Events

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Ben Sims & Kirk Degiorgio's "new techno only" concept night returns.

Room 1 - MACHINE
DJ sets focussing on new, upcoming, and unreleased material.

ROBERT HOOD

Robert Hood makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul and experimentation over flash and popularity. Having recorded for Metroplex as well as the Austrian Cheap label, the French label Logistic and Jeff Mills' Axis label, Hood also owns and operates the M-Plant imprint, through which he's released the bulk of his solo material.

Hood was a founding member, along with Jeff Mills and Mike Banks, of the seminal Underground Resistance label, whose influential releases throughout the early and mid '90s helped change the face of modern Detroit techno and sparked a creative renaissance. Infusing elements of acid and industrial into a potent blend of Chicago house and Detroit techno, UR's aesthetic project and militant business philosophy were (and remain) singular commitments in underground techno.

Hood left Detroit (and UR) with Jeff Mills in 1992, setting up shop in New York and recording a series of 12-inch EPs . Through the mid '90s, Hood has focused on his solo work, setting up M-Plant in 1994 and releasing singles such as "Internal Empire," "Music Data," and "Moveable Parts." Although his desire to remain underground has been replaced by an urge to reach a wider audience, Hood remains fiercely critical of artistic and economic movements destructive to inner-city communities and has combined his musical enterprises with outreach and social activist ends. His debut album “Wire to Wire“ took Hood's hypnotic minimalism to entirely new depths and territories, whilst his latest album 'Molecule' under the nickname “Monobox“ released on Logistic takes his productions onto new levels of musicality and sophistication within the world of electronic music.

BEN SIMS

Founder, curator and resident DJ at MACHINE, Sims is known as the ‘3 Deck Master’, ‘The Human Ableton’ and ‘The Machine’

Ben Sims had his first decks at age ten. Schooled on mix tapes by the likes of Bambaata, DJ Cheese and Froggy, and with his musical roots in reggae, funk, disco, electro, rare groove and hip-hop, by his mid teens he was spinning at after-hours 'blues' houses and a few years later came the acid house explosion with pirate radio and clubs. Skip forward over 20 years and you’ll find he’s one of the UK’s biggest techno exports and a much in demand producer.

Ben has been involved in running 9 labels over the years, (Theory, Killabite, Hardgroove, Native, Ingoma, Symbolism, Assembly, KB Records inc, Split Music), each one with a distinctive sound, ranging from hardgroovin’ and funk driven techno and house that is the trademark of his DJ sets, via tribal, to melodic electronica. In a genre that propagates sound-a-likes, Ben Sims productions have gained widespread attention, influenced a generation and feature regularly in the boxes of his own personal favourites like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Jeff Mills and Rolando, whilst also attracting crossover appeal from the likes of Carl Cox etc. He has remixed Jeff Mills, Green Velvet, Blake Baxter, DJ Funk, Chris Liebing, Adam Beyer plus many more and has had his tracks and remixes featured on mix cds by Robert Hood, Francois Kevorkian, DJ Rush, Joey Beltram, Dave Clarke, Umek, Luke Slater, Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin and hundreds more.

The past 15 years have seen Ben constantly touring and tearing up dancefloors at legendary clubs & parties like- Liquid room, Tokyo, Sonar, Barcelona, Limelight. NYC, Rex, Paris, Zouk, Singapore, I love Techno, Gent, Tresor, Berlin, Awakenings, Amsterdam and Atomic jam, Birmingham plus hundreds of others with his tight, energetic and skilful brand of 3 deck wizardry. In recent years performances as FREQUENCY 7 with Birmingham's Surgeon and KILLA PRODUCTIONS with Paul Mac (both projects pushing the boundaries of DJ sets while utilizing turntables, cdj’s, FX and all the latest hardcore/software) have also been a regular feature on Ben’s international calendar and on the stages of some of globes most respected festivals and clubs including Fabric, Monegros and Bloc.

2011 saw the birth of MACHINE,co-hosted with Kirk Degiorgio, focusing solely on upfront music, which has now started touring Europe, and after many years of discussions and false starts; Ben finally released his debut album 'Smoke & Mirrors' to critical acclaim on Adam Beyer's Drumcode label, truly showcasing his talents as a producer of not only peak time Techno but also House, Electronica and Dubby flavoured grooves.

The first half of 2012 will see the relaunch of his Hardgroove and Theory imprints with 'Slow Motion' currently doing the rounds on promo and receiving early support from the likes of Ben Klock, Marcel Dettmann, Dave Clarke, Adam Beyer, Rolando, Robert Hood and more, plus further releases on Drumcode and a bunch of high profile remixes, all alongside his usual globe trotting DJ schedule, which shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

KIRK DEGIORGIO

Alongside Ben Sims, Kirk Degiorgio is founder, curator and resident DJ at MACHINE.

Kirk's DJ career started at local breakdance events in 1983. He is credited with being the first 'professionally known' DJ in the world to use Ableton Live for his DJ sets - he's been purely digital for over a decade now. (a tour of Japan 2002 saw him use Live exclusively which he has now done ever since in venues worldwide)

Almost as if to try and throw his fans off the scent, Degiorgio has used As One, Elegy, Esoterik, Critical Phase, and Future/Past as recording aliases. In 1992 Degiorgio recorded his first release on B12 Records and shortly after founded the ART label (Applied Rythmic Technology) releasing early material by seminal artists such as Carl Craig, Aphex Twin, Stasis, and The Black Dog.

Degiorgio went on to record material for ART, Planet E and R&S before signing As One to New Electronica for the albums Reflections and Celestial Soul, which both made the Muzik Top 30 albums for 1994/5. Further albums for Clear (UK), Mo Wax, Ubiquity, Versatile and Neroli cemented Kirk's reputation as a seriously heavyweight producer with a unique, individual sound, beautifully combining elements of jazz, soul, techno and funk into electronic tracks. More recently, he has appeared on the superb Rush Hour imprint, and newly launched MACHINE label.

Room 2 - Retro-Vert
DJ sets focussing on music from way back when

Both BEN SIMS and KIRK DEGIORGIO will be playing second sets in Room 2
Juxtaposed against Room 1's "new techno only", Kirk will be playing an Alternative Retrospective set, while Ben will be joining fellow Essex Rascals crew Tony Anderson and Paul Mac, and digging deep into their record crates...

Plus very special guest NICK DUNTON (65d Mavericks / Surface) will be spinning classic house & techno