EMB 77

SF Bay Area native, Darren Cutlip, under the name dabecy, began creating avant-garde music and sound at the age of 16. Mainly inspired by Cabaret Voltaire, Coil and Nurse With Wound, Darren began self-releasing his recordings on cassette. Later, backed by legendary SF noise pioneer Elden M, who is most noted for his Allegory Chapel releases and his work at Subterranean Records, Darren won acclaim for several successful releases. Prized as much for the sophisticated music and atmospheres as for the unique and creative packaging of his releases, Darren soon found himself sharing an audience with seminal noise act The Haters.

In the early 90’s, after being exposed to clubs and raves such as Big Heart City, Toon Town, Mr. Floppy’s Flophouse, Club Dv8 and later, parties such as Sunset, Wicked,, A Rave Called Sharon and The Gathering, Darren became hooked on Acid house and detroit techno. 

Meeting Adam Douglas of SF-based Acid House group 303 Terrorists led to Darren submitting a demo to San Francisco’s Flask Records - a division of pioneering ambient label Silent Records. In 1993, electronic composer Kim Cascone, then head of Silent, impressed with the demo, signed Darren and promptly placed him in several compilations. Cascone also produced Darren’s first full-length release, “Logarithmic”, under the moniker Dreams Without Number. “Logarithmic” landed in the Top 10 on London’s KISS FM ambient chart, alongside acts such as the Orb and Future Sound of London.

Throughout the mid to late 90’s Darren developed his live performances, and became a fixture at many underground raves and parties in the Bay Area. In the late 90‘s, Darren was the first electronic act to play the famous San Francisco jazz club, Cafe du Nord.

In 1999 Darren released “Autacoid” on Solid Trax, sharing the Trax Cafe compilation imprint with a select group of the Bay Area’s top electronic talent, including techno legends Kit Clayton and Chris Jackson, prolific artist Lucas Rodenbush (E.B.E.), DoBox label head Derrick Scott, and many others.

After a needed break from the demands of the nightlife scene, Darren reemerged in December of 2008, creating the popular Electronic Music Bears (EMB) podcast. EMB featured fixtures in the San Francisco queer club scene as well as talent from around the world. EMB was unique because it also featured non dj talent such as drag queens and promoters who would put together mixed tapes of tracks they’re influenced by. Notable dj talent included the Honey Soundsystem: Bezier, Jason Kendig and Jackie House, Horsemeat Disco and Voitek of Catz-n-Dogz.

Through the popularity of EMB and a yearning to create more queer underground party spaces in SF, Darren started DJing again. Around 2010 he met Jacob Sperber at Honey Soundsystem. When I entered their space I was blown away.  “High Tech Jazz” by Galaxy 2 Galaxy was pumping from the speakers and all walks of queer life were smiling and dancing together. It was exactly what the SF scene was missing. From there Darren went on to DJ at Honey several times as well as other legendary SF clubs like the End Up, 222 hyde and public works.

One cold foggy evening in SF, dabecy was researching local producers, DJs and events and came upon Doc Sleep’s Soundcloud. The mixes were unique and combined unlikely styles with finesse. He reached out in the hope she would be interested in doing a mix for his podcast. After several messages were exchanged on Soundcloud, they decided to meet at Honey Soundsystem. That night, they chatted at the bar until the DJ played their last track. They talked about their history, music they love and influences. The discussion then turned to the scene in SF and both agreed there were so many talented electronic music producers, but no local label or outlet to release the music. The exchange of thoughts and ideas that night, in a sense, was the beginning of Jacktone Records.