mattes schwarz started djing in 1982 at age twelve, inspired by, as many west-german kids, the gi-djs of the roller skating rinks around us army bases. while he got heavily involved in cologne’s bmx scene of the 90s, he never really stopped, and during the main years of being known as stecken-mattes and playing there each friday night, he coincidently lived in magazine record’s homebase, north- eastern cologne’s old harbour. one day after stecken’s closure had sent restructuring ripples through the city - i imagine him getting up in the morning and taking a deep breath - he decided to send magazine a few tracks. “i don’t know” is mattes schwarz’ first release.