TOXIC MACHINERY | LATAM 2026 SPECIAL EDITION

Toxic Machinery have spent the past few years finding out exactly how far they can push a dancefloor. Industrial drops remain at the centre of their sound, but there is more going on around them: long breaks, euphoric passages, familiar records and sudden changes in direction. The Dutch duo want the room locked in before everything comes crashing back down. As their audience has grown, that instinct has taken them beyond the masks they started with and towards a project increasingly defined by the music itself.

Toxic Machinery are interested in the few seconds before everything kicks back in. A break has already pulled the room upwards, people are waiting, and for a moment the attention of the crowd is concentrated on one thing. The drop matters, obviously, but much of its weight comes from what happened immediately before it. That feeling has become central to the way the Dutch duo make records and construct their sets.

“What we’re going for with our music is that goosebumps moment, a moment where everyone’s attention is completely on us and the music, something full of feeling. Once we’ve got that wow moment going, we want to carry it all the way from the break into the drop.”

The releases can get heavy once they arrive there. Raw, industrial sounds give Toxic Machinery the physical impact they want, while the breaks leave enough space for something more emotional to creep in. They have learned to work between both sides rather than keeping the pressure at the same level for an entire track. The bigger the anticipation, the harder that return can feel when the kick finally lands.

“A hard drop hits people with that raw industrial sound, and that’s exactly what lets people fully lose themselves. Finding that sweet spot in between is what keeps us delivering that surprise factor and wow moment for the fans every time.”

Surprise has been part of Toxic Machinery since the beginning, although it initially had less to do with production. The duo started their career performing behind masks, giving audiences an immediate image to attach to the name at a point when very few people knew the music. In the Dutch scene at the time, the idea still stood out enough to get people wondering who was behind them. It gave the project some mystery and helped Toxic Machinery make an impression before they had the catalogue or following they have now.

“Playing behind masks was really about giving our act that extra boost, something that made people curious. It worked well in the early days too, since we were one of the first in the Dutch scene doing that.”

They did not keep the anonymity going for particularly long. As their records travelled further and crowds started recognising Toxic Machinery for the music, the masks became less necessary and eventually disappeared altogether. There was no dramatic reveal or attempt to turn the decision into another chapter of mythology. They had simply reached a point where showing their faces made more sense than hiding them.

“As we got bigger and people started recognizing us for our music, we decided to ditch the masks. That happened pretty early in our career too, so the impact wasn’t massive.”

Something did change once audiences could put faces to the records. The response became more personal, and the duo felt that people were giving them more recognition for what they were actually producing and playing. It also removed some distance between Toxic Machinery and the people coming to their shows.

“What we noticed though is that once people knew who we actually were, we got way more credit for the music we made and played. We suddenly felt a lot more real to people, and that’s something fans really appreciate.”

The studio stayed on the same course.

“Creatively nothing really changed, we stayed true to ourselves and kept chasing ways to make our sound better and more fun for the crowd.”

That chase has become harder as the scene around them has accelerated. Hard techno has grown quickly, and with that growth comes a constant circulation of similar sounds, production tricks and ideas. Toxic Machinery would rather be early than jump onto something once everybody else is already doing it. They speak about production with the competitiveness of artists who are very aware that standing still for too long can make a project disappear into the crowd.

“As musicians we’re not really about reacting to what’s already happening, we’d rather stay ahead of it. We always want to be pioneers when it comes to our productions within the scene, a duo that’s constantly making something new and different from everyone else.”

For them, having a recognisable sound does not mean making different versions of the same record. They want enough room inside Toxic Machinery to move, experiment and catch their audience off guard. That is also why their tracks can shift between euphoric passages and much rougher industrial sections without either feeling out of place. There needs to be some uncertainty about where the next record, break or drop is heading.

“That’s how we try to really set Toxic Machinery apart from the rest, so we can keep surprising the fans and take them along on our musical ride.”

The same thinking follows them into the booth. Toxic Machinery do not treat smaller shows as preparation for bigger ones, and they are conscious that somebody buying a ticket to see them deserves the same effort regardless of the capacity printed on the venue sheet. There is still something striking to them about walking into a room and knowing people have come specifically to hear what they play.

“Every gig is special to us, it’s an amazing feeling knowing people showed up specifically to hear your music. So we always give it our full 100%, no matter the size of the room.”

That attitude starts before either of them has touched a mixer.

They have developed a small routine in the minutes before a show. First comes a moment between the two of them, away from whatever chaos might be happening backstage, followed by a quick acknowledgment of the friends and crew who have travelled with them.

“Right before we go on, we always take a little moment just the two of us, a quick hug wishing each other fun and a great show. We also make sure to say hi to the people who came along with us to the show, just to thank them for being there and for the support.”

Once they walk into the booth, their attention switches immediately to the other side.

“The first thing we do is connect with the crowd, so they know we’re here, we see them, and that we feel their energy right back.”

The first few records can decide how much freedom they have later. Rather than immediately testing the crowd with something difficult, Toxic Machinery often look for a fast point of recognition, something that gets people onto the same page before they start pushing the set elsewhere. Sometimes that comes through an intro made specifically for the show, and elsewhere a classic makes more sense.

“In the first few minutes of a set we’re all about grabbing the crowd’s full attention, and that can happen in different ways. Sometimes we go for a special intro, sometimes we throw in a classic, it really depends on where we are.” There is no fixed opening sequence that follows them from club to club.

A recognisable track does tend to appear early. They know what happens when the first few notes of something familiar cut through a room: people react before the track has even properly arrived, and suddenly the distance between DJ and crowd gets much smaller. Toxic Machinery use that recognition as a way into the rest of the set rather than relying on it all night.

“One thing that pretty much always happens is playing a track everyone knows early on. It creates an instant connection with the crowd and lets us take them fully into our set from there.”

Once that connection is there, they can start asking more from the floor.

Their sets usually become harder as they develop, although they leave themselves enough freedom to change course. A crowd looking for euphoric records requires a different approach from one that wants to be hit relentlessly, and there are nights when a singalong does more damage than another industrial weapon. Toxic Machinery pay attention to those changes instead of arriving with every transition already decided.

“We’re basically always building our sets up. That way people can ease in while we keep throwing surprises at them. We try to really read the crowd and listen to what they want, sometimes that’s something euphoric, sometimes it’s just going hard, or sometimes it’s a straight up singalong track.”

‘Summersong’ showed them what can happen when the euphoric side lands properly. Once the track started appearing in their sets, they could watch the reaction move across the room during the break, with hands going up and people following the same progression together. It became one of those occasions where something built in the studio suddenly made complete sense at full volume.

“When Summersong dropped and started getting played out, we saw the crowd move with it completely, hands in the air, everyone riding the break together, one of those moments where the whole room becomes one thing. That’s exactly what you’re chasing when you make a track like that.”

‘Charcoal’ gets there differently. The emotional part of the record is allowed to draw people in before the drop changes its character, making the harder section feel less obvious when it finally appears. Toxic Machinery wanted that switch to catch people rather than simply confirm what they already knew was coming.

“Charcoal is a bit different, with that one we went for hitting people’s emotions and pulling them into the track that way, so the drop lands as this extra surprise, a real wow moment that leaves jaws on the floor.”

The two tracks sit comfortably under the same name while showing how many routes the duo can take towards that release of energy.

Watching both records work in front of crowds also gave them a sense that people were ready for changes in the formula. Audiences who spend every weekend around hard electronic music hear a lot of the same vocabulary, and novelty becomes increasingly difficult to fake. Toxic Machinery want to find the details that can still pull somebody out of that familiarity.

“Both times we could feel the crowd was hungry for something new and fresh, and that’s what we try to tap into, finding that thing that really hits the fans right.”

The job has also taken them into places they might otherwise never have visited. There are cities where they now return to familiar faces, and others where everything outside the booth is new. Toxic Machinery enjoy both, but the second becomes much more interesting when the schedule leaves enough space to actually see where they have landed.

“What makes our work so fun is that we get to keep coming back to familiar people and places, but also get to explore the world. What we really love is playing somewhere completely new and not having to rush off right after, actually getting to explore the region or country a bit. If we get the chance, we’d rather stick around longer than just fly in for the one event.”

The experimentation continues when they get back into the studio. Toxic Machinery spend much of that time trying things without knowing exactly where they will end up, following whatever feels exciting rather than forcing every session into an established formula. Hardtekk has become one of their current points of exploration, opening another route for a sound they are deliberately trying to stretch.

“In the studio we love discovering something new by constantly trying different things. Doing what we genuinely enjoy and really getting creative with it keeps us motivated, especially when something turns out really well, like the hardtekk stuff we’re making right now. Constantly pushing ourselves to make something creative is still one of the best parts of this, honestly it’s almost addictive.”

They want that freedom to become a bigger part of where Toxic Machinery goes next. Working across genres, bringing different sounds into the project and collaborating outside their immediate corner of electronic music are all part of what they see ahead. The ambition is to reach further without narrowing themselves into a single sound just as the project is giving them more room to experiment.

“We’re heading into a chapter now where we really want to grow into pioneers within this music industry. We want to actually work toward the future, teaming up across different genres instead of locking ourselves into just one. We want more sounds, more genres, and more people to reach with our music. Right now we’re really in this creative and experimental phase, trying to push ourselves and our sound as wide as possible.”

The masks may be gone, but the curiosity that surrounded Toxic Machinery in the beginning has moved somewhere else. It now sits inside the records, the breaks, the selections and a studio process pulling them towards sounds they have not fully explored before. Hardtekk is part of that picture right now, but there is no sense that they want to stop there, especially as collaborations and other genres begin to enter the conversation. The faces are known; where Toxic Machinery take the music from here is still deliberately open.