Next weekend, we host Sara Landry for two back-to-back nights. Landry invites KDC regular Kyruh alongside Spencer Dunning and Selective Response to join her for a HEKATE showcase on Thursday the 14th. The following night, she plays all night long. The latter has been sold out since the day it was announced, and the former will catch up well before the day of show.
This double-top-billing is notable considering where she is in her career. In March of 2022, she played her debut set at BASEMENT. Two years later, she’s careened to the top, with huge appearances around the world, a massive fanbase and a newly-minted label: HEKATE Records. Beyond her hard-hitting performances and crafty selections, these back-to-back nights are one of many milestones that stand as a testament to her undeniable resonance with her audience.
Landry describes herself as the “High Priestess of Techno.” (when she played BASEMENT, she was the “high priestess of Ableton.” Given how sprawling and complex Ableton is, it’s hard to say which is more impressive.) The title suggests a degree of sorcery and ritual, and her productions do indeed hammer with a transfigurative intensity. Pick a spot at random in her sets and you’re likely to hear air raid sirens, anxiety-inducing shepard tones, or the kind of alarms that a spaceship blasts out in its countdown to self-destruct. This is not a drill. Hardcore and gabber, sibling genres that a few years ago seemed far too gauche to be allowed anywhere near tastemaking hubs like Berghain, have in recent years become the ghost pepper-grade spice that has reignited techno for the next generation.
Landry is right at the front of this movement. Her “Bad Bitch Flips” fuse of-the-moment rap vocals with turned-to-11 techno battering rams. There’s an unapologetic ferocity to these tracks, with an alchemical fusion that goes just a bit farther than the novelty of mash ups. Landry fully commits, and while purists may tut tut the garish peacockery of the youth, she nails it. God help her audience, they’re in for the ride of their lives.
On April 6th the third edition of RUSH takes place. The series, produced by our in-house team and curated by BASEMENT’s GeGa Japaridze and Téa Abashidze, demonstrates the full power of Knockdown Center. Booking cutting-edge artists who play fast, hard and on the edge of control, RUSH turns the beautiful wood-and-concrete Main Hall into our version of a mega club: blinding strobes, a towering LED wall and enough sound to knock you on your ass. The crowd is invited to surround the DJ, and the music pushes our L-Acoustics system (almost) to its limits.
This edition features a headlining set from Len Faki alongside Daria Kolosova, Volvox and Concrete Husband. All artists have put in serious time in the room. Faki played Knockdown Center last year, Kolosova is a WIRE veteran, and Volvox and Concrete Husband are both BASEMENT favorites.
Unlike previous RUSH editions, the top name can’t be described as a “young gun.” Faki is an eminent member of techno’s ruling class, a well-seasoned DJ well past the barnstorming years of one’s career. But don’t be fooled, he can more than keep up. The Figure Records boss is an absolute maestro, with a to-the-bone grasp of his genre that allows him to evolve with the times without sacrificing his voice or chasing trends. Seeing Len Faki perform is like watching someone free climb a cliff face. There’s an authority and assuredness that can only come with decades of experience, and he has it in spades. Time to show these kids how it’s done.
WIRE will get its own newsletter soon enough; with two nights of music plus a day party on Sunday, talks, lighting installations and an ambient stage, there’s a lot to say. For now, let’s do a fly-over. The big news? To start, Surgeon performs live. The Birmingham artist is one of but a few names, like Jeff Mills or Basic Channel, that really cannot be fucked with. Starting in the early ‘90s, alongside artists like Karl O’Connor (aka Regis) and Oliver Ho (aka Broken English Club), he forged a more brutal path through techno, combining industrial severity, post-punk subversion and the throttling momentum of Detroit into something timeless. If albums like Basictonalvocabulary and Force+Form were all he did, his reputation would be secure. But he’s never quit and never flagged in quality, giving the world one of electronic music’s most consistently exciting and vital bodies of work, in any genre.
In addition to that booking coup, this WIRE extends into Sunday, with the festival’s first ever Ruins takeover. In its first year, WIRE was staunchly techno. For 2023’s follow up, the Ambient Stage was added, offering a respite from the storm. 2024’s addition of the Ruins balances the festival’s customary diet of shattering sonics with a more fluid, dare-we-say house-y counterpoint. Roi Perez, Massimiliano Pagliara, The Carry Nation and other artists beloved for the STUDIO sets run the closing, giving a weekend of rampant intensity a glorious, cathartic finish.