Function – Bassiani Podcast 186 Tracklist
Function’s tale begins with a gregarious mother who would keep him occupied as rookie selector for neighbourhood gatherings while growing up in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Music was his world, and it wasn’t long before he found himself standing in awe before Jeff Mills in 90s NYC at the infamous nerve centre of Club Kid hedonism Limelight, where he went on to pick up a Thursday-night residency himself. Few DJs can claim to have been around during such a moment in club history, but ten years later came another. His friendships with Regis, Silent Servant and Female turned into the much acclaimed collective Sandwell District, a pivotal sound for an era that forced everyone’s attention towards Berlin. There he became Berghain resident and played a role in shaping the club’s fabled musical opus. In the years since (and following Sandwell’s dissolution) he’s matured in his own right, with a number of mesmeric releases (most recently ‘Green EP’ released on his self-run imprint Infrastructure back in May), collaborations with the likes of Vatican Shadow, Luke Slater and Steve Bicknell, a heavy touring schedule that criss-crosses the world at rapid clip and Bassiani residency to boot. Function’s techno is an ambient fog in which sinister arctic synths and perilous rhythms collide to produce an exquisite fusion that would be hard to mistake for anyone else. Those grainy textures, subterranean ripples and punishing kick drums are a hypnotic rework of his many influences: 90s loops with a more modern and sharper industrial edge. Bassiani Podcast 186 is an impassioned live-recording from the club that weaves through a number of hammering tracks and steadily climbs towards its furious climax. A hair-raising three-hour beast courtesy of this decorated techno behemoth.
