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Tomorrow night features another installment of  jux-ta-pose at the increasingly popular Uptown Arts Bar.  This particularly special night of House music with resident Todd Howard, will feature performances by local House legends Pat Nice , Tony Markham and Chris . These names are synonymous with KC House and are the founders of the House music scene we know and love in Kansas City.  They have kept the faith for longer than I can honestly recall.  Their mixtapes (yes... cassette tapes) still clutter the shelves of my music outpost in the garage, and are frequently recalled when I need a little bit of the real deal.  Honestly, I am surprised that one of them. a THC mix from 1990-something, hasn't disintegrated from all the play time.  I suppose that when it does, I will finally be forced to listen to the digital copy I made for myself and Pat quite a while back.  Perhaps one day, with their permission, we will post some of this stuff up to the MixCloud. In juxtaposition, anot

"Deep dance music for serious souls."  That perfectly describes Saturday night's Blacklight & Incense Sessions at The Arts Asylum.  Chill.  Deep.  Dark.  Techno. Everyone who was there wanted to be there, and were so glad that at the end of the night they could say they were there.  Hearing techno in Kansas City again outside the club scene was a breath of fresh air.  We were there for the music.  And you should hear the speaker system that was just recently completed.  The sound moves you to your soul.  This party is sure to be a "must-attend" this summer.  Looking forward to the next one, you'll find me on the dance floor. photos by sarah... view more photos from this event

Saturday night in Kansas City, the Czar Bar features Rob Lemon with Zach Jennings from St Louis, along with locals Jeffrey B and Paul DeMatteo.  We've caught Rob's performances on numerous occasions and most recently caught up with him opening for Above & Beyond in St. Louis at Europe Nightclub for a fantastic night of music and dance. With over a decade of experience behind the decks Rob Lemon has rocked other venues such as Vision & Spybar-Chicago, The Church-Denver CO, Late Night Empire Ballroom-Las Vegas, Kabal/Skybox-Kansas City, LaSouk-NYC and BLU Parrot-Mexico.   Rob regularly plays alongside top DJs such as Tiesto, Paul Van Dyke, Deep Dish, Sander Kleinenberg, Christpher Lawrence, Danny Howells, & Fedde Le Grand. As well, he is regularly featured on XM Radio, Proton Radio and Frisky Radio. In 2006 Rob formed “X -1” with music production partner Byron Thomas. Their first release “Hypnosis” was released on Curvve Recordings in February 2007 and has

A night of TechHouse featuring Richie Relax, Rachel Fair, PK and Josh C; brought to you by the KansasCityTechno krewe.  There are only a few photos from this even, shown below the little collage of videos on the YouTube below. there are no more photos from this event

Our two favorite colors Black & White, come together in Kansas City tomorrow night in a new monthly series featuring some of the finest in local and regional talent.    Headed up by locals JoshC and PK, of KansasCityTechno.com , the event will be held under the stars (or clouds) on the back patio of the new Gusto Lounge in Westport. Helping to launch this new monthly, Richie Re Lax and RachelFair  from Springfield, Mo. will be their first guests up.  We were not able to scrounge much up on them, excepting a few spots on MixCloud and the notorious FaceBook profiles, so it will be interested in hearing what they have to offer.  What we have heard so far sounds simply smooth & groovy. Hit their names to have a listen. JoshC and PK are long time favorites of phocas.net.  Josh takes pride in his careful track selection, and has been moving the dance floor around these parts since 1999.  PK has been at it nearly as long, after having taught himself to DJ “Inidan Sty

This past weekend I made it out to GRuV, a long-running monthly event at The Gusto Lounge in Westport.  The first Friday of the month, Mike DiLeo and Trevor Shaw host the night, and feature a local/regional guest. Mr. Nuro, of KansasCityTechno.com, came through for May.  His first show in KC since moving to Texas, I know we were all excited to have him back!  Never one to disappoint, these three had the dance floor moving all night long with their blend of Deep, Tech, Indie & Bass House.  Hands were definitely in the air! photos by sarah view more photos from this event

This week an exciting opportunity for aspiring female talent was announced.  Through a partnership with CBS Radio, Astralwerks Records introduced “She Can DJ – America.”  This challenge to all the up-and-coming lady mixers will be quite an interesting contest.  We can immediately identify quite a few locals we have had the opportunity to hear and dance to that should throw their hat in, and very much looks forward to them doing so!  So ladies… listen up! An effort to discover the country’s top female DJ/Producer will launch in July 2013 with local competitions held in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, Charlotte and Las Vegas.  12 semi-finalists and one wild-card will then compete for a Grand Prize that includes a recording contract with Astralwerks Records, as well as headlining a tour through all of the CBS Radio markets that took part. “Aspiring female DJ’s/Producers need look no further than She Can DJ for that once in a

Releasing their 4 th album in just as many years this past April, New York-based band The Bunny The Bear latest “Stories” came across my desk for review.  Introduced to me as an electronic music band with promise, I agreed to have a listen and write a few thoughts.  It has been a really long time since I sat down and intentionally listened to an entire album, and there are numerous reason for that; primarily that most “band music” has become hopelessly watered down with each trying to sound just like the other, and their tracks end up sounding just like the one before that and the one before that, and like everyone else’s.  The whole everyone has to sound like Dave Matthews thing awhile back is what really drove me over the edge, I think.  I still cringe anytime I hear one of those wannabe voices. This release is nothing like that, but that initial introduction is a bit confining for this particular ensemble.  These guys have a unique sound that I cannot quite seem to compare