The Bunker Limited: The Black Madonna, Mike Servito, Bryan Kasenic at Trans Pecos
915 Wyckoff Avenue
all ages, 10p-6a
presales over, $30 at door
The Black Madonna's first record, "Exodus" was an anthem to a concentrated pool of Chicago house aficionados, passed from person to person for nearly three years before anyone outside of the city ever heard it. Its champions now range from the esteemed Little White Earbuds blog to fellow Smart Bar resident, Derrick Carter, who debuted "Exodus" to the rest of the world on the mainstage at Movement 2012. The Black Madonna's catalog of current and upcoming releases/remixes now includes labels such as Classic, Freerange, Home Taping is Killing Music, Argot, Stripped & Chewed and File Under Disco (from the Disco Deviance family).
Since the debut release on Stripped & Chewed, The Black Madonna has been remixed by The Revenge and Nicholas, while releasing a bestselling and now virtually impossible to find split EP with Chicago’s disco master, DJ Rahaan that currently resells for up to ten times its original value. In 2013, Madonna shared remix duties with Matthew Herbert on the James Curd/No Dial Tone split for Classic Music Company and remixed Roberto Rodriguez for Freerange. Fervent supporters of her work include Ashley Beedle, Dimitri From Paris, Jacques Renault, Luke Solomon, Derrick Carter, 6th Borough Project, Jimpster, Move D, Chris Duckenfield, Junior Boys and many more. Crosstalk International describes her current project, the “Lady Of Sorrows EP” on Argot, as “her most fully realized work to date -- A great leap forward from the sample-clad disco house of her records for Home Taping Is Killing Music and Stripped & Chewed. Weaving live orchestration and irresistible synth lines through tough percussive frames, both tracks bare their souls to listeners with enough muscle to command dancers' attention.”
In December of 2012, along with Derrick Carter, Frankie Knuckles and NYC’s Bunker event, she was announced as one of the new 2013 residents at Chicago's legendary institution, Smart Bar . Her mixes for Little White Earbuds and Bicep’s Rinse FM show, contributed in spring of 2013, were received with acclaim. She is currently writing and producing her first full length album for Freerange. A sublime technician behind the decks, The Black Madonna is known for fluent and dynamic all-vinyl appearances, which span from disco to techno. She will be touring the United States pretty heavily over the past year and made her European debut in fall of 2013, where she played at Panoramabar amongst many other fine venues.
Mike Servito is from a very special yet temporary and partially lost fertile crescent of techno / house / party DJing. It was a time when raves were still a fresh idea, almost felt like a revolution, and DJs like Claude Young, D Wynn, Derrick Carter and Mike Huckaby were informing an upcoming generation. If you look directly to that inspired generation you will find the lost threads of Detroit Techno, House and beyond, you will find a group of DJs with insanely deep mixing skills, the ability to rock almost any kind of party with an improvisational approach that is so skilled it makes everything seem so well thought out that even they don't know where their set will go. But, it will take you there! In the future, this special generation of deep midwest mixers will be remembered and revered as the wizards they are, long after the trendy players have lost their luster.
Detroit never forgot about Mike Servito, his upfront dirty deep and bitchy taste has had an impact on Detroit nightlife for over a decade. From debuting in 1995 at Dat's Poorboy parties, to being a resident at blackbx and Ghostly's Untitled (along with Derek Plaslaiko, Tadd Mullinix, Matthew Dear, and Ryan Elliott), contributing to the bizarrely popular, wild and free Dorkwave, and progressing that concept into Sass (the hippest queer party in Detroit at the time), to blowing minds at Interdimensional Transmissions' No Way Back parties, Servito has made his impression. Moving to Brooklyn, Detroit's loss has been their gain, as he has found a proper home with a new residency at the Bunker, and worldwide representation from Beyond Booking.
Bryan Kasenic (pka Spinoza) is known in the electronic music world for throwing The Bunker, playing adventurous DJ sets, and starting Beyond, his own booking agency. The past few years have seen Bryan take his infamous Brooklyn-based party, The Bunker, to Panorama Bar in Berlin, Corsica Studios in London, Unsound Festival in Krakow, Communikey Festival in Boulder, Decibel Festival in Seattle, Smartbar in Chicago, GAFFTA in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and of course Detroit. In January 2014, The Bunker celebrated it's 11th Anniversary and launched a record label.
As The Bunker continues to grow significantly, many of you have expressed a desire to turn back the clock to the good ole days when the party was weekly at subTonic for 100 people or so. We miss those days as well, so in 2011 we launched a new series of events called The Bunker Limited. For The Bunker Limited, we bring a ridiculous sound system into a very small space, and limit attendance to 150. Last year we said goodbye to Public Assembly and the small loft space above it that housed The Bunker Limited. In 2014 we relaunched The Bunker Limited in a new art space we could not be more excited to be a part of, Trans Pecos. There will be no guestlist for The Bunker Limited, the only way we can pull this off in a space this small is if everyone pays. The sets at these events are not recorded, and absolutely no photography is allowed inside.
Tonight we celebrate a big birthday for our resident DJ Mike Servito, who's having a big year with a feature article in Resident Advisor and gigs nearly every weekend. When we asked Mike who he wanted to have play this special event, Chicago's The Black Madonna topped his list. When she's not making killer tracks or playing some of the best clubs in the world, she's doing her day job booking Smart Bar in Chicago. We've been wanting to get her behind The Bunker decks for some time.
