DETECT

For our DETECT this month we are welcoming the Japanese DJ and music producer, @takahikodjtakaki. 

Moving to London in 2017, he has since become firmly established in both Drum and Bass (using the alias DJ Takaki) and Techno, with multiple projects over the past decade. His musicality and presence have had significant global impact, ranging from the underground to top-level art projects with Arts Council England, Adobe and Critical Music. Away from music he has a firm interest in fashion with his designs being worn across the planet by celebrated music figures.

Takahiko’s DETECT is now available to listen to on our FOLD SoundCloud.

DETECT [131] - Takahiko

For our new bi-weekly series Detect, we are shining a light on our favourite artists who are all on their own unstoppable rise in the industry, profiling their musical career, upcoming projects and more alongside accompanying mixes for those frequent indoor weekday breaks away from the home office.

Kicking off the recommendations we have the rebellious duo Blasha and Allat, who have hit their own stride since the catalyst of their Meat Free parties and other projects based in and around Manchester since 2013. It’s been a flourishing subsistence since then, with their punitive brand of techno, breaks and electro generating copious waves of influence despite the competition in their busy city. A demanding calendar has ensured that their sound is never out of attention, with bookings everywhere from Printworks and Dimensions to Freerotation and Headroom validating their capability in tackling large or little crowds with a discerning ease, balanced awareness and stable reputation. 

With FOLD, the pair have always been a guaranteed choice for the booth, operating a sweeping and comprehensive appearance back our extended MORD takeover in February, as well as closing our Room 2 space with a driving, guttural set at the RA twenty four/seven coup just before last Christmas. This mix, recorded at FOLD during the MORD party, flaunts a carnival of absurd and thrashing records right from the bottomless void of the twosome’s record bags.  With an impressible proficiency at interchanging moods and genres with little effort, Blasha and Allat lecture to crowds with a tongue that takes no prisoners.

DETECT [001] - Blasha & Allatt (Mord x FOLD)

Our very own @voicedrone is the next artist stepping into the limelight for DETECT. Lasha Jorjoliani is an often-unreadable enigma, lending much of his time to his studio, curating line-ups and sharpening his performances in the booth. Although an undeniable figurehead of the scene, Voicedrone is by no means explicitly tied to co-founding FOLD. Before our inception, Lasha travelled his own personal journey into the scene, hailing originally from Georgia and arriving in the U.K. solo to pursue a music career he built his reputation through sheer will. In 2016 he established his label Imprfct., which along with his ever-expanding network and dedicated grind within London directed his path towards creating and curating parties. 

Four years on, Lasha is in an indestructible one-way lane, having developed a graphic, dynamic sound that we come together to experience. At his core is a passion to create and nurture community; this purpose is channelled into every event he plays - here at home, in Europe and beyond. Playing at influential venues and parties included his beloved HTBX London has preserved his significance in the underground scene and his constant admiration from the FOLD family, and his closing set from our Unstream two weeks ago was testament to this. Broadcasting live from his own home, Lasha took us through the best reasons why UNFOLD is what it is now.

The phrase “leading by example” may be somewhat overused, but in the case of Voicedrone, such a statement is entirely appropriate.

DETECT [002] - Voicedrone (Unstream001)

When you think of Natural Selection, Michael Silmon is one of the people you have to thank for its existence. As one of the founders of the collective, Natural Selection is now in its tenth year, returning frequently to Canning Town with killer lineups after having migrated south with Silmon from Newcastle where it was formed in 2010. On the many occasions that we’ve invited Natural Selection to host nights at FOLD, the result has always been an incredible marriage between sounds, our threads woven together to create a blazing tapestry of sonics that seek to pay homage to the legends and veterans of the scene. 

Meanwhile, Michael’s performing alias, Kodah, is doing equally as well. Brought up upon a diet of hardcore and gabber which was prevalent in Newcastle when he was a teen, Michael satiated this interest initially by collecting tapes from the raves that were running at that time. This inspiration from collectives such as Rezerection and Judgement Day became the primary creative motivations in discovering his musical vocation, and went on to seek how to develop this, eventually entrenching himself deep within the experimental, warped allure of techno and electro. A common face at UNFOLD, his most recent set at our 6th instalment back in November was unforgettable, reminding our community of why we took him on as a resident at FOLD; he is an artist with true knowledge, passion, and appreciation for the past.

For this DETECT accompanying mix, Michael recorded a very special hour of towering, alien selections from his own home in isolation. Keep your ears peeled in particular for the closing track; as he put it himself when he sent this over, this mix was the precursor to an exquisitely Good Day, and he hopes that the message speaks for itself, and that it precedes only positivity to those who listen to it.

DETECT [003] - Kodah (Natural Selection)

Despite there being just four years between her arrival onto the scene and the present day, McKenzie Simone has explored a broad groundwork of music and locations before discovering that her true home lay nestled deep within Eurasia. Kickstarting her career in Dubai, the 25-year-old American native has since settled into her current home of Tbilisi, Georgia, her attachment to the underground circuit earning her both a familial reputation and regular bookings across the city in venues such as Khidi and Drama. Her appreciation for a culture that finally celebrated and encouraged individuality and free expression was the motive for her permanent move there following a short visit prior, and in July 2019, McKenzie risked everything she knew by choosing to call this new place home. Her gamble was rewarded and she is now a true rising star of the city, subscribing to a fresh approach on techno within the tangle of bustling clubs that scatter the streets at night. 

For this next instalment of DETECT, we were lucky enough to present a love-letter to the scene from McKenzie in the form of an exclusive mix that she recorded from home for us. Acidic, wild and full of focused determination, this hour-and-fifteen of selections is a punchy statement on the confident direction that McKenzie has with her career, and a declaration of the devotion she has for the city of Tbilisi.

DETECT [004] - McKenzie Simone

@S_RUSTON has been the perpetrator of a mean set of accomplishments throughout her career. Since landing in Berlin in 2010, Sophie has focused on building up the scene she found and felt at home in; imparting her musical know-how to ongoing residencies with femme collective Lecken and at Wilde Renate, plus nurturing an array of queer parties in the capital. Before then, Sophie was shaped by the Bristol drum and bass/jungle scene in the early noughties, eventually reassigning this energy into her ensuing move between countries and from her 170 roots into the turbulent rave sound that she is now known for. 

Notwithstanding her finesse behind the decks, Sophie has also produced an admired discography, moving between bassy cuts and hefty drumwork with her releases on labels such as Suspension, as well as heading imprint One4Ho. Her unorthodox approach to production and mixing has been a bubbling recipe for success. Since FOLD launched she’s been a habitual presence, most recently stepping up to our centralised booth for UNFOLD in January, and also playing side to side with Voicedrone in Autumn last year for a fusion between European exports with UVB heading up the night.

For this exclusive mix for our DETECT series, Sophie bestowed upon us her notorious selections in an uproar of a mix, presenting to us the noble reasons why everyone craves a second helping when she appears - and how sometimes, in the uninhibited situations she attends, more is more.

DETECT [005] - S Ruston

FOLD is an artist-led, community-driven nightclub and arts space. Positioned at the forefront of electronic music, audio-visual performance, and live streaming. FOLD prides itself on striving to be a safe space for our predominantly queer techno community.

Resident Bookings: Gemma@fold.london


FOLD RESIDENTS: 

Voicedrone - https://soundcloud.com/voicedrone
Anabel Arroyo - https://soundcloud.com/anabelarroyo.
Andromeda - https://soundcloud.com/andromedaldn
Gareth Wild - https://soundcloud.com/eartoground
James Newmarch - https://soundcloud.com/jamesnewmarch
Alba Heidari - https://soundcloud.com/lemmiwinks
Lockhart - https://soundcloud.com/lockhartsj
Riva - https://soundcloud.com/riva999