Disco Ex Machina

Many of my friends who have come to the parties I’ve had over the last, oh, seven years, will probably recognize the trademark sound of DJ No, also known as my former roommate from Hotlando, New Jersey. Or was that Orlantic City? I forget. The man is a phenomenon of breakbeat inspiration. When all over the rest of the east coast “breakbeat” encompasses a fairly narrow scope of skool with a “nu” and overuse of the word “dirty”. it’s refreshing to hear someone rock the kind of breaks that would make James Brown pop and lock to a De La Soul track while grinning about the three hits of Florida’s finest MDMA that are making his eyes bug out. Right, those kind of breaks - like a street performer doing the robot for cash, there’s something just so human and warm about DJ No’s style.

I’ve gushed enough - I haven’t lived with him for years, but I’m always excited to get another DJ No mix CD in the mail (yes, some people still make CD’s).

Download DJ No - Oven Fresh (78MB MP3)

And since I convinced DJ No to do some driving, we’d love it if you would come out to Panama’s on Saturday, April 12 to hear him play alongside residents Symbio and myself as well as our guest DJ Mad Cat. Bring dancing shoes, baby powder, vick’s vap-o-rub, linoleum, cardboard, fat laces, ridiculous glasses, nitrous tanks, beanie caps, orange slices and a compass and follow the No, it’s always knows.

I don’t know, they just seem to keep on coming! I’ll be bringing out the abstract and experimental techno records for this one, stuff you’ve NEVER heard me play from Pan*Sonic, Heiroglyphic Being, Sublime Records, Black Dice, Richard H. Kirk (Cab Voltaire), and more. Come make and break art to your mind’s content…

Thursday, March 6th

Mind Map RECEPTION +
Ceremonial Destruction!

The Chico Mind Map was an overwhelming success.

We invite you to come down and delve into the depths of human awareness…the text and artworks created by the whole spectrum of ages and cultures is a fascinating commentary on our culture.

PLUS
There will be a Ceremonial Destruction!!! All are invited to tear down the Mind Map, AND you can take pieces of the map home with you. Put it on your walls, incorporate it into your own art, keep it in your pocket to cheer you up…taking a piece of this project home can only make life better.

PLUS

Mind altering music by…

Holger Honda - Logan 5 - Anamnesis

PLUS

ADD TO THE MIND MAP DURING THE RECEPTION!

To Review:

For FREE, you get to delve into the surprising consciousness of Chico, interact by adding your own thoughts, help destroy the map in a symbolic gesture of the interconnected human cycle, AND hear soul inspiring music….

OR you can watch things LIVE on the web cam: 48squared.com

Mind Map RECEPTION
@CRUX Artist Collective
Thursday, March 6th, 7pm - 11pm
1421 Park Ave
cruxarts.com

Konk - Your Life - let’s start this off with a juicy chunk of electro party funk!

I’ve noticed a distinct trend toward more thoughtful, regular caffeination since becoming a very busy guy, and a father. So it’s a happy coincidence a local electronic musician whose work I really enjoy also happened to be on a mission to bring Chico the best damned coffee shop ever, Empire Coffee - it’s in a freakin’ decomissioned train car, people. So if you haven’t tried it, that’s the place for the coffee and the tea that makes me seem sane and useful even after seldom getting more than 3 hours of contiguous sleep in over a year.

So what happens when an electronic music making art afficionado opens a coffee shop? Shows. Art shows once a month, specifically, to panel the interior of said train car with 20-some odd works by a single artist, and on the first Saturday of the month these are unveiled to much revelry. See my post from a few months ago about the last train car show that I caught… wicked good revelling.

I’m please to be this month’s revel-rouser (yeah, I’m coining that shit, baby). I’ll be brining my vintage side to the event - obscure electronic sounds, moogs gone woogly and funk gone frankly freakly. Not to mention my vintage 1970’s Klipsch La Scala speakers, which are ugly as sin but gorgeous like an angel’s 3-way horn-loaded ass trumpet. So dig this shit, people: they serve the best coffee and tea evah, but some of us are bringing some wine to drink too so don’t be shy, it’s just a party y’all. The art is by Micah Black, a local guy whose stuff has everyone in a tizzy. Come find out what flavor tizzy you get.

Saturday March 1 at 7pm. Be there (434 Orange Street, the train car parked permanently at the Chico train station) or be some shape which has no curves and only four sides. Y’all know what I’m talkin’ about.

There’s a monk doing an awesome mandala on our campus all through the next month. It’s a wonderful process to watch, very meditative and I’m not the one meditating.

Yeah, so all’s been quiet on the western front here, as the beginning of the spring school semester has me really busy keeping the gears of online instruction meshing properly. But back before the madness started up again, I had the pleasure of being part of the Future/Now New Year’s Eve lineup at Panama’s in Chico, which was a gig I’d also had two years ago (check the back archives for that set if you like electro breaks).

So to start off the night, and for that matter to start off 2008 with some really positive, forward-looking vibes, I set out a lil’ house manifesto. I might be too lazy at the moment for a setlist, but roughly you can expect some detroit house like Carl Craig vs. Basic Channel and juan atkins’ take on a classic, plus techier business like Chicken Lips, Steve Bug and Spirit Catcher, and some jackin acid funk courtesy of Music for Freaks, Audion, Abe Duque, et al. Plus, in memory of West End Records honcho Mel Cheren who didn’t live to see 08, I play my favorite WE record, the Chi-Lites “Heat You Up, Melt You Down” which still sounds fresh today.

Download all this in a 65-minute MP3 file hosted on the 530techno.org Audio page courtesy of Future/Now’s Symbio. Grazi!

Okay, so also an invitation: I’m playing records with Symbio (tag-team style, woot!) this Saturday night (Feb. 9th) at Panama’s around 10pm… and then comes the real treat, which is live hardware-sequenced techno from local phenom Holger Honda. No Ableton, just real synths and boops and beeps and booty moving bass - for fans of the best techno coming out of Europe these days, and anyone who likes to sweat. See ya there!