Sept 23 – Stacey Pullen, Bardia F, Dean Samaras
BUY TICKETS TABLE RESERVATIONS
STACEY PULLEN
Stacey Pullen is the Kosmik Messenger. An innovator from the second wave of Detroit techno, he grew up under the mentorship of Detroit’s legendary three: Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson. Still continuing to produce his characteristic atmosphere laden electronic sound, Stacey Pullen compounds his reputation as a producer with that of being one of the world’s most in demand DJs, playing weekly across the globe year in year out. With a font of passion for music and performance that never dries up, Stacey Pullen still plays every gig from the heart, seeking to surprise and engage, to provide an unforgettable experience, to offer his unique catalogue up without predictability, defying expectation. Above all, from his earliest attempts to the current day Stacey Pullen has stayed true to his one goal: to become and to always be an Innovator.
From the age of 9, when he started playing flute in his school band, Stacey has always been playing musical instruments. In high school he found himself traveling around to a lot of cities in the USA playing percussion in school bands, which gave him a taste of – and preparation for – the traveling involved in life as a musician. He had also seen and been prepared for a musician’s life from watching his father who was in a Motown band called the Capitals in the 1970’s, filling much of Stacey’s childhood with observations of a life dedicated to music and travel.
Around 1985, while Stacey was still drumming and traveling with his high school band, the Detroit Techno movement was born, and provided a revolutionary sound to the youth of Detroit. Stacey Pullen and some friends from his band took their cue from musical leaders like Jeff Mills and Electrifying Mojo Radio and began to experiment with turntables and a mixer. He also started clubbing around the age of 15, the first club he frequented was called ‘The Primadonna’, the first DJ he remembered was a local legend called Alan Ester and the first music he was clubbing to was called ‘Progressive Music’ – not in the sense of the word that we currently understand, but because, in Stacey’s words “the meaning of ‘progressive’ was a futuristic way of thinking about music.” After graduating he went to university in Tennessee, leaving techno behind apart from mix tapes and weekend jaunts back to Detroit to go to legendary club the Music Institute. After a couple of years, Stacey realised his future was in music not academics, and he abandoned his course and moved home to make music full time.
Through The Music Institute, Stacey quickly got to know the leading lights of Detroit’s underground: Alton Miller, Chez Damier, Derrick May. Alton was living in the same building as the club, and showed Stacey a lot of the background activity, including watching Derrick May making his tapes for his weekly radio show. Stacey approached Derrick, told him that he made music and Derrick invited him to play some to him. From here, Stacey started hanging out at the Transmat studios and became friends with Jay Denham, who was recording on Transmat sub label Fragile as ‘Fade to Black’. Stacey watched Jay work, absorbed a lot of knowledge, and from there Stacey started putting more sophisticated beats together, making his first real tracks. He played some to Derrick who told him “ it’s cool but you need to work harder” – which Stacey resolved to do and went back to the studio.
A couple of years later, in 1992, Derrick suggested that a good way to develop his skills would be for Stacey to do some remix work with Kevin Saunderson. Stacey began to work with Kevin on remixes including one for Karen White -‘The Way I Feel About You’ and some which never made it to print, including one for the Prodigy. While Kevin was originally commissioned, he asked Stacey to do his own remix. The Prodigy liked it, but their label didn’t. Stacey kept the backing track without the Prodigy samples, and turned it into his first track which was later released through a subsidiary of KMS in 1993. After some more time perfecting his craft Stacey again played some original sounds to Derrick, who agreed to release his first Silent Phase track ‘Ritual Beating System’ as the ‘Bango EP’ on Fragile, which was Derrick’s experimental label. Stacey was also invited to submit this track, “Wave The Rave Goodbye”, to a compilation of new Detroit artists on KMS. At this point Stacey truly became part of the Transmat/Metroplex/KMS team – the three studios worked very closely together, and were housed on different floors of the same building in downtown Detroit.
In early 1993 Derrick, who was spending most of his time outside the USA at that time, started encouraging Stacey to play gigs in Europe to widen his audience and support the single. He invited Stacey to join him in Amsterdam for a month – that month became a year. He moved in with Derrick and together they toured Europe every weekend playing Detroit techno to what Stacey remembers as an enthusiastic and interested audience. Stacey began to play high profile gigs at clubs like London’s Ministry of Sound and Paris’s Rex Club, and began meeting the DJs and artists who worked in Europe like Laurent Garnier, Frank De Woolf and Renat and Marcus Loan from Belgian super label R & S, who invited Stacey into the studios to make a record. This ended up becoming the first Silent Phase album, ‘Theory of Silent Phase’ in 1994.
After a year, Stacey moved back to Detroit, ready to establish himself and start his own label. Throughout 1994 he commuted between Europe and the USA, finishing the Silent Phase album at R & S and DJing. He also made his first trips to Japan, South East Asia and Australia to DJ. By then he had released another Fragile track ‘The Sphinx’ as Bango, and the first Silent Phase album was ready for release on Transmat in association with R & S. Flooding in after the album release were a lot of offers for Stacey to record on other labels, including one from Mr. C to record on his UK label Plink Plonk. This resulted in a couple of released on Plink Plonk by the alias ‘Kosmik Messenger’ – ‘Eye to Eye’ and ‘Flash’ -both released in 1995. Stacey was also DJing a lot of dates at The End and around Europe, which continued non stop until 1997. Through his releases on Plink Plonk, Stacey was then invited to release on the new Belgian label ‘Elypsia’ as ‘Kosmic Messenger’, which led to the release of his second LP ‘The Kollected Works of Kosmic Messenger’, which Stacey recollects as a ‘straight up techno album’ for him, after the more spiritual first album on Transmat.
In 1998 Stacey was invited to produce his very first major label release on Virgin Records, and at the same time was planning to open the label he had wanted to start
for about three years ‘BlackFlag’. He recorded a more conceptual LP ‘Today is the Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday ‘ for Virgin imprint ‘Science’, the first under his own name. He was very influenced by his research into the history of Jazz, and – with the support of Virgin – used unorthodox ideas including the inclusion of an Opera Singer on one track ‘Vertigo’. He also released remixes from influential artists of the time like Dave Angel and 4Hero. He also started his first label Black Flag Recordings with his partner of that time, and started releasing records as ‘Black Odyssey’, starting with ‘Sweat’ in 1998 and then ‘The Stand in 2000’.
Around that time, as vinyl started to look a little shakier and after 8 years of consecutive releasing and touring, Stacey took a break from recording. He began to ramp up his DJing schedule even more, and spent the next 4 to 5 years concentrating mainly on furthering his own musical education. Through this time, Stacey’s reputation as a DJ became as much of a draw card as his reputation as a producer, and he became renowned for long, experimental, adventurous and soulful journeys through music lasting at least 5 hours. He sees each set as a ‘best of’ all dance music through time – there is no one style he prefers, Stacey just plays the best of everything, with an emphasis on passion and innovation: no two sets are alike.
2010 sees Stacey still on the road DJing bringing his signature eclecticism to some lucky part of the planet. As a result, every set becomes more personalised, more unique, and indisputably a window into Stacey’s musical passions. The lure of this technological innovation has also brought Stacey back to the studio, making his own tracks and executive producing other artists. Also, excitingly, he has rekindled his BlackFlag label plans to release older material which has never been heard before. The new releases from BlackFlag will be available starting 2010 with the kick off single “Alive” and the follow up release “Get Up”.
DEAN SAMARAS
Collaborating on music together for almost a decade, Ben Seagren and Dean Samaras are at the forefront of the San Francisco Electronic Dance Music scene showcasing a diverse unique sounds ranging from large rooms to dark and dirty afterhours. Both of them landed in the city by the Bay by leaving the brights lights and dark dance clubs of Manhattan in 2000; bringing with them heavy NYC influences (Danny Tenaglia, Victor Calderone, Little Louie Vega, David Morales & Junior Vasquez) that are the roots of their musical experience.
Meeting through mutual friends, Ben and Dean formed SENSE in 2001 to take full control of their events from the music to the production and marketing/promotions. They have performed, produced shows and held residencies at various venues over the years: However, they truly made a name for themselves from their long standing residencies at two of San Francisco’s premier venues: Ruby Skye and the Endup.
Ruby Skye (2008 Best Club – World Club Awards, 2006 Best Sound – World Club Awards) has solidified itself the best big room in San Francisco and a leading nightclub in the world (DJ Mag 2009 – 2 in US, 25 in World). Over its 7 year Main Floor residency, SENSE has shared the stage with: Victor Calderone, Ferry Corsten, Armin Van Burren, Boris, Richie Santana and Peter Bailey, Oscar G, Charles Feelgood, Tall Paul, Scumfrog, Dave Dresden, Sandra Collins and Mark Farina to name a few.
The Endup has been open for over 35 years and is a San Francisco house music institution where the music never stops…literally. Ben and Dean have been 6am Sunday morning favorites for more than 4 years and currently produce the monthly event, The Show (3rd Saturdays). These 14 hour marathon events celebrate the diversity of underground dance music as they feature music from all genres. SENSE has played with: Clive Henry (Peace Division), Hippe and Halo, Lee Coombs and many more.
With more then 25 years combined DJ experience between the two, their sets push the limits of creativity with live sampling, remixing, effects and flawless mixing. With the recent completion of their SF based production studio, they are already captivating crowds with the exclusive “Sense Edits”. Expect big things from this talented duo. Ben has been working hard in the studio so keep an eye out for his first original productions coming out soon!
BARDIA F
Bardia Farhadian is known best for his productions under his co-owned record production company, Blue Orb and Red Orb Records. As a Persian-American producer, his roots of electronica started in Tehran, Iran and then to Istanbul, Turkey and eventually brought him to San Francisco and their underground scene. Then, inspired by his wife’s, DJ ThuyVu’s, musical pursuits and accomplishments, Bardia began djing at BPM Festival, Public Works, Monarch, Audio SF, Vessel SF, The Endup, Harlot, 2nd Sunday, Mighty, BeatBox and at Nikki Beach, Mexico. Public Works continues to carry his monthly residency where his dark, banging techno and tech-house sound thrives best.
His inspirations are drawn from highly creative people and exotic locales: Adam Beyer, Stacey Pullen, Audiofly, Philip Arruda, Rooz – SF, ThuyVu, Carlo Lio, and Loco Dice; and traveling to legendary capitals of dance music including Burning Man, Miami, and Playa del Carmen BPM Festival.
Embracing the most avant garde tools and technology, Bardia endorses Ableton Live in his productions to create forward-thinking music set to strike any dancefloor for any occasion.
His newest EP is on Stacey Pullen’s Label Blackflag.
