UMEK Destroys Original Master Tapes To Create Limited 25th Anniversary Edition Of ‘Gatex’
Few tracks in UMEK’s three-decade catalogue carry the legacy of ‘Gatex’. Originally released 25 years ago, the record became one of the most unlikely crossover success stories in electronic music history. A techno track with no drums, it found support from both the techno underground and the global trance scene, earning admiration from artists including Sven Väth, Chris Liebing and Tiësto.
Now, to celebrate its anniversary, UMEK is revisiting the track with a collector’s edition that contains actual fragments of the original master tapes used to create it.
The story begins in a Slovenian studio in 2001. While working on the record, UMEK discovered that the arrangement had become so densely packed with synthesizers that adding drums simply wasn’t possible.
“The entire frequency spectrum was already full,” he explains. “The bells came from a Yamaha TX81Z, the bass from an Oberheim, and every part of the spectrum was occupied. Whatever drums I tried to add sounded weak.”
Rather than forcing the issue, he left the track exactly as it was.
“And that’s how Gatex was born. A track with no drums.”
What followed surprised even its creator. The record became one of the defining releases of his career, crossing genre boundaries at a time when techno and trance audiences rarely overlapped. More than two decades later, it remains one of the most recognisable productions in his catalogue.
For the anniversary edition, UMEK first embarked on a search for the original DAT masters. The process proved more complicated than expected.
“The tapes are old, and the machines that play them are even older. I visited several studios across Slovenia and couldn’t find a single device that could read them.”
Eventually, he managed to recover the recordings using a DAT machine belonging to the legendary Slovenian industrial group Laibach. Once the masters had been successfully digitised and remastered for 2026, he made a decision few artists would consider.
“I decided to destroy the DATs.”
The original tape carrying ‘Gatex’ was cut apart, followed by additional tapes from The X EP. In total, UMEK sacrificed ten master tapes to create enough material for the project. The tape was manually cut into tiny fragments and embedded into the records themselves, meaning every copy contains a physical piece of the original masters.
“I wanted everyone who buys one to hold a small, real piece of master tape in their hands.”
Limited to just 200 copies worldwide, the pressing will be available in four variants: 75 Green UV Glow, 75 Purple, 30 Clear and 20 Pink UV Glow editions.
More than an anniversary reissue, the release transforms the physical remnants of the original recording into part of the object itself. The record does not simply commemorate Gatex. It is built from it.
“The track was born from a decision not to add drums. Twenty-five years later, its story was sealed by a decision to destroy its master. Both were things nobody expected, least of all me.”
The Gatex 25th Anniversary Edition will be available via UMEK’s Bandcamp on July 1 at 12:00 CET.
