VOLTAGE DROP RETURNS TONIGHT IN OAKLAND WITH STACKED LINEUP
As Voltage Drop returns for its first outing in 2017, it brings together a fully stacked lineup of some of the best the bay has to offer in esoteric, intentioned, radical electronic music and sound. In just one year VOLTAGE DROP has presented almost a dozen events, all help exclusively at The Legionnaire Saloon, climb about twenty steps, drop a crumpled up five dollar bill (or more, since its also a benefit for the Oakland Immediate Fire Relief Fund ), on the table and you are quickly transported into the sights and sounds of VOLTAGE DROP. Aside from the regular residents, VOLTAGE DROP is excited to have two really special guests for this offering which include bay area gabber/hardcore/hip hop/noise/bicycle/MPC/Body Count head and label owner of the MSET imprint , VICTOR VANKMEN, and back for the second time, of of the best kept secrets in the BAY AREA dance music scene, SHIZATIN!. SHIZATIN has been supporting VOLTAGE DROP from day one and we are beyond honored to welcome her into the crew. You’d never know she wasn’t a ten year veteran in this game by listening to these masterfully crafted and necessary femme fronted trap / dance / hip hop mixes. With the impending doom of the new president and the worsening conditions all around SHIZATIN comes as a wave of fresh air condensed into a hurricane of healing and pro Blackness into the scene! – be on the lookout for mixtapes from both SHIZATIN and VICTOR VANKMEN in the coming weeks from the VD imprint.
Stylistically VOLTAGE DROP began as an opportunity to focus on DJ sets from it’s residents and founders, BONUS BEAST (who has a pretty fantastic archive of mixes online HERE which you should check out asap) , KOZI, FLOWER PATTERN, DEMONSLEEPER, AND MALO (Malocclusion), but soon DEMONSLEEPER aka Sandy Sleeper aka FUNKY V, moved to Puerto Rico to help run family restaurant, and now noise venue La Boveda!, and they were left with four, and slowly but steadily shifted the lens to more live acts with DJ”s interspersed. . If you come out , you’ll see realtime live camera analog visuals being mixed and synthesized with ease, care, and great articulation from VD resident, and analog video synth maestro FLOWER PATTERN (aka Adrian Saenz). Tonight will open up with introduction sets from KOZI (Malditos/International Freak Out A Go Go / Where It’s At /) and MALO (Ratskin Records) at 9pm sharp playing tribute sets to some friends we lost in the Oakland Ghostship tragedy,
Opening the show will be first time VOLTAGE DROP performer , but NO newcomer to the scene,SPELLLING . I first saw this project perform at Oakland Secret, and if tonight’s set is anything like that you can expect a dark, hauntingly esoteric, lush set of musical offerings, effortlessly, simultaneously speaking to the past and future. SPELLLING blends synths, keys, voice and occasional beats to create a lush, textured, esoteric blend of electronic sounds. Check the cuts below off their soundcloud.
Slotted to perform second is, MAYA SONGBIRD. Maya, who was born and raised in the infamous Castro District of san Francisco lives and produces in Oakland, and is fresh off a new cassette/CD release on RATSKIN RECORDS, called “Welcome To The Darkside”, her follow up to 2015’s EP
on the same la
bel titled “Queen of Darkness” Songbird offers fun, energetic, and empowering performances for herself and her audience but don’t let her positive, empowering presence fool you, she is watching you and taking notes and ready to destroy the patriarchy and white supremacist tendencies of the music and art industry through song, performance, and recordings. Check her soundcloud for an endlessly deep well of musical offerings in everything from disco, EDM, rock and experimental.
Also on the bill are two of the bay area’s hardware synthesizer masters GROUP RHODA, and RUSSELL E.L. BUTLER.
First up, bay area modular wizard, activist, and artist RUSSELL E.L. BUTLER offers their unique, honed in style of body music, which inherently fights against the whitewashing and male dominated dance and beat scenes.
BUTLER seems to perform, DJ, and record and a seemingly maddening pace over the last year and has gained notable recognition, and rightfully so from all of the hottest blogs and magazines from THE FADER for their new track “Without Fear”, an empowering anthem for all marginalized communities, FACT MAG, in which they talk about their newest batch of recordings, “Dropping Out Of Life” and many more , and recently has opened for the TEXAS synth pioneers SURVIVE as well as SOFT METALS. Butler continues to craft beautiful, necessary works for a myriad of labels including OPAL TAPES, JACKTONE RECORDS, and many more. Check a track or two off your to do list here where VICE talks about the new EP dedicated to the Ghostship Tragedy.
Closing our the night will be GROUP RHODA offers up a sound thats hard to define but references early CHRIS and COSEY, C.T.I. , TARA CROSS , MENTAL CODE, and many of the greats from the early 80’s synth / ebm / body music scene , while offering her own quirky, warm, contemporary, beautiful versions of esoteric dance numbers. Self described as “Oakland. tropical darkwave, light industrial, dust…..analog synth medium super live style, negating the sound of conformity, control, and wastefulness through imagination development techniques and well considered destructiveness”
Lush synths skate on top of masterfully and articulately programmed drum machines and synthesizers, and her voice tells tales of psychedelic and psychic spaces, journeys, political unrest and personality. GR has produced records for the NOT NOT FUN and NIGHT SCHOOL labels. but check their soundcloud for newer recordings.
This event is a new model for shows where 50% of the money raised after the door cut goes to the artists and 50% goes to a specific cause. In this case, VOLTAGE DROP will be donating to the Oakland Immediate Fire Relief fund which has been assisting blood and chosen family and close friends, roommates, etc from those directly affected by the Ghostship Tragedy in Oakland on Dec 2, 2016. If you can’t make the show tonight, please consider donating to the Immediate Fire Relief Fund here!
FOR MORE INFO ON UPCOMING VOLTAGE DROP HAPPENINGS FOLLOW THE HERE AND HERE and check some DJ MIXES HERE
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 