The Bunker 002 & 003 Record Release Party at Output / The Panther Room
The Bunker 002 & 003 Record Release Party at Output / The Panther Room 74 Wythe Avenue 21+, 10p-6a
$20 advance
Voices From The Lake are Donato Dozzy and Neel, a duo that has redefined techno in both the live arena and the album format. Their debut full-length album for Prologue was widely heralded as a masterpiece for the way it displayed an incredible ear for sound design while painting vivid, multi-layered landscapes of slowly unfolding rhythm and texture. When playing live in serene environments like Japan's Labyrinth Festival, the pair explore experimental underwater sounds, African drumming, and minimalism while keeping the dancefloor in motion.
In July of 2012, Voices From The Lake came from Rome to Brooklyn to present a special night of music at The Bunker in the back room of Public Assembly. This was one of the greatest nights of music in the history of The Bunker. Their tremendous six-hour set consisted of two separate live sets, and back-to-back DJ sets. None of the music from the either of the hour-long live sets had been released, so we immediately got on them about their plans for the tracks. We agreed on our favorite segments, and they produced live studio tracks based on those excerpts for The Bunker New York 003. A few Voices From The Lake tracks have come out since the album, but this is their first full release since 2012.
OCTOPUS (NON-NORTH AMERICAN BOOKINGS)Clay Wilson’s life story is, for the most part, a mystery. Little is known about the 24-year-old producer, who began turning heads with mesmerizing tracks from his home base in Brooklyn last year. The deeply psychedelic groove of Clay’s debut release for Brooklyn's Styles Upon Styles’ Bangers and Ash series immediately caught our attention.
Before Wilson started making techno, he studied improvisation at music school in upstate New York. Wilson played bass, studying with noted jazz musicians who had worked with Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and many artists who recorded for the ECM label. He counts Coleman, Coltrane, and Art Ensemble of Chicago among his major inspirations. You can sense the subtle traces of Wilson’s avant-garde jazz training in his techno. You can hear the shifting layers of intriguing textures in the music, his deep understanding of the low end, of arranging and composition, of form. “Understanding the foundation of form has allowed me to not worry so much about putting loops into a full ‘song’, which seems to be a common thing with electronic music,” he says. “I think the textures kind of come from trying to get away from standard musical ideas.”
While nerding out over our mutual love of fine craft beers and deep techno, we asked Wilson to create some music for our (then hypothetical) new label, and he obliged, in spades. Wilson was already a big fan of The Bunker, and a regular at our parties. He had already started making music before experiencing The Bunker, but the sound of the party inspired him massively, and helped him to refine his own aesthetic. He was deeply moved by Bunker sets by Voices From The Lake, Demdike Stare, Peter Van Hoesen, the Interdimensional Transmissions crew, Bee Mask, Atom™, Tobias, and many more. Wilson sent a lot of music our way over the next few months, and The Bunker New York 002 consists of our three favorites, culled from the pile with help from our resident DJ Eric Cloutier.
SOUNDCLOUD CLAY'S LOT RADIO ARCHIVE FACEBOOKBryan Kasenic (pka Spinoza) is known in the electronic music world for throwing many incredible parties, 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.
SOUNDCLOUD SETS AND INTERVIEWS RESIDENT ADVISOR RA ORAL HISTORY OF THE BUNKER FEATURE (2013) THUMP: THE BUNKER IS THE GODFATHER OF WEIRD TECHNO PARTIES FEATURE (2014) SELF-TITLED FEATURE, OCT 2014Alan Abrahams AKA Portable AKA Bodycode has been in motion his whole life—growing up in South Africa, coming of age in London, decamping to Lisbon and finally settling in Berlin—and his deeply syncopated brand of electronic dance music has evolved with every step of the journey.
His formative years were spent in an impoverished Cape Town township ironically tagged “Beverly Hills”, and to the backbeat of the first wave of Chicago house records he emerged out of the ruins of a post-apartheid South Africa. Inspired musically, yet frustrated geographically, he relocated to London in 1997.
In London, Abrahams began recording as Portable, the experimental, atmospheric project that acts a living link between the indigenous sounds of his youth, and those first records whose futuristic aesthetic broadened his horizons. He founded the Süd Electronic label with his partner Lerato and released a string of 12" releases. A succession of full-length albums followed - Cycling and Futuristic Experiments #005 on Background, Version on ~scape records, and the Powers of Ten for Süd Electronic in 2007. A rich and expansive record, Powers of Ten further explored his African heritage through a new lexicon of sonic influences, acquired from his time in Portugal.
Upon moving to Lisbon, Abrahams conceived of Bodycode, a more dancefloor-centric project that complements Portable’s headier textures with a more body-moving aesthetic. As Bodycode, Abrahams harnesses his desire to “unlock the psyche via the body,” layering tech-funk with wisps of melody, heady effects, and a liberal wash of otherworldly vocal samples. Somewhere between the beats for the body and melody for the soul, Abrahams believes, lies the Bodycode. The result was Bodycode’s first full-length, The Conservation of Electric Charge, a whirlwind of percussive, multi-layered techno released on Spectral Sound in 2006. After a three-year absence, Abrahams resurrected the moniker for second Spectral full-length, 2009’s Immune, an intricately textured album of vocal-laced house. “I just felt it a good time for a warm, nurturing aesthetic,” says Abrahams of Bodycode’s shift in tone, “We need that right now.”
SOUNDCLOUDMike 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.
MIKE SERVITO SOUNDCLOUD MIKE SERVITO LIVE AT NO WAY BACK DETROIT 2018 MIX MIKE SERVITO APPLE MUSIC PRIDE MIX, 2021 INSTAGRAM VIDEO OF MIKE SERVITO LIVE AT PARAGON: 4/20/2024While shopping for vinyl at a record store, Ryan Smith met Ron Like Hell, a veteran DJ of 19 years. Both excited to meet another like-minded gay individual into timeless musical sounds, past and present, they were inspired to work on a project together. They really came into their own when they launched the Wrecked monthly at National Underground, which was an immediate success. They've made it their mission to book solid underground talent to express the changing tides in the gay underground. Currently, Ron is working on music and remixes while Ryan is working on a label, Discaire Records, with 3 other gents while working as a booking agent. The duo is always cooking up some exciting new projects and surprises. For the past few months, these guys have become a regular part of our lineups at The Bunker, shining bright as both openers and in more prime time slots.
WRECKED SOUNDCLOUDTonight we celebrate not only the February release of Clay Wilson's EP on The Bunker NY, but also our March release from Voices From The Lake. Clay will present the world debut of his live set, and we're giving Voices From The Lake free reign as they close out the last 5 hours of the party. Long lost friend Portable of Sud Electronics and Perlon headlines the Panther Room with a live set, alongside Mike Servito and Wrecked.