The Serfs • Club Music • X Harlow • DJ Demian Glas

Sun 11/14/21

7:00PM

18+

music

$10 ADV // $12 DOS

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Notice: Proof of vaccination is required for entry into this event. Please show a valid vaccination card, clear photo of card, clear photocopy of card, or your state immunization registry which can be accessed online. No refunds will be offered for individuals that are unable to provide proof of vaccination upon arrival.

Show Lineup

The Serfs

(Cincinnati, OH)

Genre: Electronic

“The Serfs draw dark influence from a potent moment in ’70s Post Punk and New Wave, when synthesizers began to dominate the landscape and minimalism became the watchword of the day. It’s not hard to draw straight lines from The Serfs to giants of the cutting-edge synth movement of the late ’70s — Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire, Tubeway Army, The Units, and early Devo all surface in some form or fashion in the band’s sonic architecture. This would all be little more than genre window-dressing without good songs and the Serfs have that well covered, as their songwriting is as impressive as their apparent record collections.” – City Beat

Club Music

Genre: Electronic

Club Music Vol. I is an expert concoction: EBM with a strong taste of New Beat, swirled around in one rather cavernous cauldron.

The bass lines march, evil, cold, precise, punctuated by textures so familiar they seem to burst more from the collective pop id than any vintage electronic hardware – handclaps, record scratches, whistles, delay-soaked barks, et al.

This is a vision of a dark, calculated 80’s, a vision that feels truer to the real 80’s-esque hell world we currently endure than any imagined past.

Club Music Vol. I is a satisfying manifestation of pop’s retromaniacal infinite loop…getting darker and darker with each rotation. Like the hammer and sickle glaring ambiguously from the cover, Club Music could strike you as revisionist, utopian, or something much, much grimmer.

X Harlow

(Brooklyn, NYC)

Genre: Experimental

X Harlow is the electronic pop project of Justin Schmidt (Blu Anxxiety). Based in Brooklyn, Schmidt began their music career in their hometown of Milwaukee’s punk scene playing in Cougar Den and Youth Crush. Parking Lot is an exploration of isolation and memory and how they interact when we spend extended time alone. The video is shot entirely in Milwaukee in different locations that were places often visited during Schmidt’s childhood (Milwaukee’s Lakefront, The Domes, Leon’s, Miller Park). Returning as an adult during the pandemic leaves a somber, ghostlike quality to revisiting those places while still trying to recall the playfulness of the original experience as a kid.

X Harlow’s sophomore album Anchorite combines their use of dark, brooding post-punk with an exploration of Gregorian chant, ambient and hip hop. “Anchorite” gets its title from the medieval figures of the same name: those who withdraw from society, trap themselves in place and pray for those around them in isolation. Written during the darkest months of New York’s coronavirus epidemic, the album is an emotional meditation on mourning family and an indictment of the state’s incompetence in public health. The album spans through nine intimate tracks that decidedly depart in intensity from X Harlow’s April release “Feuerwerk,” centering more on a mix of post-punk and hip hop, employing complex vocal harmonies, Gregorian chants, and technical beat making. Influences from projects like Burial are clear on tracks like Glide and Von Bingen’s Prayer, both conveying an introspective, mystic ambience with the kind of deep rhythms found in UK dub. On songs like “Pyre” and “Eyes Out” X Harlow sings of the deep anxiety from grief and isolation during lockdown. The album is interlaced with short interludes of dark ambience; opening with the suffocating chords of “Alfred Dies” and ending with the calming choirs of “Elysium.” X Harlow’s lyrical content always tackles political topics but the execution of contemporary pop and engaging rhythm shows a refinement of their work here. Almost every song has its own hook; some are haunting while others are simply catchy dystopian anthems. “Anchorite” moves away from the aggressiveness of “Feuerwerk” and creates a direct lineage of the more bewitching and cerebral tracks that can be found on “Ceiling System,” the first X Harlow release. The rhythms are driving, the music haunting, and the lyrics thoughtful and challenging.

Demian Glas

(Milwaukee, WI)

Genre: DJ, Electronic

Spinning left-field electro and lushly arranged dance tracks pulled from underground dance movements, Demian Glas is a musician and DJ whose main focus is to try to make you feel the potentials of music as a tool to make real human connections and explore the deeper potentials of the senses.

REACHout RADIO | DJ Demian Glas from Cactus Club on Vimeo.

DJ Demian Glass live @ Cactus Club. You might remember me from Wednesday nights at Cactus Club sometime over the past 5 years. If not, I've been out throwing left field queer electro dance parties around Milwaukee like Deep Lavender or Intimate Escapes. I miss all your sweat and energy! Dance Dance Dance ! ! ! xoxo muah! BILLY