Charlie Sparks and AZYR fuse their talents on a high-voltage techno collab, serving as the inaugural single for Insomniac’s newly formed MUTATE Records.
Insomniac ignites a new chapter in underground club culture with the launch of MUTATE Records, a label born from the momentum of its high-impact live series and designed as a pressure point for the harder, faster mutations of modern electronic music. Built on the raw energy of warehouse floors and sweat-soaked clubs, MUTATE positions itself at the intersection of hard techno, hardgroove, hard house, hard trance, acid, psy, and fast-rave hybrids—genres reshaping the global dancefloor in real-time.
Listen here : https://mutaterecs.ffm.to/power
For its inaugural release, MUTATE makes an uncompromising first statement with “Power,” a collaborative single from Charlie Sparks (UK) and AZYR, two of the most forceful voices driving today’s hard techno resurgence. Rooted in the brutalist lineage of schranz, “Power” channels industrial rave energy at near-nuclear intensity. Thunderous kicks collide with relentless, high-velocity percussion as distorted synth sirens, corrosive arpeggios, and searing acid lines surge through the mix—forming a volatile system engineered to overwhelm the body as much as the mind.
The collaboration feels inevitable. Charlie Sparks approaches production with the precision of an architect—an influence shaped during his formal studies—constructing tracks with deliberate tension, scale, and emotional control across psy-techno, acid, and industrial frameworks. His rapidly expanding profile includes a recent Mixmag Spain cover and features across DJ Mag, Four Four, SICKY, 1883 Magazine, and more, alongside an international run of high-intensity performances at Gate Milano, UNREAL, EMERGE, OVO Hydro, Thuishaven, and beyond.
AZYR’s trajectory is equally ferocious. A former aeronautical engineer turned full-throttle techno operator, he has become synonymous with uncompromising psy and acid hybrids—earning DJ Mag’s ‘Breakthrough Artist of 2024’ distinction, as well as sustained support from figures like 999999999, Nico Moreno, Amelie Lens, Paula Temple, DYEN, and Shlømo. His viral Boiler Room moments and relentless touring schedule, from Igloofest to Brooklyn Storehouse and Teletech XXL, have cemented his reputation as one of hard techno’s most explosive exports.
“Power” captures both artists at maximum output, uniting two UK powerhouses around a single objective: pure kinetic force. The track operates less as a song and more as a functional weapon, engineered for peak-hour deployment where BPMs spike, lights blur, and the crowd moves as one.
Beyond the release, MUTATE’s vision extends far past the studio. The label’s expanding party series—featuring artists like Holy Priest, Alignment, Fatima Hajji, Restricted, Clara Cuvé, DYEN, and CARV—signals a growing ecosystem committed to pushing sound system culture harder and faster across cities from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with more mutations imminent.
As MUTATE Records plants its flag with “Power,” the message is clear: this is the ignition of a high-energy nucleus built for those who crave distortion, velocity, and the uncompromising edge of the modern rave.
Charlie Sparks (UK) and AZYR’s new single “Power” is available on all platforms via MUTATE.
More About Charlie Sparks
Charlie Sparks is the ENERGY SELECTA. Known for emitting an intense gripping aura by seemingly blending Acid, Industrial, Rave, and Psytrance-like grooves. By carefully utilising every aspect of each Charlie is able to create the relentless momentum found in both his productions and performances. His unique hazardous identity has quickly spread across the world. It all started during his architecture studies where he delved into the dark, hard-hitting style of techno and quickly came to realise the huge connection between both creative fields. Just like architecture, every aspect of his music is specifically designed to generate certain emotions and control the atmosphere to captivate the listener. As a result, Charlie has been able to design his energy-filled, rhythmic pounding trademark sound which electrifies dancefloors across the world.
More About AZYR
Oliver Rowley, better known as AZYR is perhaps like no other DJ, his rise to the top comes with a unique and humble story of someone who put everything they had into learning a new skill, which turned into a whole new career, changing his life in every way, and being honourably crowned DJ Mag’s ‘Breakthrough Artist’ of 2024. AZYR pronounced ‘Azire’ was coined from his childhood Xbox gamertag, that was also his nickname, and still is today by all of his friends. Born in Fleetwood in Blackpool, a city that was also called home for most of his life, he admits that he had no idea what he wanted to do as a career, during his school years he didn’t feel passionate about any subjects, yet exceled at Engineering, with top grades in his class. This prompted him to take a degree apprenticeship in Aeronautical Engineering and was fortunate enough to land a placement at Rolls-Royce in Sheffield. College years also bought nightlife, and he started to get into dance music when he was 17, from club nights in the UK but also a lot of house parties, where many of his mates used to DJ and was the first place he really took an interest their skills behind the decks. Admitting how bad he was when he attempted it for the first time, it became a hobby he wanted to master. After relocating to Sheffield for Rolls Royce, towards the end of the apprenticeship in 2020, Covid hit the world. Forced to stay home, his engineering future was doomed by the ban on international travel, and after months of uncertainty, he decided to stay busy by learning how to mix, only really for his mate’s house parties, at the time. He used his furlough salary to buy his first piece of equipment, a Pioneer DDJ controller and practised relentlessly, whilst watching every YouTube tutorial online. A year later and still unable to work, his Dad helped him buy his first set of CDJ’s, this was the turning point for his future. He DJ’d all day long, starting out with house at first, and searching for music online daily, he listened to other mixes, inspired by PartiBoi69’s live streams during lockdown, he and his mates started their own streams broadcast on YouTube. Only 6 months after DJ’ing, he knew he needed to make his own music and started his self-taught journey, learning the basics of production. After a mix in 2021 for Interzeek UK Series helped get him some local notoriety, and as the end of lockdown was in sight, he held his first ever event in Blackpool called ‘Visionary’. Playing b2b with a local female DJ, it was a free party for only 400 people and was completely sold out. This was the first time he ever played in front of a crowd, “It was the best night ever” – he adds. Less than a year later, another 2 of his own shows under his belt, he booked Bad Boombox, and got onto Teletech’s radar, after Kander, one of their residents was the first DJ to really support AZYR’s own productions. This ended with him becoming one of the first acts to join Teletech’s agency as a core member of their roster. His first play for Teletech was not planned, he got asked to step in for Brutalismus3000 at the first edition of their Hardcore event, followed by another last-minute replacement at XXL Warehouse and finally the Boiler Room stage at Teletech’s Festival. These three plays, were pivotal breakthrough moment in his career, landing him an official booking for Boiler Room at Teletech a year later, live streamed to the world, it was a stream that went viral with nearly 3 million views, and the world knew about AZYR. His first ever release was on MOTZ Berlin in 2021, followed by his track ‘The Bassline Gives Her Ecstasy’ on Nine Times Nine’s Hidden Gems VA Vol.1 in 2023. Releases then followed on Teletech and Reckless, before he started his own label Speed Limit earlier this year, which he launched with a VA. Speed Limit is inspired by some of the VA releases he loves with undiscovered artists, being dropped with no promo in an old school way. He wanted to get to a point where he was able to support other artists and repay those who gave him the chance when he started out. Musically the label is fast, bouncy and full throttle but with no rules. “I just want everyone to make what they want, and if I like, it we can release it, but it’s all under the hard techno spectrum”. On a 2022 live stream from Awakenings, 999999999 played 3 of his own tracks, but it was when Nico Moreno heavily supported his remix of Christian Cambas’s track ‘The Outsiders’ on AutekTone Records on a Verknipt live stream, it went viral once again. Verknipt soon after booked him for their ADE show and made AZYR’s international debut in Amsterdam. He has since also sold out a series of All Night Long shows across the UK and Europe including Glasgow, Manchester, Rotterdam, Cologne and Zaandam, before playing for the coveted Awakenings Up Close Festival earlier this year. What’s to come? Show highlights for 2025 include Glastonbury, Creamfields, Awakenings Festival, Electric Picnic, Time Warp, Pyramid Ibiza, Monegros, KappaFutur Festival, Terminal V, LoveFest Serbia. Rotterdam Rave, plus a US tour in October, and his first tour in Asia before the end of the year. With support from 999999999, Nico Moreno, Sarah Landry, Amelie Lens, Paula Temple, DYEN, Shlomo, Parfait and legends like An-D, AZYR’s journey into the underground music scene has been nothing but impressive, and most importantly honest.
More About MUTATE Records
Mutate emerged at the tail end of 2025 as a response to the accelerating extremes of modern rave culture. More than a live event series, it’s a byproduct of generations of seismic shifts from within the INSOMNIAC ecosystem, operating as a platform for high-intensity electronic music that thrives under pressure. It’s not defined by BPMs or rigid genre conventions. Instead, Mutate rapidly adapts to new strains of hard techno, schranz, hardgroove, hard house, hard bounce, and adjacent hybrids spawning from the shadows of warehouses and strobe-lit club floors. Mutate Records extends this philosophy into release form, serving as a breeding ground for producers reshaping the molecular structure of fast-tempo hard dance. With forward-thinking artists like Charlie Sparks and AZYR bubbling inside its nucleus, the newly launched imprint exists to accelerate progression, challenge convention, and keep the underground in a constant state of flux. Mutate is an agent of change, and it’s spreading past the point of containment.