No Way Back at The Bunker at Trans Pecos
915 Wyckoff Avenue
all ages, 8p-8a
Advance tickets sold out, $40 at the door
Brendan M Gillen founded Interdimensional Transmissions in late 1994 when he heard far too many ancient voices in his head. Positive that dimensions were colliding and that he could literally feel the deepest will of some mystic past, he decided not to ignore these voices but to contemplate their input, and thus Interdimensional Transmissions came to fruition and the idea-based project Ectomorph found a true home. Since then the vision has continually grown organically and mutated into something that is hard to describe yet easy to feel. His sets effortlessly combine a multitude of seemingly disparate genres into a coalescing solid sound system sensation - pure transcendent psychedelic wizardry. A polymath or sonic alchemist or something. He has recently produced Erika's solo debut, provided a remix for "Hexagon Cloud RMXD" and collaborated with her on the song "Gardeners".
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.
Carlos Souffront is a music gourmet, a true DJ's DJ. His taste is rich and vast and he has the unique ability to create deeply rhythmic narratives that offer unexpected and exotic spices. He mastered his deep mixing skills with a cassette deck and a belt drive turntable in his father's den in Troy, home of contemporaries such as Mike Servito, Tadd Mullinex and Matt Dear. Equally entrenched in indie rock, post punk, experimental music, ambient, rock, house, and techno, Carlos was always a man of many worlds - with an ability to traverse though them with an unique imagination. There is a mood to his search within sound, something that is heavy, deep yet gritty. Like many Caribbean transplants that ends up in northern colder climates, he wonders where our rhythmic complexity is. For him it is effortless and endlessly surprising to the listener.
Carlos is an important component of the Interdimensional Transmissions parties, bringing a loose yet tight moody deepness and an ever unexpected edge. At the original No Way Back party, he demanded truth in advertising, pushing us to and then past the 12 hour mark. He has participated in the studio with Ectomorph, and also performed alongside some of their live performances.
It is all too rare to find someone within the electronic music spectrum that can be called an original, that you can only really explain to someone who experienced them on the dance floor, usually just by saying "that's so" and saying their name. Carlos is one of those rarities.
Erika dreams on the cellular level, or perhaps of transdimensional intelligences moving through strange patterns on celestial objects, working towards a mysterious goal. Her connection to the dreamworld becomes concrete in her approach to music, simultaneously so solid and yet so ethereal. Erika still finds time to accomplish many things in her waking hours, such as being a member of Ectomorph, co-conspirator of Detroit's Interdimensional Transmissions record label, DJing with vinyl, making music with her pet machines, and running erika.net - a freeform streaming radio station. Erika.net celebrates its 14th year this year, being one of the very first iTunes presets. From 1993 through 1999, Erika was very involved in WCBN in Ann Arbor, as a freeform and jazz DJ, and Program Director.
The daughter of a famed scientist and already running a well known BBS from her bedroom by the time she was 13, Erika is no stranger to expressing her ideas through technology. In 1997 she was handed a TR-606 and asked to join Ectomorph, and has since become an electronic musician of the highest order, focusing on analog synthesis, with live hardware sequencing that allows transformation over time and a deep depth of tone.
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.
Patrick Russell is a true veteran of the underground, perhaps one of the last unsung heroes of a now lost era in the Midwest. He magically transforms the diaspora of pure jack energy into a fluent sonic dialog that never fails to devastate the dance floor. A Detroit-bred DJ, artist and producer since the early 90's, Patrick has now made Brooklyn his home. His resume highlights include everything from an exclusive opening for Jeff Mills in Detroit in 2007, performing at the 2001 & 2008 DEMF/Movement festivals, to decorating and performing at the inaugural and now legendary leaky warehouse No Way Back. His consummate taste and ecstatic yet disciplined execution have created a respect that cannot be purchased. Patrick is not just one to watch, he is one to be experienced. Aside from playing many fine sets this year, Patrick released 3 amazing remixes and is now working on some new original material.
No Way Back is not a festival, it is not an event - it is a party. What began in an abandoned Detroit building with a leaky roof (it rained on the dance floor!) and an audiophile sound system and moved to the entirely legal and historic 1515 Broadway, home to the original Music Institute where Derrick May solidified his international reputation as artists like Depeche Mode and New Order would make their way there to hear the musical revolution of groundbreaking DJs like D Wynn and Chez Damier. After using Public Assembly and its loft several times for No Way Back in Brooklyn, and moving to 285 Kent as part of BEMF in 2013, we are thrilled to present the party in the soon to be legendary Trans Pecos space where we've been hosting The Bunker Limited all year. The space has been warmed up already with 8 hour sets from NWB alumni Carlos Souffront, Patrick Russell, and Derek Plaslaiko in 2014.
If you don't understand the touchstones of this party, it might be impossible to explain. It is a comment on a continuum. For many of us it began the 90s, searching through fliers at Record Time, calling info lines and buying your ticket at Zoot's only to get lost trying to find that elusive warehouse. What was inside? Something amazing... This is our generation returning to the source, feeling a freedom and a heat within the music that resulted in speaker freaking.
Every generation experiences this without the aid of a night club time machine, whether it was at The Loft, Better Days, The Paradise Garage, The Warehouse, The Shrine, Cosmic, Luomos, The Muzic Box, The Hacienda, Medusa's, The Music Institute, or Berghain. You might not even know that you have soul until you experience being totally lost in the mind control music and realizing there is no way back.
Every DJ chosen to play at No Way Back is a master of their medium, so deep in it that they all serve as constant inspirations. This is a celebration of the lost art of the late night Midwestern DJ. This is what makes the collaboration between Interdimensional Transmissions and The Bunker so effortless, as they both are champions of this, with The Bunker residents like Mike Servito and Bryan Kasenic being long time IT collaborators.