Read more… or Read more right here… »

« Hide it

Read more… or Read more right here… »

http://www.myspace.com/encompassment

« Hide it

Read more… or Read more right here… »

« Hide it

Read more… or Read more right here… »

Noah Pred

Producing dance music and performing live for over eight years, Noah Pred emerged from
Vancouver’s underground as a sought-after techno DJ with a sophisticated sound and unique style.
Devoted to authentic and soulful strains of techno in all its permutations, Noah’s sound continues to
evolve while remaining ?rmly driven by the dance?oor.

Since his ?rst records came out in the late nineties, his productions have received international
support, appearing on charts from renowned talent such as Carl Cox, Cari Lekebusch, and Laurent
Garnier. His subsequent 12-inch EPs and remixes have continued to garner critical acclaim while
moving dance?oors across the globe, appearing on playlists from Tokyo to Glasgow.

As a DJ and live act, Noah has travelled throughout Europe and North America, performing alongside
such diverse artists as Funk D’Void, James Holden and Mathew Jonson. After working as
assistant A&R for Consigned Recordings in Montreal, Noah applied his label skills by spearheading
the Paci?c Technics project, a triple-vinyl compilation bene?ting Amnesty International. The Paci?c
Technics CD, selected and mixed by Noah Pred, was released in June 2004.

Exploring his compositional versatility, Pred launched the Shen project later that year. Geared towards
digital downtempo, electronic dub and emotive IDM, Shen has provided Noah with a creative outlet for
productions that roam beyond the borders of clubland. His debut Shen full-length, ‘Outlines’, was
released on Native State Records in December 2006.

Recently relocated to Toronto where he’s accepted a DJ residency with the Fukhouse crew, he runs
two record labels from his studio headquarters - Thoughtless Music and Sentient Sound. Delving into
the potentials of ?eld recording and integrated sound design, Noah’s latest techno full-length on New
Kanada, ‘Ecocosm’, was released in August 2007.

Eric Downer

Growing up in the industrial town of Cambridge, Ontario, Eric Downer had become fascinated by
electronic music at an early age and was editing mixes on his dad’s dual cassette hi-? at age eleven.
Access to late night radio and a few well stocked record stores saw that he was buying music as soon
as his ?rst pay check was in hand at age fourteen. By seventeen, Downer was playing his varied
music collection to jocks, preps, punks and nerds in school gymnasiums and the seedy low rent bars
of downtown Cambridge, incorporating video and audio. Later, Downer moved to London, Ontario and
found work in a record shop being paid exclusively in vinyl. It was here that his career as a DJ really
began to take shape. London at the time was booming with the right mix of people and saw Downer at
gigs with peers as well as headlining alongside out-of-towners. Seeing the greater music industry
through the performers brought in from other cities ensured that Eric was past the point of no return.
Working with such a crowd provided much inspiration and pushed Eric into newer styles of music and
sound mixing.

The mid 1990’s saw Downer make the move to Toronto and partake in events hosted by
Transcendance and Alien Visitation, among others. This opened him up to many venues across the
whole of the city from gritty, decrepit slaughterhouses, to derelict warehouses, out to the forests and
beaches, onto tall ships and back to the heady nightclubs and more intimate nightspots. Eric has
played early Plus8 parties with Plastikman between 1993 and 1995, has shared the stage with Riley
Reinhold aka TripleR, Magda, Greg Gow, Sleeparchive and countless others. Mixing ambient, then
getting out the techno and cutting his teeth at various weeklies and events, Downer was broadsided
by the sounds of house. It was this period that saw him working through various genres during sets
and experimenting with different sounds, textures and atmospheres on the dance?oor, keeping house
at the center of his sound. Playing clubs like Industry, and other events gave Eric the freedom to
express moods and ideas to sold out crowds Gigging alongside many of the peers he met in London,
he was also billed with many other luminaries of the techno, ambient and house spheres while holding
down various residencies. This exposure at home saw interest generated in other cities, bringing Eric
to Halifax, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta and points in-between.

Currently, Eric is still experiencing the ?ux of his career, working by day as an audio technician in
television and ?lm, he maintains his role in Toronto’s underground, collaborating with Fukhouse during
2003/4 and starting his own night, Sensor. Still inspired by new technologies and sounds, Downer
mixes a blend of his past in?uences with modern tech-house, techno and ambient textures to create a
true and sublime dance?oor experience. In the past few years he has been a part of boundary pushing
nights, bringing in current underground and respected talent while working in clubs like System
Soundbar, and various non traditional spaces. The continuing inspiration and collaboration with like
minded people and promoters Alienin?ux, Fukhouse, Terra, Footwork, Sensor and Geometry signify
the supportive and dynamic atmosphere currently in Toronto and its vicinity. With an eye on the world,
and an ear for new sounds, Downer now takes the last ?fteen years of his life in music and works a
fresh transition into the studio, and his future.

Liz Revision [subVariant, Chicago] – Resident DJ

A true “multi-hyphenate,” Liz McLean Knight–the sole female behind Quantazelle–is thoroughly
immersed in technology, fashion, music, and the often-surprising overlaps between. While attempting
to circuit bend battery-powered music toys for an upcoming music performance, she discovered that
electronic components can be turned into elegant jewelry and started an entire fashion line called
Zelle.

Versed in internet technologies and programming languages she started up an online store to sell not
only her jewelry, but also accessories and gear for the technologically-sophisticted yet fashionably-
minded crowd–Fractalspin.com. As Quantazelle she combines complex percussive programming,
sonic innovation, and engaging sound design together with an approachable melodic sensibility with
often booty-shaking results.

Site: http://www.quantazelle.com | Blog: http://www.lizrevision.com

Spiderback [TheCorp/House of Nine Dragons, Chicago] – Resident VJ (right)

Spiderback (aka Ben Cirrus) has been collaborating with various artists on numerous projects in
Chicago for well over 10 years. From founding artist spaces 1717 Federal, TheCorp and House of
Nine Dragons, to starting and rocking in local bands Color Dots, Replikator, Cyst, Black and Blue Inc.,
Silencer, Invertabrae and The Gravetones, Spiderback has explored a wide range of musical styles
and media of expression. VJ work is his latest method of spreading the disease of creativity.
Site: http://www.spiderback.com

« Hide it

like many of his contemporaries, paap found a route to where he is today via the concurrent growth of both hip-hop and electronic music in the early 1980s. an adolescent fixation with the stark modernity of groups such as kraftwerk and depeche mode and their, at the time, idiosyncratic approaches to music making created a sense of intrigue in the young speedy j. armed only with a rudimentary understanding of the processes of music making, he set about creating basic cut and paste efforts looping sound backwards and forwards on antiquated and outdated machinery. undeterred by the primitive nature of his work, by his early teens in the mid ‘80s, he had notched up his first production credit. equally important at this early stage was his love of hip-hop and its attendant dj culture and he was soon to garner an alias, courtesy of his ferocious djing skills, that would hang around for the rest of his career. yet the catalyst that would ultimately shape the next 15 years was a dutch pirate radio station, ‘night moves’, which introduced paap to the acid sound.

sensing his destiny, he began in earnest a voyage of discovery which would ultimately see him proclaimed as one of the leading lights in european techno and beyond. even while djing, paap often seemed more concerned with the possibilities of sound rather than its fundamental function to get people dancing. his inquisitive, scientific mind proved to be ideally suited to his burgeoning interest in crafting futuristic electronic music as he quickly mastered the finer points of the armoury of equipment he was quickly amassing. by the early ‘90s he was up and running and within a couple of years had found refuge under the watchful eye of canadian richie hawtin and his then fledgling plus 8 label. early output such as the legendary ‘pullover’ single marked speedy out as an original, unique and highly talented individual not afraid to challenge expectations and explore far beyond the edge of the map. by 1997 speedy j began to move the goalposts. signing to london based novamute in the same year, he set about forging an album that would ultimately see him rightly proclaimed as an alchemist of sound.

both “ginger” and “g spot” may have been revolutionary at the time, yet paap ultimately sought the freedom to explore far beyond the rigid confines of the 4/4 beat. novamute’s liberal attitudes proved fertile ground as set about recording what would become “public energy no 1″, his debut album for the label. recorded in his rotterdam based home studio, it somehow falls between ornette coleman, kraftwerk, otis redding and the swans. unrestrained, untethered, yet ultimately deeply soulful, the album sees paap assuming the role of the insane conductor of a bunch of unruly machines let loose for an hour. every glitch and every mistake is captured as cold functionalism gives way to a humanity so often absent in much electronic music. brutal, forceful and extreme it may be, yet within lies a beating heart and warm refuge; its approach and disregard of convention and form is almost jazz-like. critical acclaim followed with the uk press quick to praise the unique quality of this stunning piece of work.

the next couple of years saw paap explore the furthest musical galaxies possible playing around the world at many major dance festivals including sonar and i love techno. live shows proved incendiary and soon he began to examine the role of electronic music far beyond the dancefloor. he began working with michael shamberg on the movie soundtrack to ‘souvenir’, joined forces with the dutch wind ensemble on a televised event, collaborated with japanese visual artist diazaburo harada and contributed to various television commercials.

returning to the studio in 1999, the follow up to the revolutionary “public energy no 1″ was a more relaxed affair. “a shocking hobby” was still as non- conformist as its predecessor, yet its gentle ambient washes and often mogadon pace proved a less intense experience. far from a dumbing down exercise, its eno-esque moments are with hindsight the logical conclusion to an exploration that took paap far beyond the chartered territories of electronic music and deep into the unknown. after all, “public energy no 1″ had taken him so far out even well trained translators were useless. by the end of the last decade, like many explorers before, speedy j was faced with some tricky questions. he had navigated far beyond where others had charted, and returned with a rich knowledge of the unknown.

making an about turn he returned to almost where he had begun revisiting the stark functionalism of dancefloor orientated tunes with a new found knowledge garnered from his far reaching musical voyages. last year’s single release, ‘krekc’, marked a return to basics. harsh, direct and ragingly hard, it was nonetheless a universe away from his formative outings way back in the ‘90s. recorded entirely in his home studio in rotterdam “loudboxer” is a startling return. cold and brutal, speedy utilises a decade’s worth of experience to produce an album of unrelenting ferocity. an album in two parts, the opening six tracks, beginning with ‘reenter’ unfold around a central theme with each track melding perfectly into its successor. dense, deep and atmospheric, the first half is reminiscent of berlin sound scientists basic channel. ‘inter zil’ is a logical half way house with its dreamlike snatches of speech and washes of sound before the mayhem of the second half begins with the petrifying ‘krekc’. the final half sounds like a full blown riot, ‘krikc live’ in particular is the sound of civil unrest put to music. without doubt “loudboxer” is a more dancefloor friendly outing, a trend he hopes to continue this year with his pan-global live shows and collaborations with the likes of gert-jan bijl, chris liebing and george issakidis, yet rest assured, speedy is still as far out as a space tourist who’s taken the wrong turn.

« Hide it