Bagger 258 release ‘Der Technokrat’ single, their first on Scanner / Dark Dimensions
Bagger 258 released the EBM single “Der Technokrat” on August 28, 2026 through Scanner / Dark Dimensions, with a second version edited by The Saint Paul.
After two self-released albums, Bagger 258 have a label. “Der Technokrat”, a two-track digital single, came out on August 28, 2026 through Scanner, the Dark Dimensions imprint that also handles The Saint Paul, Resistor and Akalotz. The Augsburg EBM duo of Nico von der Eisenmühle and Tim Schmelzer pair the original (3:31) with “Der Technokrat (The Saint Paul Edit)” (3:45), reworked by label-mate The Saint Paul.
The single is available to stream and download on Bandcamp, where it sits in the Scanner catalogue alongside the label’s other 2026 releases, and on the usual streaming services. There is no physical edition.
What ‘Der Technokrat’ is about
The band describe the song as a story in two halves: an authority that demands obedience, then a workforce that stops obeying. In the label notes they write that the track “explores the conflict between totalitarian control and individual resistance within an industrialized system” and that “the initial oppression gives way to open revolt: the working class refuses to comply, dismantles the existing power structures, and confronts the corrupt leadership with a collective claim to self-determination.” The theme continues the factory-floor vocabulary that runs through the Bagger 258 catalogue, from the albums “Ode an die Arbeit” and “Aufwärts gehts bergab”, where track titles include “Arbeiterwut”, “Werkshalle 4” and “Schicht im Schacht”.
Musically the duo stay with the stripped-down, bassline-led EBM they have used since their debut. The label notes describe the track as built on “a relentless, machine-driven foundation of pounding beats, forceful basslines, and a dark, high-energy atmosphere”.
“Der Technokrat” is the first new Bagger 258 material since the second album “Aufwärts gehts bergab”, released on February 20, 2026, and the first Bagger 258 release to appear on Scanner. The duo had already remixed for the label: their version of “The Undertaker” by Gamma Vortex came out through Scanner in September 2025.
About Bagger 258
Bagger 258 formed in Augsburg, Germany as the EBM duo of Nico von der Eisenmühle and Tim Schmelzer, both also members of Projekt 26. They set out to revive the direct, bass-driven style associated with Anhalt EBM. In a Side-Line interview Schmelzer said they “were on a mission to resurrect something no one seemed to be messing with anymore – that punchy, in-your-face Anhalt EBM”. Von der Eisenmühle summed up the Bagger 258 method in the same conversation: “we’re after basslines that make you stomp, a brutal vibe, and tunes that stick with you.”
The self-released debut album “Ode an die Arbeit” came out on November 24, 2023, mixed by Daniel Hallhuber of Young & Cold Records in Augsburg and mastered by Stefan Poiss of Mind.In.A.Box, and reached first place in the Deutsche Alternative Charts. Side-Line reviewed it in February 2024 and interviewed the duo the following month.
Two digital singles followed in 2024: “Körperkommando” on June 21, with remixes by Kreign, Tension Control and Gamma Vortex, and “Alter Mann” on November 19. Both title tracks were carried over to the second album.
“Aufwärts gehts bergab” arrived on February 20, 2026 as a digital release and a CD digipak limited to 258 copies, mixed and mastered by Krischan Jan-Eric Wesenberg at Studio 600 in Gelsenkirchen, Its thirteen tracks run “Arbeiterwut”, “Alter Mann”, “Funktion, Kontrolle!”, “Werkshalle 4”, “Erzengel”, “Körperkommando”, “Exakt!”, “Body 258”, “…und der Rest ist Geschichte” and “Schicht im Schacht”, closed by remixes of “Werkshalle 4” by Nachtmahr, of “…und der Rest ist Geschichte” by NordarR and of “Body 258” by Menticide. The duo play Nocturnal Culture Night 19 in Deutzen on the weekend of September 4-6, 2026. Both albums and the 2024 singles remain available through the band’s own Bandcamp page, separate from the Scanner catalogue that hosts the new single. “Der Technokrat” moves the project from self-release to the Scanner / Dark Dimensions roster.
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