fabric 69: Sandwell District

In 2002 Sandwell District commenced operations. Over the course of ten active years, they were responsible for disarming and destabilizing the structures that gagged free-form expression, drawing upon tenets of DIY-post-punk culture to disrupt accepted ideas of exactly what it meant to be an artist, label, DJ or producer. During this time, the collective’s core members, Regis and Function (along with label partner, Silent Servant), played a key role in broadening the link between early electronic, post-punk, and noise; an influence which continues to resonate in the burgeoning, and shape-shifting, modern-day techno scene. Both Function (Dave Sumner) and Regis’ (Karl O’Connor) investment in techno stretches back more than 20 years. Alongside fellow art terrorist Peter Sutton (Female), Regis has spearheaded the cult label Downwards since 1993 and has released an impenetrably deep discography dating back just as far. Function started to produce music during the mid-90s, releasing on Damon Wild's Synewave and his own Infrastructure imprint. A chance meeting in New York in 1996 quickly lead to the two collaborating under the guise, Portion Reform. Continuing to work together over the years, Sumner then moved to Berlin in late 2007 and they, along with LA based member Silent Servant (John Mendez), put their energy into developing Sandwell. In 2010, they released their debut album, Feed-Forward, an endeavour which represented the first full exploration of the Sandwell District sound. At the beginning of 2012, intuitively aware that the end was nigh, Sandwell District (the label) was put on permanent hiatus though the possibility "of future, albeit irregular print communications with audio accompaniment" was never ruled out. This mix will be the first thing to be committed to record by them since that time. As for any details of future activity, as Regis puts it himself, “If you want to give the Gods a laugh, talk about future plans.”