Ellen Allien also showcased the aforementioned "Bpitch diversity" this year through her artist album Sool, a maze of ethereal and abstract electronic musical treats akin to her 2006 album, with Apparat, Orchestra of Bubbles.

The profundity of Bpitch's this year marks a full about turn from the commercial success of the label's biggest crossover hit, Tomas Anderson's 'Washing Up' in 2005. With that in mind Ellen makes clear that "musically bpitch control is not only defined by techno", instead it "romps about in the vast plane of electronic music - not just stuck on one style." So whilst visions of DJs romping around in the magical land of electronica fill your head, we'll leave you with a flavour of a label inextricably linked to everything that is exceptional about Berlin influenced electronic music.