click to enlarge

The Electorate
by Adriel Fantastique!

Mark Farina has made a career out of bucking trends and reinventing music into a signature sound. As a DJ and producer, he is largely responsible for taking down tempo and jazz-influenced house music from the underground into the clubs.

Farina was originally introduced to dance music in Chicago. House music radio stations were the gateway that led him to begin buying records. A chance meeting with Derrick Carter on a record-buying excursion proved to be a life-changing experience. The two developed a friendship and began working on music. Along with Chris Nazuka, the two crafted a sound that paid homage to the early Chicago house and Detroit techno sounds. In 1989, Kevin Saunderson’s KMS label released “Mood,” a now classic ambient track. Released under the pseudonym Symbols in Instruments, the track sold over 35,000 units in the U.S. and U.K.

The success of that track put Farina in demand as a DJ. Hired to man the side room of a club, Farina decided to not compete with the big room house sound of the main room, instead focusing on slower, more obscure tracks. Based on the burgeoning acid jazz genre, hip-hop and house, he renamed his style “mushroom jazz,” reflecting the organic nature of his music.

Eventually migrating to San Francisco, Farina expanded the mushroom jazz concept by creating a club devoted specifically to this genre. The success of the club led to music releases and worldwide success.  | RDW

Mark Farina • 1/22 • Vain Ultra Lounge
More info: mark-farina.com

---

click to enlarge

The Zone
by Origix

Off the blocks of Detroit's Westside comes Fes Roc. You may have heard him on most of Elzhi’s albums or with Nick Speed, iLLite or Ro Spit getting a verse in on their music. But the time has finally come to focus on his own music. A packed release party at the Blind Pig for his new EP, Audio Visual, was something like a 3D listening experience of raw street-edge music with different color concepts thrown together on audio. Fes Roc explains, "This EP will introduce me back to the game because I’ve been around since the hip-hop shop days. Then life got real, so I took a hiatus from it. But I never stopped writing." A couple years ago, Fes Roc and his partner iLLite formed Kic Sounds, an independent label to push each other's releases, inspired by Slum Village, Phat Kat, Magestik Legend and others that have given them the confidence that they can get heard.

What you can hear on Audio Visual are stories of the block — raw rhyming over cuts and beats by Zhaoski, Vitamin D, Jay Hask and other Subterraneous crew members. Check it out and be on the look-out this spring for his full-length: Hustle. Visit kicsounds.com.  | RDW

The Zone Radio with Origix & DC airs Mondays 9 p.m.-12 a.m. 89.3 FM, stream atwhfr.fm. Visit 2raw4fm.com.

---

click to enlarge

Motor City Burning
by Max McKenna

It’s been a big first year for the D.I.Y. label Woodbridge Records. The three up-and-coming bands on the label, Noman, The Summer Pledge and I, Crime have been working hard in the studio and on the road expanding their territories.

The Summer Pledge recently returned home from a tour of the East Coast and plan on releasing a new seven-inch, Recurring Dream, in February. Then I, Crime is releasing a 12-inch and CD combo in a screen-printed package in spring before embarking on their own national tour in the summer. Noman plans to continue working on a full-length album over the winter while working on the building that Woodbridge Records resides in, lovingly referred to as “The Shack.” Over the past year, the guys have been trying to make their dreams a reality by constantly making small improvements to their home/label HQ and building their studio space.

Noman’s Andrew Beer is always thinking about his band and the label he started since he’s never far away, living there in "The Shack" and working directly across the street at Woodbridge Pub, using the money he earns to fund his passion.

To celebrate the year gone by, Noman, The Summer Pledge and I, Crime are each playing a set at their inaugural anniversary show on January 22. Kicking off the festivities is a set from Nick Lucassian of Catfish Mafia with DJs of Cupcake Collective spinning between sets.  | RDW

Noman, The Summer Pledge and I, Crime • 1/22 The Magic Stick

---

click to enlarge

Deep Cutz
by Jeff Milo

This is a great time of year for goosebumps-pop, sunny-afternoon grooves, warm tones and soothing melodies — you know what I’m saying — a cracklin’-to-roarin’ fire type of music.

The summery name may help warm up our winter blues, but Ann Arbor’s Light in August are on the vanguard of SE-MI’s new school of pop — particularly a style that embraces intricate arrangements, jazzy-inflections, toe-tapping rhythms and knows when to let certain accoutrements like flute, or boy-girl trade-off harmonies (or even sitar) shine.

Vampire Weekend have a new record out for you, but if you’re hungry for more of those sunny hooks and honeyed, high-ish/wispy vocal delivery, then why not buy local? Or for that matter, if you’re hungry for a trio (Mark Fain — bass, Alex Wand — guitar/vocals, Max Stewart — drums) who appreciate spectacle-sized, orchestral pop, from the subtlest of Nick Drake to the invigoration of Wilco, then head to the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, on Saturday, to see Light in August (myspace.com/lightinaugustmusic) open for that city’s equally-notable, unadulterated-folk-flavored Frontier Ruckus (myspace.com/frontierruckus).

L.I.A.’s auxiliaries include flautists Rachel Woolf and Ann Dearth — and also on that bill are The White Pines. Then, if you’re Detroit-bound this weekend, try Detroit’s punk/pop institution, New Grenada, in the newly-renovated Majestic (Theatre) Café. Majesticdetroit.com.  | RDW

Frontier Ruckus w/ Light In August • 1/23 • Blind Pig



© Copyright by RealDetroitWeekly.com