Wrecked is the brainchild of Ron Like Hell and Ryan Smith, two NYC DJs whose creative partnership has lasted nearly fifteen years. The music first queer party has made its home at BASEMENT since the club’s opening in 2019 and is by far its most regular party. Ron and Ryan’s styles are undeniably distinct but so, so complementary. Each artist shares a wide-open approach, defined less by genre than mood, both bringing a painterly touch and sense of spontaneity that is matched by a craftiness honed over decades. Ron Like Hell explains: “Being focussed on the grooves and approaching [DJing] as art reveals your technique. Perfect beat alignment is whatever to me, it’s the phrasing that matters most… The DJ needs to understand that their story is what is holding the crowd’s attention, not robotic precision. If you go out and look for mistakes then you are a cop distracted by what is wrong with everything. It’s not healthy… Chill and let the bass and harmony of the music be your guide.” Well put.
The Carry Nation is the duo of Nita Aviance and Will Automagic, two NYC house DJs with exquisite b2b chemistry. It’s also the name of their similarly-long-running queer party, which has been an undeniable staple in the city since a chance encounter brought them together over 20 years ago. It’s also the name of their production duo, of course, whose intermittent output is unimpeachably excellent, drawing on the raw sounds of Chicago and sultry east coast house. Behind the decks, they display a mastery of a quintessentially-NY strain of club music, playing with a remarkable fluidity and control. They often veer from strict one-for-one track selection and go into “octopus style” mixing. “I might say: ‘I’ve got an a cappella, you’ve got a beat,” Nita explains. “Let’s do two things at once.’”
As The Carry Nation and Wrecked found their first footing, Shaun J. Wright was also emerging as an heir to Chicago’s house music legacy. A native of the windy city, he would stay up late as a preteen, calling into radio stations to source track ID’s late into the night. “At some point they would recognise my voice,” he remembers, “and say, ‘Shaun go to bed, it’s midnight’.” Participation in vogue balls, fashion studies in London and early musical explorations brought him into contact with Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler, and soon he joined the group as the primary vocalist. Similarly to the Wrecked and Carry crews, Wright bridged eras and began to develop a powerful artistic voice, both literally as a vocalist and also as a DJ. “It was after parting ways with Hercules and Love Affair that I made a concerted effort to place DJing at the forefront of my artistic practices. I love making music and singing, but I feel most free when I DJ.”
Detroit-born DJ Minx, aka “First Lady of Wax,” has a story that begins even earlier. She came up during techno’s foundational years, witnessing a golden age in real time. Her sensibility as a DJ and producer was shaped by key encounters with some of the genre’s primary architects, and one of her earliest records - the mysterious and hypnotic “A Walk In The Park” - found a home on Richie Hawtin’s M_nus. She founded her own Women On Wax around this same time as an HQ for both her own work and other femme (though not exclusively) producers like Diviniti and Viermalair. Over decades of activity, she’s maintained an unwavering musical vision. It’s only recently, however, that she publicly came out as a lesbian. “I didn’t know that so many people would look up to me because of it. People that want to be artists that are queer, that are in the closet, some of them need the support to actually help them get out.”
In this, she mirrors the tenacity and perseverance of her friends and peers on the lineup. Collectively, they all embody a joyfully unbridled creativity, a hard-earned authority on the decks and a sense of generous, community-minded pleasure seeking rooted in queer history and a vast repertoire of unstoppable music. Every artist on this lineup is the real deal on their own, and together they’re incredible. Happy New Year.