Only for robots tracks

Brendon Moller [New York]

Very excited to share this hour live pa from a techno veteran who recently visited Chicago for a Prologue Showcase thanks to another incredible Oktave booking. This night also featured Mike Parker, and Oktave resident/founder, Jeff Derringer. 

Huge thanks to Brendon for his generosity, and letting us record his set. Huge thanks to Jeff for continually booking great events here, and also allowing us to set up the recorder that night. 

Brendon has a new release out under his Echologist alias on Planete Rouge. Please seek it out, and support.

ENJOY!

BIO - 

When it comes to post-Basic Channel dub techno, Brendon Moeller is one of the go-to guys. Since leaving his native South Africa for New York City in 1993, the dub technician has been proudly laying down his musical legacy on labels like Astralwerks, Mule Musiq and Six Degrees Records; working with revered vocalists like Paul St. Hilaire, Mikey Dread and Mutabaruka and fomenting relationships with scene institutions like fabric, Berghain and Francois K.

''My parents detected my interest in music at an early age so sent me for piano lessons. However, this kinda alienated me from my desires as the teacher ended up trying to impose all this classical stuff on me when all I was interested in playing was Hall & Oates and Queen. After 2 years of piano I quit and spent all my time playing tennis before I began playing drums in a band when I was 19, at which point the fire was ignited once again.''

''The band was fun for a few years but was never as serious for the other members as it was for me. About the same time I was hearing early acid house and ambient stuff, so in late 1993 decided to sell my car and buy a ticket to NYC. I worked as a waiter six days a week and, in mid 1994, purchased my first drum machine, sequencer and synth...''

Since then, the dub landscape has been for ever changing at his hands: sometimes under his own name, sometimes as Beat Pharmacy (almost exclusively on Francois K's Wave Music) and sometimes as Echologist, he is behind seven full length albums to-date, each of which has breached the musical boundaries of what went before. Taking cues from jazz, techno, dub, afrobeat and psychedelia, Moeller's aims are simple.

''My goal is, first and foremost, to create timeless, quality music that resonates with people from all walks of life. I want to evolve musically. I want to be able to continue making music and support my family with it... and if all goes well, would love to make enough money to purchase all my time favourite analogue synthesizers.''

Listen to his music - or that which his label, Steadfast, has so studiously released since 2009 - and you'll understand that Moeller's music has a knack for making you think whilst you inescapably give yourself over to its infectious grooves, and his most recent Ecologist album only confirms that: Subterranean is a deeply experimental record that explores a throbbing, swollen underworld of subconscious sounds which, in its conceptual referencing of everything from shoe-gaze to ambient to rock, marks Moeller out as an essential pillar of not only the dub techno community, but of the electronic music world as a whole.

https://soundcloud.com/brendonmoeller
https://www.facebook.com/brendonmoeller.beatpharmacy.echologist
http://brendonmoeller.com/

http://donttrusthumans.com

Only For Robots Podast

Only For Robots 069 live @ Smart Bar [13.12.14]

Only For Robots 069 - Brendon Moeller live @ Smart Bar [13.12.14]

We continue our 'nothing but chicago' Only For Robots batch of mixes with local hero, Karl Meier. Deep, basement sounds in this mix. Dig in.

1. DEMDIKE STARE / SHANGAAN ELECTRO "Version" (Honest Jon's, 2012)
2. MONOLAKE "Avalanche" (M/L, 2009)
3. SCUBA "Poppies - Substance Dub Version" (Hotflush, 2008)
4. MILLIE "Path To Hell - Redemption Mix" (Daphne, 2009)
5. BEN KLOCK "Gold Rush" (Ostgut Ton, 2009)
6. SCUBA "Bleach" (2009, Abucs)
7. APPLEBLIM + PEVERELIST "Circling" (Skull Disco, 2008)
8. THE BUG "Skeng - Autechre Remix" (Ninja Tune, 2010)
9. NOMINE "Blind Man" (Tempa, 2015)
10. ANDY STOTT "Dark Details" (Modern Love, 2011)
11. SURGEON "Transparent Radiation" (Dynamic Tension, 2011)
12. SCORN "The Palomar" (Ad Noiseam/Jarring Effects, 2007)
13. CHRIS LIEBING "Dandu Groove - Oliver Ho Remix" (Fine Audio Recordings, 1998)
14. ARCHAE + GROVSKOPA "Dwell/Dive" (unreleased)
15. SPEEDJACK "Construction" (R&S, 1996)
16. RAC "Quexos - The Advent Re-edit" (Warp, 1994 / Metalbox, 1997)
17. JAMES RUSKIN "Lahaine - O/V/R Remix" (Tresor, 2008)
18. STENNY "Ruins" (Ilian Tape, 2015)
19. DEMDIKE STARE "Primitive Equations" (Modern Love, 2013)
20. DOWNLINERS SEKT "This American Life - Chevel Remix" (Infine, 2014)
21. AFX "mortal1" (Soundcloud)
22. WEST NORWOOD CASSETTE LIBRARY "Drop - Knowing Looks Remix" (WNCL, 2014)
23. SPECIAL REQUEST "Broken Dreams" (Houndstooth, 2013)

http://fearofmusic.org/archive
https://soundcloud.com/karlpmeier

Only For Robots 077 - Karl Meier

It is with great pleasure to close out our "Nothing But Chicago" run of Only For Robots mixes with friend, and local techno hero, Jeff Derringer. Jeff is the founder of Oktave, who relocated to Chicago via NYC a few years ago, and is responsible for a healthy list of top caliber techno events here in the city. Recently, Jeff has landed a spot as a Smart Bar resident. He continues to push the boundaries with his bookings, bringing in incredible international talent, along with an avid work ethic when it comes to productions. Jeff has released on notable labels, which include; Perc Trax, Soma, Electric Deluxe, Prosthetic Pressings, and M_Rec. We are very grateful for his generous contribution to our series. Enjoy this deep, dubby journey. It's that good.

BIO - 

Jeff Derringer is a producer and performer based in Chicago, and a resident at the city's most notorious nightclub, Smartbar. Over the course of the last five years, Jeff has established himself as an emerging figure in the techno underground. With releases on Speedy J’s Electric Deluxe label, as well as Perc Trax, M_Rec LTD and the infamous Soma in Glasgow, Jeff’s reputation as a producer and DJ continues to rise internationally. Live, Jeff weaves a combination of Ableton and Maschine to concoct a hybrid set known for its abstract intensity and pounding rhythms. Audiences across America and into Europe (at Berlin’s Berghain and Amsterdam’s Ruigoord) have all raved about his sound.

As the creator and curator of the Oktave event series, Jeff brings techno’s most innovative artists to Smartbar, Chicago’s premiere dance club. Started in 2009 in New York, Oktave has become one of the world’s most recognizable techno events, known for its relentless pursuit of the finest sounds in the genre. Since moving the event to Smartbar in 2010, Oktave has hosted the Chicago debuts of Donato Dozzy, Silent Servant, Cio D’or, Peter Van Hoesen, Black Asteroid, Tommy Four Seven and dozens more.

TRACKLIST - 

DJ Skirt - In the Meadow Under the Stars
Jeff Derringer - Ghost Notes
Antonio Ruscito - Seconda Imaginne (Edit Select Remix)
Claudio PRC - Atik
Deepbass - Dune
Etapp Kyle - Aurora
Iori - Light Echo
Norman Nodge - Signal Response
Peter Van Hoesen - Protagonist
Qindek - Modu
Mike Parker - Spitting Electricity
Dino Sabatini & Edit Select - Multiplo (Edit Select Version)
Phase - Distracted
Peter Van Hoesen - Terminal

http://oktaveproducts.tumblr.com/
https://soundcloud.com/jeffderringer

http://donttrusthumans.com


Only for robots tracks

Danielle Smith Vitale