Soma Corp presents: BLOW YOUR OWN WAY feat. Kenny Larkin (Detroit, USA)
Friday 3rd December 2004
Public Office - 100 Adderley St, West Melbourne
10pm - 6:30am
On the brink of Utopia we stand our ground, electronic militia of the urban ghetto. Unified through frequency, we blow towards to the digital future without compromise as the battle for supremacy rages above. Penetrate the underground resistance. Program the Art Of Dance. Perfect the play and push the envelope...welcome to Metropolis. Temperature outside is 25 degrees Celsius. Wind velocity is clocked at 60 miles per hour. Morph the metaphor and melt the mainframe. Metropolis metaphysical. Move from yesterday to tomorrow to today...fuck the system and Blow Your Own Way.
MAIN ROOM:
Kenny Larkin [3 hours]
Phunk De Sonique 100% LIVE
Ben Cromack
Mike Callander
Damian Laird
Will Cameron
OUTDOOR ROOFTOP:
Spacey Space
Agent 86
Dave Pham
Askew
Tahl vs Rowie
ARTIST BIO:
Stand up comedy and music. Two entirely different forms of expression that share hardly any similarities. In the case of Kenny Larkin, they have everything to do with each other, because Larkin glides between the two effortlessly, and with aplomb. For the last few years, Larkin has been on a self-imposed, music hiatus, in order to pursue his comedy career in some of the biggest comedy clubs in L.A, inching his way closer to a prized regular spot at one of the top 3 clubs. Larkin accomplishes this while maintaining a hectic schedule of spinning records across the globe for his many fans built throughout the years.
Once his comedy career was established, Larkin turned his focus back to his music. The year 2004 will prove to be, quite arguably, the best year for Larkin musically. Larkin has completed two genre-bending, beautifully sculpted projects for release.
Peacefrog Records has just released his new album. This release goes against what has all but destroyed the term techno in recent years. For so many, the term "techno" signifies all that is harsh, abrasive, and noisy in dance music. But there are those, like Larkin, for whom that reductive definition will not do. His first new offering in 6 years, entitled "The Narcissist", constantly reminds the listener that melody and rhythm are not mutually exclusive categories. That their intersection is the space where the imagination truly takes hold. The uncompromising modernity he injects into this body of work, thrusts him into an indefinable genre of electronic music. Those who know Larkin's style know he is a man who sets no definable limits in his music. Terms like techno soul, funky, jazzy, ambient, come to mind, but still does little justice in describing what this album accomplishes. Without slipping into the self-absorbed excesses characterizing so much electronic music today, Larkin emphasizes what many electronic artists' today never dreamt of making. That is great music. If you are at all interested in where electronic music has traveled and where it is going, look to Larkin in 2004.
With the deluge of techno artists from all over the world making headlines, it's easy (although very wrong) to forget that techno was created in Detroit, Michigan by African-American visionaries like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May. From that influential tradition stems Larkin, one of the freshest new techno faces in America. Kenny Larkin began his music career in 1989 after serving two years in the U.S. Air Force repairing computers. Hanging out at local Detroit clubs like The Shelter and The Music Institute, he soon hooked up with Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva and started to record for their Plus 8 label.
In 1992, Kenny founded his own imprint Art Of Dance and released his most critically acclaimed projects Dark Comedy, Yennek, and his more eccentric Pod project. In 1994, Kenny released his first album, entitled Azimuth, on Warp Records/TVT. The album was hailed by European and U.S. press as one of the most original techno albums to date. 1995 was a v