BASEMENT: Juliana Huxtable / Egotot / Shyboi
STUDIO: Gabrielle Kwarteng / 8ULENTINA / Lydo
X-TRA.SERVICES rounds out the month with a massive lineup of some of NY’s most commanding DJs. BASEMENT brings together some of the city’s heaviest with a special overseas guest. Juliana Huxtable is an essential, vital voice in the American techno community. Fearlessly traversing the worlds of art, poetry and music, her work finds global recognition in every form it takes. Rigorously nonconforming, Huxtable redefines techno by her rules, summoning an energy that is by turns cathartic, phantasmagoric, caustic and soulful. Germany’s Egotot specializes in “impulsive techno,” channeling his experience as a breakdancer into cracking percussive throwdowns. Not one to waste a single moment of a set, the Schimmer Records owner homes in on tightly wound loop techno with a vicious funk. Shyboi is a force to be reckoned with. The Discwoman artist has an unassailable track record, leaving dancefloors absolutely melted with frightening consistency. Her fusion of destructive techno and powerful Caribbean rhythms is impossible to ignore.
Gabrielle Kwarteng brings an expressive house sound to balance things out in STUDIO. The NY-based artists has quickly become a global name: she’s a regular at Panorama Bar and featured at such revered festivals as Dekmantel Selectors, Fluid and Glastonbury. Her mixes weave together archival treasures from the 80s and 90s with an of-the-moment sensibility, refreshing the retro, disco-inflected grooves. Club Chai co-founder 8ULENTINA ignores genre constraints, instead creating “diasporic spaces” in their productions and sets. Their tracks blend Arab & West Asian musics with the high-tempo syncopations of footwork and drum n bass. Their recent “Hysteria of Origin” extends this core practice into enthralling new realms. “Hysteria is actually an interesting place to be in,” they said in a recent interview, “because instead of having to figure it out, I like to be evolving constantly in how I identify myself.” Lydo sneaks into STUDIO. The X-TRA.SERVICES organizer is beloved in NY for their fluid-yet-slamming take on techno, and their sets at BASEMENT have become essential listening. Here they have an opportunity perhaps to throw a curveball. No matter the context, Lydo always delivers.
