This March, Balance celebrates five years. The party has always embraced true-school techno first and foremost, often positioning some of the most revered innovators in the underground alongside the next generation. With that in mind, this edition may be the most on-mission Balance to date. The Advent headlines. The long-running alias of the UK’s Cisco Ferreira, The Advent was a key force in the mid ‘90s, just as techno as realizing its full power and rapidly evolving into its most recognizable, radical form. Along with his Detroit and Berlin counterparts, The Advent began upping the tempos and doubling down on the mighty power of the 909, crafting thundering sci-fi odysseys and lean tools or fierce potency. Early tracks like “Farencounters” and “Mad Dog” are absolutely essential listening for devotees, while late ‘90s work on his own Kombination Research label show an artist in a state of tireless, near constant evolution. Since those foundational years, The Advent has remained an unwavering titan of techno, with his most recent output showing him staying as true as ever to the radical power of the genre he helped to innovate. Philippa Pacho returns. The Swedish DJ’s fast, lean & hypnotic style draws a marked inspiration from the ‘90s playbook the Advent helped write, but brings her own careening flavor to the mix. Across her own performance and label curation for her postivesource label, Pacho gets straight to the heart of the matter. She once described her music as “warm, groovy, repetitive with an old school feeling but meeting the new school,” although that simple statement doesn’t quite capture the volcanic power she’s able to summon. Her multi-deck layering and an unbridled rave energy set the bar high. Cotton brings it home with some ruthless NY rave power. Whether riding higher BPMs or keeping the tempo at a steady roil, Cotton always pushes the mix to the limits. PARAMIDA makes her long-awaited debut at STUDIO. The Panorama Bar resident and Love On The Rocks label boss isn’t afraid of the trippy, the cheeky and the garish. In her sets and on her Rinse FM show, PARAMIDA shares the fruits of her lifetime of digging, skipping the expected for one perfectly-timed curveball after another. Jorkes returns to the room for a second round. The Stuttgart-based artist is advancing a fresh vision of queer clubbing and forward-thinking house music. Productions like “Wisdom of Whips” draw on the grand tradition of surging, horny and dramatic dancefloor anthems, but adds jarring, adrenaline-spiking accents that snap you into the moment. Jorkes isn’t operating alone; they’re one of the organizers behind the Freeride Millenium label, a collective of producers dedicated to further queering the already delectable template of disco house. Justin Cudmore wraps the lineup. Always a favorite, he matches the mood with a dash of sleaze.