The Bunker presents Atom TM & Tobias, Pittsburgh Track Authority, Mark Verbos, Sycorax, Shawn O'Sullivan, Mike Servito, Darkcube, Aaron Clark, Bryan Kasenic, and Eric Cloutier at Public Assembly
$20
Tonight we are trying something a little different at The Bunker. Instead of the more extended DJ sets you are used to, we are going to focus on live electronic music. All six of the live acts performing tonight will be playing hardware-only sets that incorporate a lot of improvisation with their machines. You will hear moments of absolute brilliance. You will also hear some mistakes, but mistakes are beautiful and human.
Headliners Atom™ and Tobias Freund are both well known figures in electronic music. In fact, many would argue that they are living legends. Tobias began his career in the early '80s, mainly using the pseudonym "Pink Elln". He looks back on a long sequence of music making that has led him from mainstream pop to club music, and then onto the experimental and unclassifiable. Uwe Schmidt, better known as Atom™, has a similar musical background. He is most well known for his work under the Senor Coconut moniker, but has worked under dozens of other aliases, all with their own sound. Atom™ and Tobias met around 1986, while both were still living in Frankfurt. The pre-techno scene was blossoming when they met in a studio. In 1990, Tobias was the engineer who helped mix and record Atom™'s first release ever. As a natural consequence, Tobias and Atom™ started to work together. Strangely, they collaborated not so much in a studio environment, but mostly playing improvised electronic music concerts. In 1992 they recorded probably one of the very first live techno recordings ever, the 12-inch "Elektroniikkaa", which soon became an underground anthem. Even though their paths separated for a while in the '90s, with Atom™ moving to Santiago de Chile and Tobias relocating to Berlin, they reconnected their machines on a live stage again in 2003 at Mutek in Chile. Even though they had stopped working together for almost 10 years, the reactivation worked perfectly and they decided to share the stage more often. They have been playing many concerts worldwide since the successful re-launch in 2003, including appearances at Berghain, The Bunker, and Labyrinth. Their live sets are always completely improvised, both immersing into the unknown territory of the club, the audience and the sound.
We have three supporting live sets in the back room from some of Brooklyn's brightest. Mark Verbos will be playing one of his infamous slow burning acid house sets on nothing more than a collection of Roland machines, a Space Echo, and a mixer. He has brought down the house at The Bunker many times with these sets over the years, and tonight should be no different. Mark is currenly working on a record for Beyond's new record label. Shawn O'Sullivan has deeply impressed us this year with his releases on Speculator's W.T. and Ron Morelli's L.I.E.S. He also has some releases coming on Anthony Parasole's brand new label, The Corner, so watch out for those. Shawn makes all of his tracks in one take, and the results are pretty astounding. He's also a member of Sacred Bones and Wierd Records recording artists Led Er Est, who played a stellar set at The Bunker's Northside showcase in June. Also joining us will be Detroit Techno Militia's Darkcube. For his debut performance at The Bunker, he's playing a new live set of acid/industrial/electro music that he's been developing. The front room is headlined by Pittsburgh Track Authority. With just a few records out, they are already making major waves. This will be their very first live gig outside of their hometown of Pittsburgh. People are still talking about how incredible heir debut live set at VIA in Pittsburgh was last year. We can't wait to see what they do with a stage full of drums and analog gear at The Bunker. Sycorax seemingly came out of nowhere and really blew us away with their first record on their own Pneumatic imprint. We went to their debut live set at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn, which was equally amazing.
Of course we can't have a night of ALL live sets. The Bunker residents Bryan Kasenic, Eric Cloutier and Mike Servito will all be making appearances before, between and after the live sets. We are also joined by our good friend Aaron Clark from Pittsburgh. Aaron has really helped develop and amazing scene with his Humanaut events in Pittsburgh over the past few years, making it a regular stop on the circuit for the more interesting electronic musicians coming through the US. He is also involved in the VIA festival, and has just launched a gay party called Honcho that seems destined for great things.