San Francisco’s Best Parties This Weekend
Yeah, we know that Outside Lands hangover just went away. There’s only one way to get back into the groove—hit the dance floor.
For complete listings, visit SF Station’s Events Calendar.
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Friday, August 15: Rare Form 4.0 with BMG at TBA Oakland
What makes a good party? It’s this question that plagues promoters’ minds. One of such, Detroit’s Brendan M. Gillen, known as BMG, and formerly Ectomorph, sought to create an underground party whose roots lay in record stores, raw spaces and the people who wanted to get lost in them. In 2007, more than 10 years after its inception, BMG’s Interdimensional Transmissions imprint turned its focus to No Way Back, a sometimes +12 hour party that continues to showcase the Midwest’s entrenching, oil spill sticky techno. Psychedelic sputters and dark, acidic ripples grow like vines in BMG’s own sound selections and his parties extend a devotion to this “speaker fucking” energy in Detroit and NYC. In Oakland, though, we have to thank As You Like It, whose warehouse offshoot, Rare Form, seems to seek out a similar cause.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeHsmXWSNs&w=660&h=90]
Friday, August 15: Radio Slave & Maayan Nidam at Public Works
Longer, concentrated and deeply repetitive—that’s the way of Radio Slave, a.k.a. Matt Edwards, a prolific music maker and Berliner by way of the UK. A decade since his first remix releases under this alias, which, interestingly enough, were techno spin offs of Sean Paul, Missy Elliott, and Black Eyed Peas, Edwards continues to raise hairs with brewing, +10-minute epics. Patience is key here, as are meticulous repetition and clean, hard pounds. At his best, like “Don’t Stop No Sleep” (2014) and “Bell Clap Dance” (2007), Edwards’ relentless loops are both entrenching and manic, which is certainly not the worst way to feel at the club.
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Saturday, August 16: ICEE HOT with Anthony Naples & Maxmillion Dunbar at 1192 Folsom
Icee Hot is back. After a summer hiatus, the party yet again pulls in an artist on the upswing—New York house producer, Anthony Naples. All the hype points go to this one. Naples is on the bill for The Warehouse Project’s “Curated by Four Tet & Caribou” party, and also finds homes on edgy imprints, The Trilogy Tapes and Mister Saturday Night. Since his 2012 debut on the latter (‘Mad Disrespect’), the young producer has easily assuaged our desire for something untasted. Time and again, Naples juxtaposes graceful with a rough side. Like the phases of the moon, his dusty atmospheres are dreamy and aglow, coaxing and piano jazzy, yet also move into shadow, where burrowed kicks and rawness can take hold, before drifting into light once again.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BStO2u4W0mo&w=660&h=90]
Saturday, August 16: blasthaus & Sunset Promotions present Mr. Scruff (6 hour set) at Public Works
As much as he’s a producer and DJ, Andy Carthy, a.k.a. Mr. Scruff, is a cartoonist. In the literal sense, his jellybean line drawings make up music videos and sleeve art, but his taste and prolific output on Ninja Tune over the last 17 years are also wrought with wiggle and color. With a reputation for all night DJ sets, Carthy is notorious for playing double Dutch between “blues, jazz, soul, funk, 60s R&B, disco, boogie, deep house, reggae, electro, hip-hop, African,” and, safe to say, rare groove. In turn, such a sound palette inspires waggish productions, like the big, chewy bass on “Wobble Control” and full-out electro swing for “Get A Move On.” Both are ultra funky, which is the least surprising part from an artist saturated with such music knowledge, humor and movement.
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Saturday, August 16: The Looney Luau feat. Detroit Swindle and Leon Vynehall at Monarch
Dutch house duo Detroit Swindle (the name’s a hoax) nail down easy party music. It’s instantly and always bumping, dolled up by a slick jazziness and hussy house vocal tracks that make you purse your lips (e.g. “That Freak Stuff”). They’re worthwhile to keep the dance floor going, though you should really show up to this party for earlier act, Leon Vynehall. Responsible for one of this year’s most alluring albums, Music For the Uninvited via Martyn’s 3024, the UK house producer’s dusty tracks feel emotive and exquisite, balancing, as if by cursive, controlled, drowsy knocks with a beautiful weightlessness.
