Atom™ (Señor Coconut) Live! Safety Scissors Live! and more!

Logistics:

Date: Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Time: 10pm – 4am
Cost: This is a members only event. Become a member below!
Location:
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts
998 Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

Become a Member

This is a members only event. Please support creative technology and become a member! Members receive 10% off of all GAFFTA workshops and selected events. Find out more about your membership here.

Overview:

If you don’t know him as Atom ™, perhaps you know this legend as Señor Coconut, Atom Heart, CMYK, MIDIsport, or as 1/2 of the group Flanger, DATacide, or HAT? Uwe Schmidt is one of the most prolific musicians of the last 20 years. He has been beacon of innovation in the international music scene. He has released over 70 records under various pseudonyms on prestigious labels such as Germany’s Raster Noton and LA-based Nacional Records. We are honored to present to you his San Francisco debut!
In San Francisco, Matthew Patterson Curry needs very little introduction. A long time resident of San Francisco, Safety Scissors has made a quite a name for himself producing some of the era’s defining techno. Twisted with an abstract pop-sensibility, his music always sets the fun meter to 11 and gets the dance floor moving. He has released on some of electronic music’s most esteemed imprints: ~scape, Plug Research, BPitch Control, Carpark, and Context.

Come dance with us late into the night! We have just installed our new 8 channel speaker array and will be displaying some of GAFFTA’s researcher’s live visuals. The rest of the evening’s music will be provided by San Francisco residents Christina Chatfield, Cullen Miller and Atish. This one is not to be missed!

Atom™ – LIVE A/V Set

(Raster-Noton / Nacional Records)

Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart, Atom™, Señor Coconut), is a German composer, musician and producer of electronic music. He is often regarded as the father of electrolatino, electrogospel and aciton (acid-reggaeton) music. Uwe Schmidt is one of the most successful and prolific German electronic music producers from the early 90′s.

Born in Frankfurt, Uwe Schmidt’s early works “Binary” and “Cloned” were released in 1992 under the moniker of Lassigue Bendthaus. These were followed in 1993 by “Datacide II” and “Coeur Atomique”, both released under his most pupular moniker, Atom Heart, and “Experimental Post Techno Swing” under the name of Lisa Carbon.

In 1994, Uwe Schmidt started his own Rather Interesting label to release his own electronic productions under an uncountable array of different monikers (more than 20), including the ones of Datacide, Almost Digital, CMYK, Dr Mueller, Erik Satin, Interactive Music and Ongaku. Throughout all these identities Schmid has approached different styles from dancefloor stuff to trance and ambient. He has developed a successful career as an industrial dance producer, specially referring the works signed as Lassigue Bendthaus.

In 1997, Schmidt moved to Santiago de Chile, South-America, and got influenced by the latin rhythms, producing a set of funny works under the name of Sr. Coconut where he fussioned a latin orchestra with Kraftwerk‘s classics reaching international success. These project includes the albums “El Gran Baile Con Señor Coconut” (1997) and “El Baile Alemán” (2000) as Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto. Uwe Schmidt is also well known for his prolific collaborations with other artists, including Pete Namlook, Tetsu Inoue and Bill Laswell.

Safety Scissors

(~scape / BPitch Control)

In the early stages of Matthew Patterson Curry’s musical adventures he was surrounded by the likes of Kit Clayton, Sutekh, Twerk, Kid 606, and Matmos who provided musical support and inspiration for his first forays into production under his Safety Scissors moniker. In May of 2000 at the very first Mutek Festival, he debuted his singing and electronic music in a live context. The dub-tinged techno pop was culled into Plug Research album Parts Water which received wads of international praise. Subsequent worldwide touring and invitations to well respected festivals soon followed, leading him to his obligatory Berlin stint. With Tainted Lunch, his second full length album, he strayed further from his initial techno roots, defining his own brand of “dork pop”. His non-singer singing was more present and the structures echoed radio friendly tunes enlisting musical help from friends Kevin Blechdom, Francoise Cactus (Stereo Total), and Erlend Øye. He also has lent his talents for numerous remixes of artists in all shapes in sizes (including Matmos, Sketch Show featuring two members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and indie bands like Grizzly Bear and Architecture In Helskinki). During all this he also founded his Proptronix label, releasing acclaimed acts like My Robot Friend and the Pigeon Funk project. Returning to San Francisco eventually he became an audio slave for an Emmy award winning cable network, while he still hung out with his synthesizer friends at night. His record collection shifted from the newer electronic releases to vintage late disco, early house and Italo disco. He’s recently moved all of those records, as well as his synthesizers, to New York where he will wrap up his next album and dj his eclectic record collection for you.

Christina Chatfield

(Beretta Grey)

Christina Chatfield is a techno and house producer and live performer based out of San Francisco, California. She is an avid user of both hardware and software in the studio, with the use of analog synthesizers giving her music a unique, organic sound that is her own. Her live sets have garnered near-unanimous praise, earning her a residency with San Francisco event producer As You Like It. Working under her own name and also the pseudonym Anitserk, she has released on Detroit label Beretta Grey, Klectik Records, and Racecar Productions.

Cullen Miller

(Konque / Igloo-Pop)

San Francisco-based sound artist and composer Cullen Miller synthesizes an abstract hybrid of aleatoric pop, dub, and minimalism. Incorporating original field recordings, heavy use of digital signal processing, vocal hooks, strip club synths, and traditional jazz arrangements, Miller weaves together a musical tapestry that is threaded by clicky pop and techno. His compositional endeavors began by learning double bass and studying contemporary classical and jazz theory under the Netherlands based composer and bassist, Chad Langford. After his studies, Miller’s obsession with experimentation led him to an interest in designing performance tools with custom software. He is currently a resident at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and is developing performances for their multichannel immersive audio environment. Miller performs periodically with his 7 piece electroacoustic ensemble, Santa and under his dub guise, Selande. He has releases on Igloo-Rec (AR), Konque (NYC), and Cunei Media (SF).

Atish

(Tutu Tuesday)

In San Francisco’s dance music community, where everyone is a dj or a dj’s best friend, Atish Mehta has succeeded in making a name for himself at a staggering rate. He dances the line between party devotee and focused artist with a charismatic stage presence and a thoughtful approach to track selections. Citing Lee Burridge, Danny Howells, and Dan Bell as his biggest EDM influences, Atish invites his audience on a musical journey, preferring longer time slots that allow him to indulge eclectic tastes. He weaves a magical carpet of melodic deep house, percussive tech-house, and synthy nu-disco that floats seamlessly across many hours.

A Chicago native, Atish spent his suburban youth discovering house music on the radio and playing suzuki-trained violin from age five. He dabbled in marching bands, jazz bands, rock bands, and had a brief stint in hip-hop production before eventually making his way back to house music upon his introduction to the colorful nightlife of San Francisco’s underground in 2008.

Over a bewilderingly short time span, Atish has firmly grounded himself as a rising star alongside a crew of like-minded compadres who execute underground events under the apt alias of House-Heads. Atish was recently added to the listed bookings roster after having been featured in a handful of Listed Productions across the country. In just one whirlwind year, he has released multiple mesmerizing mixes on Proton Radio, launched a monthly radio show called Deepartures on etn.fm and created a shining local presence as the sole resident of 222 Hyde’s most successful monthly party, Tutu Tuesday.

2011 has been a wildly exciting year for this ambitious young artist. Atish’s disarming humility in the face of enviable opportunities is balanced with an infectious enthusiasm that has led him being called upon to open for prestigious and diverse acts. He has shared the decks with Craig Richards, Guido Schneider, Sammy Dee, Troy Pierce, Dyed Soundorom to name a few. Global engagements ranging from BPM festival in Mexico to the listed Tikki boat party at WMC in Miami to Robot Heart at Burning Man, Atish’s performances and spontaneous tagging alongside the ever inspiring Lee Burridge have been some of his most entertaining appearances to date. We are certain the future offers many more surprises from the quirky, up and coming Atish Mehta.

Visualists:

Ryan Alexander

Ryan Alexander is an artist living and working in San Francisco, California. There he experiments with programmatic artworks, live visuals, and procedural forms.

Heavens Hinkey

Under a multitude of monikers, Heavens Hinky has been performing live video stunts with Safety Scissors’ since 2003. The cast of characters has included silk worms, salt crystals, kazoo spy cameras, ladybugs, minitaure train riders, screen doors, miscellaneous items from the spice rack, human body parts, rescued baby mice, and an unfortunate incident with Sea Monkeys. In their first show together, Hinky lost a silkworm in the basement of Pompidou and has since been nervous of a Tremors sequel. The two also co-created and curated the infamous Eggs club nights in San Francisco from 2005-07 as a sanctitude for weird music, conceptual drag, food, and sweat to curiously commingle in foggy but memorable evenings.