As the summer winds down, September usually sees the kick-off of proper concert touring season for the fall. When it comes to electronic music, this month is no exception. With a big-name indie dance act like Hercules and Love Affair rolling through town alongside a Chicago house veteran like Gene Farris, the dance floors in Dallas should be plenty full this month.
Trillwave 2 Year Anniversary Party with Nevermind at It'll Do 9/19
Trillwave celebrates it's two year anniversary bringing in some west coast vets in the form of Nevermind, a collaboration between Grenier & Petey Clicks. Petey Clicks is mostly know for his association with the Clicks & Whistle crew while Grenier in another life was known as the meditative dubstep genius DJG. As DJG, he made his mark as one of the deepest of American bass producers in the mid-2000s with a sound that was closer to the spaced-out dub techno of Basic Channel than the brostep that has since become popular. They have teamed to release an EP as Nevermind on the infamous Trouble & Bass label. The music fuses grime, house, techno and bass music, often all on the same track. It's a formula that could easily get a little muddled in sound, but in the hands of these seasoned producers makes for a very inviting dance floor thump.
Hercules & the Love Affair at Club Dada 9/24
Since Hercules and Love Affair charged on to the world dance music scene in 2008 with their self-titled debut album for indie dance-label giant DFA, they have always worn their love of synth-driven disco and old school house on their sleeve. Since then they have been living in the shadow of that initial success. After suffering from a somewhat meandering second album Blue Songs, their third studio album, The Feast of the Broken Heart, is a full on return to form. More than their previous efforts they have committed to a very raw old school drum machine house sound. They came through Dallas not that long ago for a DJ set. This time they are passing through with the full live band. They are not a band that tours America very often and their Dallas show is their only Texas date.
Tycho at Granada 9/22
Not exactly club music but firmly rooted in the ambient tradition, Tycho have evolved over the past decade from the one-man act of Scott Hansen to the four-piece band he tours and records with now. Tycho made waves in 2006 with his Past is Prologue album on the seminal IDM label Merck, but have been a staple on the well renowned Ghostly International since their 2009 "Coastal Break" single. On their latest release, Awake, Tycho seems to have fully embraced a kind of mid-'90s post-rock vibe -- a less complicated Tortoise with instrumental synth pop overtones. The live show is known for being an audio and visual treat with video projections that are very much in sync with the ambient wash.
Brookes Brothers at Red Light Lounge 9/5
Although the official opening party for the new Red Light Lounge is not until October 3, they are already starting to bring in some shows throughout the month of September starting with London-based drum and bass duo Brookes Brothers. Continuing a streak of top-shelf drum and bass names passing through Dallas this year, the Brookes Brothers take more of a U.K. R&B and soul twist to the sound. They are residents at the world famous London super club Fabric, making them staples of the modern drum and bass scene. Their self-titled debut album came out in 2011 on Breakbeat Kaos.
Gene Farris at It'll Do 9/27
If you need your house music fix it's always a treat when it can be delivered by old-school Chicago DJs, and Gene Farris definitely falls into that category. He has been dropping singles since the mid-'90s on labels as varied as Force Inc., Farris Wheel Records and Soma Quality. His most notable releases come by way of Chicago legend Green Velvet's Casual and Relief. Farris has been a torchbearer for the classic Chicago sound. He just released his latest album Cosmos this past June. It's an album firmly rooted in a straight jacking Chicago House and laced with enough funk and disco breaks to keep people shaking their shoes all night.
