San Francisco’s Best Parties This Weekend
Old school, modern, underground, Dutch, experimental, house bangers—the diversity of dance music at this weekend’s best parties highlights San Francisco’s eclectic nightlife culture. Hit the streets. The sack’s for Sunday.
For complete weekend listings, visit SF Station’s Events Calendar.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHOKkTPIcc&w=620&h=115]
May 8: RDMWERK w/ DJ Stingray & Vin Sol at 1192 Folsom
The road from playing “hardcore motorcycle clubs in Detroit” in the 90s, to the hardcore techno room at Berlin’s Berghain last September is not a smooth one, though neither isDJ Stingray’s frenetic, speeding style. The balaclava-clad figure accepted both name and enigmatic nature from Drexciya’s James Stinson before his passing, imparting the mythical techno duo’s “aquatic invasion” on Warp’s Magic Bus Tour in 2002, where he first gained attention. Stingray’s sprinting electro-techno, his work with Carl Craig and ‘Shake’ Shakir and a wriggle away from 4/4 to a fluid groove of hi-tech pitch bends and bleeps, piqued ears like a needle’s immediate zing. Alongside collaborator and SF producer Vin Sol, it’ll be an out of the ordinary night to immerse in.
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May 9: Joris Voorn (Extended Set) at Public Works
100 seems to be a good number for Rotterdam’s Joris Voorn. Scan his lengthy list of charted tracks since beginning to produce in 2002 and more than a handful encompass triple digits. His stunning 2009 Balance014 compilation weaves together 102 tracks in all, which, concurrently with Ibiza hits like “Sweep The Floor,” put him on the global stage. Since then, RA’s Top 100 DJ Poll has been a shoo-in for Voorn, who’s solidified “Super Star” status by ranking within the top 10. He’s risen to it with meticulous mixing, a distinctive tightness between anthemic energy and unrelenting groove. On this much anticipated, though brief North American tour, Voorn will whir together a zipping, tech house transience whether using two tracks, or six.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L622HrRdc4U&w=620&h=115]
May 10: Joey Anderson at TBA Oakland Underground
Upon a recent listen to Kassem Mosse’s surreally subtle Workshop 19, I tried to imagine how such pieces could be threaded onto a dance floor; Joey Anderson soon came to light. Since his first release in 2008, the Hoboken house DJ/producer, whose full-length debut, After Forever via Dekmantel, just dropped in April, has always been at favor with the critics for his ability to blur lines between psychedelic and challenging, groovy and introverted. His blindfolded explorations through loose, mystical spaces are sometimes raw and sporadically jazzy, strewn with slight percussion and piano as delicate as a fingerprint. Though he frequently rubs elbows with east coast innovators like DJ Qu, Anthony Parasole, and Levon Vincent, this take on ‘deepness’ is dreamed up by Anderson, and him alone. Location for the party can be found the day of the event on the Facebook event page.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113173707″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”115″ iframe=”true” /]
May 10: Kingdom, Nguzunguzu, Prince William at 1192 Folsom
As always, lots of culture is in revival stage—Detroit techno, 90s house, high-waisted Levi’s, once known as “mom jeans.” On the flip, some labels, like LA’s Fade to Mind, and UK sister collective Night Slugs (Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990), seem to have the pulse on what “today” is, defined in a tumblr frame of mind as: bold aesthetic, electronic, an amalgam of styles and relatively stimulating. It feels modern as we don’t know it. This Fade to Mind showcase brings label head Kingdom, a.k.a. Ezra Rubin, and LA based duo Nguzunguzu, both behind productions for rising vocalist, Kelela. Braiding together crisp, big bass music with grime, crunk, house, Latin, and R&B sampling, perhaps you can see why for a genre identifier, the latter has just settled on #NGUZUNGUZU.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L622HrRdc4U&w=620&h=115]
Saturday, May 10: APEX Tour feat. Tale Of Us, Joy Orbison, Thugfucker, BLOND:ISH, Blackbird Blackbird at Factory 525
APEX Tour, put on by SF based agency Liaison Artists, is out to prove that big bookings and big production (lasers, etc.) are not only for wild-eyed kids in tank tops. They’ve pulled together high-quality names (e.g. Maceo Plex, James Holden) for a short national tour, stopping in our city with none other than Tale of Us, Joy Orbison, and more. The former, Italian duo has more than a festival’s worth of mesmeric, house weapons for imprints along the lines of Crosstown Rebels and Richie Hawtin’s M_Nus. The latter’s reputation, though, rings slightly warmer, as one of the UK’s “most singular” artists for his swishing, exuberant sound. Since his infamous “Hyph Mango” debut in 2009, Joy O continues to be an offbeat and hammering producer, up to his current bass heavy collaborations with Boddika. All in all, this should be a guaranteed (epic) crowd pleaser.
