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Flyers for events photographed in May 2006 appear below. A link to the associated photo album appears beneath that. 05.02.2006 PHATuesdays featuring B*U*S*H with residents DJoe, Fool, and phocas Balanca's Kansas City, MO 05.05.2006 The Dirt Sanchez Mustache & Sombrero Party featuring Contorl Freeks & Jack & Jill Grand Emporium Kansas City, MO photos by jen 05.05.2006 Propaganda featuring Brent Scholz, Paul DeMatteo, Mike Dileo Jilly's on Broadway Kansas City, MO photos by shaun 05.06.2006 Viva la Fiesta 3 featuring Brent Scholz Westport Square Parking Lot Kansas City, MO 05.06.2006 B&W Disco featuring Mark Farina, Trevor Matthews, Ion Dante's St Louis, MO photos by brian 05.07.2006 The Official After Party (Mark Farina) featuring Noah 111, Aarus, Voodoo Groove unknown location St Louis, MO photos by brian 05.07.2006 It's

Summer is right around the corner and its time for my harder picks for the season. Festival and parties are gonna need some of the hottest new tracks to power prime time. Give these a spin and know that you will be responsible for many undulating bodies on the dance floor. Brownsville Station - Interflow - KYR Records Dark psychotic pulsations drive home an eerie groove that lifts into an atmospheric breakdown and then builds right back into a mad driving tech terror. Put this one in your pipe and smoke it. F-16 (Original Mix) - Simon Patterson - 2 Play Records Your mission plan includes delivering records of mass destruction to targeted dancefloors everywhere. With this vinyl payload you will be destroying the kiddies with eardrum piercing acid synthlines and bunker busting beats. Drop this smart bomb and head back to bass. Stargazing (Sebastian Brandts Funky Business Mix) - Selu Vibra - Somatic Sense Recordings Do you ever feel like beating up something small cute and furry?

Techno DJ and Producer Solaris is back again pushing the sounds to those in the world that need it most. These are some of his favorite tracks that have pushed their way into his mind this month. Always looking for a way to expand your horizons, in the techno world, check out these tracks and reviews. Seen The Future – Dave the Drummer – SP Groove Something very different from The Drummer this time. A great club mix if I ever heard one. Nice tag line with the rhythm only a true head would love. This makes me think of the old days of techno once again. Alliance V – The Anxious vs. Bas Mooy – Audio Assault Anxious wasn’t so this time. He took his time and made a monster. This thing will have the floor jackin and people quaking in their former skin. I am telling you to watch out if you unleash this beast its effects will hit you faster than dumping a gallon of that axe shite all over you. Mouseville Theme – Cirez D - Mouseville This has got bite more so than barq’s dog. Keeps u

JungleRecon ~ Her smooth mixing, varied track selection, and ability to create a journey through sound have proven Gaia's solidity and talent as a DJ. Anyone who's experienced one of Gaia's live sets can vow for enjoying the ride on rhythms, blended with precision. Gaia, with her crew Jungle Recon, has created a following not only in the Midwest but across the US as well which is accredited to their passion, drive, and dedication. Gaia's style can vary from dark, hard, and mood-driven drum and bass, to the smooth and minimal, or energetic dance floor sounds of tech-step, as well as old school, atmospheric jungle. Gaia continues to bring the darkness with her nu-skool break flavor and also has an abstract trip-hop and downtempo collection. Gaia has been billed at a wide variety of events, from regional Burning Man gatherings to small coffee shops, camp-outs, charity events, weeklies, and everything in-between. She has performed as both headliner and support, and has

Justin Kleinfeld ~  Luke Chable and Phil K who both hail from Melbourne, Australia, are successful DJ’s and producers in their own right. They have mixed albums and released records for some of the biggest labels in the world and have played at some of the biggest clubs across the globe. Phil K has turned his producing with Andy Page, PQM and Habersham. He’s also got a Therapy Sessions and a Y4K compilation album under his belt. He ranked at #5 in The Technics Inthemix.com Top 50 Australian DJ Awards. He was also one of the first DJ’s to become an official global ambassador for Pioneer ProDJ when they created the DVJ-X1. Luke has collaborated with the likes of James Holden, PQM, Austin Leeds, Cass and Nubreed. He’s remix discography is an impressive one; Sasha, Bjork and Gus Gus to name a few. Like Phil he’s also got a mix album under his name, Renaissance presents Therapy Sessions Vol 2 with Dave Seaman and is definitely one to watch. Originally working under the guise of "Dar

Justin Kleinfeld ~ On May 16, Lotus will release their brand new CD The Strength Of Weak Ties. The new album combines the rock edge of live guitars and percussion with the synthetic bleeps and crushing beats of dance music - and it works to a stunning effect. In a live setting Lotus, plays every note on the spot and nothing is ever prerecorded. The improvisational nature of the live show leads to a spontaneity and excitement that just can’t be achieved by “pushing play.” The act is already an underground sensation having sold out countless gigs across the country thanks largely in part to great word of mouth and will embark on their largest North American tour this spring. Lotus - AKA Steve Clemens, Jesse Miller, Luke Miller, Chuck Morris and Mike Rempel – formed in 1999 and quickly developed a huge and loyal fan base thanks to non-stop touring in U.S. markets big and small. Fans started following the act across the country and traded tapes like they were baseball cards. This lead

Justin Kleinfeld ~ photo by todd ~ Judge Jules, one of the most popular DJs on the planet and currently ranked in the top 10 DJ Magazine poll of The World’s Most Popular DJs, will be releasing two CDs on KOCH Records in 2006. The first, a DJ-mix set, entitled The Global Warm-Up features 16 hard-edged tracks chosen and mixed by Jules for release on April 18th. Proven Worldwide is Jules’ much anticipated debut artist album and will be released on May 23rd. Combined, this will be the first domestically released material from Judge Jules since his classic Journeys By DJ mix CD set was released on Moonshine in 1993. Born in 1965 with the proper name Julius O'Riordan and educated at the London School of Economics where he studied law, Judge Jules took his stage name from his legal background. He began his music career as a DJ on early London pirate radio station KISS-FM before he joined global BBC Radio 1 in 1997, where he now has a regular Saturday night show called “The Weekend Warm

Justin Kleinfeld ~ On May 2, Nettwerk / 71 Recordings will release 1-800-Bankrupt, the new album from singer / songwriter Marykate O’Neil. This glorious sophomore effort follows up Marykate’s critically acclaimed self-titled solo debut and reveals a gifted talent that’s hard not to fall in love with. 1-800-Bankrupt was co-produced by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo; Beulah; Joseph Arthur; Sleater Kinney) and Jill Sobule, who also co-wrote and performs on several songs. The record also features guest performances from Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), James Haggerty (Josh Rouse), Mickey Grimm (Butterfly Boucher), Brad Jones, Jim Boggia and Rob Burger (Rufus Wainright). Prior to life as a NYC-based solo artist, Marykate was the singer/songwriter/guitarist for Boston indie-poppers Piewackit,who inked a deal with IRS Records (R.E.M., The Police, The Go-Go's) and gigged alongside the likes of Elliot Smith, Mary Lou Lord, Lois, and Ida. With the release of her solo debut, critics were comparing

Justin Kleinfeld ~  image courtesy of Global Underground ~  Somewhere in a recording studio in Toronto, Canada, David Trusz and Johanne Williams are waking to the sound of a click track. They are using the heat generated by vintage synthesizers to keep warm, and the warm glow of three computer screens to guide their way. Their skin is pale from a lack of sunlight and their retinas have Pro Tools waveforms permanently burned in. Entrenched in a throwback operation of sorts, Trusz and Williams represent Canada's latest electronic music export, Sissy, and they are on a mission to fight the digital revolution. Sissy's debut album, All Under, is set for release this spring, licensed to GU Music. Creating music and lyrics based on pure, raw emotion, Sissy exploit the best of new school technology, while leaning heavily on older gear and instruments for their unique character and color. Moogs and Oberheims rumble, tape delay machines echo into oblivion while vocals weave in, out,

Shelli Andranigian ~  Orange County, CA - The Speaker Junkies, aka the live Trance/Techno duo of Tekno Tom (Synths, Key-Tar, Sequencing) and Rezn Tokes (Synths, Drum Machines, Vocals, Tweeking), have a number of upcoming performances to help promote the release of their second album Tekno Punk on Southern California indie label AcropolisRPM. The record will have a national audience through MDI Distribution. They will share the bill with DJ Irene for Cinco de Mayo on the legendary Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Speaker Junkies headline a rave the following Saturday at The Alexandria Hotel on May 13th and are back at the venue for "Unity" on Saturday, June 17th. Next month, an in-store and performance at DVS Records in San Diego along with a club performance at Rhythm Lounge that night is scheduled for Saturday, May 20th. They will also be performing this summer on "The Groove Cruise" with DJ's Donald Glaude, Scooter and Lavelle. The Royal Caribbean

Betty Kang ~ San Francisco, CA - Unfortunately there will be no Loveparade San Francisco this year due to the decision by the Berlin parent organization to focus on the rebirth of their event for 2006. In it's place the Summer Music Conference was just announced (SMC), the first ever digital music focused event on the West Coast, in San Francisco. This inaugural event will build on the momentum started by Loveparade San Francisco and continue to grow annually. The SMC mission is to bring together professionals in digital music, media, and technology, to generate new opportunities, create synergies and identify trends for the future. "Our intention is to bring in the most interesting, creative, irresistible presenters and vendors from around the world, giving our target market a chance to learn and share ideas that exists nowhere else,” said Jennifer Manger, founder and CEO, SMC. “San Francisco is the only city in America that is a hub of both digital music and cutting-e

Nathan McWaters ~  Austin, TX - 04.07.06 - I won’t lie to you: I got to this gig late. Not just a little late, mind, but a lotta late. As in, the doors to Sky, one of my favorite Austin clubs, opened at 2100, but yours truly didn’t walk through those doors with a VIP bracelet on his arm until 2230, well after things had begun cooking inside. There’s a long and dramatic story behind that which I will spare you, but needless to say I was already torqued off and looking to start having some nice hard progressive soothe the inner beast, who despises being late to anywhere. I expected Hernan Cattaneo to provide precisely that: dirty, hard, dark prog. As you can plainly see, the initial billing for this event was much different than what actually happened. To make a long story short, Sean Carnahan had to bow out for reasons unknown, and Matthias replaced him. DJ DZ, Sky’s resident, politely stepped aside for the other surprise of the evening. More to follow about that. The first thing

Ian Harris ~ Forty-five miles south of Iowa City was expected to be the place to be during the last weekend of April. An estimated 300 people traveled everywhere from Arizona to New York to make it to the Midwest Annual Goa Experience. The venue was beautiful. It was just outside the small, rural town of Peru, Iowa. There were ten acres of camping space circling a steep hill, where the two stages (psytrance and electronic dance) were set. The opening ceremony got the music pumping a little after 8:30 P.M. on Friday night. At almost the exact same time, the rain began to fall and it wouldn't quit until the wee hours of Monday morning. After several hours of nonstop precipitation, the trails leading to the stages became mudslides. There really was no safe route to reach the music at that point, but people continued to climb. Unlike the weather, the music was to die for. The repetitive bass lines persuaded everyone to take their shoes off and dance in the woods and become one wit

Nathan McWaters ~ Austin, TX - 04.22.06 - This is one of those gigs a person just tends to blunder into. I wasn’t initially supposed to be in Austin (or even in Texas, for that matter) for this Texas-born and bred installment of Proton Sessions – The Sound, mixed and recorded live at a less-than-famous and reasonably-new venue in downtown Austin called Barcelona, but circumstances bearing to the call of duty halted my weekend adventure to Wichita, KS dead in its tracks, so on literally less than twelve hours’ planning, I decided to treat myself and support one of my longtime favorite Texas DJs. It gets pretty hard to not develop complimentary attachments to local talent when you’ve streamed them over a DSL NiprNet connection in Fallujah, and in 2004, Lance Cashion’s The Sound was a staple of sanity for me. I owed, I had to be there. Barcelona is a new club for me except for the reputations of those who have spun there in the past (Kaskade, James Zabiela, and DJ Rap have been throu

Mike Zelazek ~ San Francisco, CA - 04.01.06 - A warm wind welled off the Pacific carrying with it butterfly children from around the Golden State to the center of the hilly city for a colossal affair known, in short, as Popsicle. This year’s frozen confection was served en masse by Skills, a DJ workshop and local fixture as an authority on all things electronica. Bill Graham Civic Auditorium played host to the three-ring circus whose headliners drew a sold-out crowd of nearly ten-thousand. The senior-citizen ticket takers did not appear to have their interests piqued by the Kandi Kids wearing hand-crafted Gizmo (the Mogwai) and Sponge Bob backpacks, technophiles totting guillotined mannequin heads, and human cartoons sporting Goofy Gloves. Possibly it was the hurriedness of the front-door scene and unearthly draw of the oculus of light above the main stage with its figurative arms of sound outstretched to embrace the throngs who witnessed it. Jumbo-trons and fifty-foot tall speake

This month's cover comes from out in San Francisco. Mike Zelezak got this one while at Electro Techno Disco Popsicle. That event was just huge. And they are planning more like it. I definitely want to try and make it out there soon, especially after reading the bit this month on Summer Music Conference. The shot for this column was one that Joe of everyone that stayed for the final beat at the last night of the Wednesday Perk at The Cup & Saucer in Kansas City, MO. After a decision by the owners to close their doors, a four-year tradition ended suddenly and unexpectedly. In this little room in Kansas City's River Market District, DJ cQuence with the help of others along the way, hosted guest Turntablists, both local and from around the country. Consequently, this cozy, unassuming little coffee shop quickly became a staple of the Electronic Music Culture in Kansas City and to me, will always be one of the best nights ever. Everyone contributed some great glimpses o