German DJ and producer Markus Suckut became one of the biggest names in European techno of the 2010s. A hugely versatile talent, his sound ranges from the tough, functional techno of his 2013 debut album, DNA, to the bouncy electro and broken beat stylings of 2018's Heaven Is a State of Mind.

Born in 1987 and brought up in the small, historic city of Velbert, not far from Düsseldorf in western Germany, Suckut grew up on his father's rock collection but became interested in electronic music at an early age. Starting out by taping DJ mixes off local radio, he progressed to crate-digging at underground music stores. He learned to DJ in his bedroom and eventually began to produce his own music at the age of 12. Suckut spent a decade honing his craft before sending out demos to labels he admired, all of which expressed interest. His first releases came in 2010 on Lineal and Lucy's burgeoning Stroboscopic Artefacts, followed by two the next year on Len Faki's well-respected Figure SPC imprint, one of them a collaboration with Jeroen Search. Suckut's tight, direct, hypnotic, and danceable productions, and their release on such high-profile labels, propelled him immediately into the top tier of European techno artists.

In 2012, Suckut launched his own vinyl-only label, SCKT, to release his own productions; the next year, he put out Figure's first-ever LP, DNA, culled largely from unreleased tracks in his archive. He continued to release on Figure and SCKT over the following years, as well as occasional one-off singles for the likes of Edit Select, Odd Even, and Pattern Research. After a collaboration with Johannes Heil for Cocoon, the two teamed up to launch another new label, Exile, which put out a string of EPs by the pair and, in 2016, Suckut's second album, Resist. Another label Suckut established a relationship with was Radio Slave's Rekids. Surprising his fans, he put out quite different music on that label -- more melodic and spacy, influenced by house, breakbeat, and old-school rave. Rekids released Suckut's third album, Heaven Is a State of Mind, in 2018, which was in this vein and was dedicated to his late mother.

Even after achieving success, Suckut chose not to move to techno's epicenter Berlin, preferring to continue living in his hometown, where he would not be influenced by any scene and could return to unwind in nature after hectic touring. In early 2020, Suckut released the Voices in My Head EP, a 12" single including a remix by Rebar. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi