Friday July 6 EL-P, Killer Mike, Mr Despot, Mr. Mutahf**kin’ Esquire 8:00pm | Bottom Lounge Changes: Justin Long & Davey 9:00pm | Beauty Bar Little Louie Vega, Kevin Hedge, Chosen Few DJ’s 10:00pm | The Mid Moodymann, John Simmons 10:00pm | Smartbar Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers 9:00pm | The Shrine   Saturday July 6th Chosen Few […]

This weeks edition of the filter sees a techno-heavy Friday in Chicago, led by an appearance at Smartbar from FUNCTION of Sandwell District fame, as well an appearance from Dialated Peoples turntablist extraordinaire DJ BABU at the Shrine. Our pick of the weekend comes courtesy of the fine selectors at A Love Supreme, as they […]

By this point, you’ve undoubtedly seen the onslaught of hype behind the massive  Spring Awakening taking over Soldier Field this weekend. As their touting of the current prevalence of “EDM” is in good hands, this weeks quick edition of The Filter pays heed to a couple other noteworthy events, notably Neo Soul songstress Jill Scott […]

With the City launching their new FREE “Loops and Variations” series in Millennium Park, we’ve decided to run a special Thursday edition of the filter  (We’ll still be running with our standard Friday- Sunday Picks on June 8th). It’s been approximately 10 years since we’ve last seen Chris Clark here for a Warp records tour appearance […]

The work-in-progress that is The Filter continues during this unusually spring-like start of June. The usual house and techno fix is fed with some residual stateside performances from DEMF and Mutek artists, and the street fests are in full swing as well, making their presence felt with some neat performances at Do-Division. For our pick of […]

Those subscribers to the early Meiotic newsletters back in 2002-2003 will recall our Chicago event recommendation email signatures, and our linking to m50’s local event page (which he still keeps up to this day), as well as to the old Modsquare site, amongst others. With the slew of attention that electronic music has garnered over the past […]

Well hello sir; it’s good to see you again.It seems like just yesterday that one of our all time favorite guests  during the YFL and JACKSON era of shows – one Mr. Alfred Darlington, aka  DAEDELUS – graced us with a virtuoso monome performance in signature dandied-out attire. The Los Angeles based Darlington – whose prolific output over […]

If you haven’t already seen the multiple Facebook event posts out there about this party, consider this your notice. A collection of heads from the mid-nineties heyday of Chicago “rave” have returned for another in the series of Come2Gether revival events, this time at the Mid. Featuring a trio of headliners (McBride, Johnson, Hyperactive) and a […]

The French techno stalwart returns to Chicago for a heralded live set at the Mid, alongside cohorts Benjamin Rippert and Scan X.   We start the year off with a handful of events we’re supporting at the Mid which we hope to see you at, beginning with a live performance this Friday January 13th from […]

Longtime Perlon staple Sammy Dee returns to Chicago with his new label Ultrastrech in tow as he makes his debut appearance at the venerable SmartBar.

Culturally inclined Chicago music patrons can breathe a sigh of relief; the schedule for the Lunchbreak Music Series at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion is out, and though the fall/winter reorganization at the CCC was cause for a certain amount of concern, this news coupled with New Music Mondays schedule all but confirms a smooth transition of duties from the former Department of Cultural Affairs to the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture.

Day 3 of the Avant_MUTEK Chicago events ends the celebrations on a high note with a monster double bill of headline-worthy avant-garde electronics: a rare “Live Surround” performance from Germany’s MONOLAKE, coupled with a Chicago debut of Deepchord’s heralded offspring project, ECHOSPACE. DJ sets from Chicago indie electronic mainstays KARL MEIER & CHRIS WIDMAN round out this line up of international and local pillars!

Day 2 of the Avant_MUTEK Chicago series showcases a collaborative multimedia performance by locals FRANKIE VEGA & SEVRON, as well as a different, dance-oriented side musical side of Montreal’s STEPHEN BEAUPRÉ, who performs his own audiovisual project, GEMMIFORM, the night before as part the Avant_MUTEK Chicago opening showcase at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Immediately following the free opening concert at the Cultural Center, we invite you down to The Mid to continue the Avant_MUTEK Chicago celebrations featuring Denmark’s TRENTEMOLLER, NYC based multi-instrumentalist composer DORIT CHRYSLER, and rising Chicago producer DECIMAL.

The Avant_MUTEK: Chicago series kicks off with a FREE CONCERT at the Chicago Cultural Center’s PRESTON BRADLEY HALL, featuring the US premieres of two brand-new audiovisual works by respected Montreal artists GEMMIFORM FEATURING THE BANJO CONSORTIUM, and sound artist THIERRY GAUTHIER’s NORD/SUD project.

It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since we booked Matthew Dear for his first solo gig in Chicago back in 2003, just after his first Jabberjaw single was released on Perlon. He had actually dj’d here as part of a couple Ghostly tours in 2001 and 2002, so we had hoped for a live performance, however Matt’s PA wasn’t tweaked to where he was performing it out on a regular basis.

Since we typically have cobwebs and fog from NYE strolling about our brains for a couple weeks after ringing the new year in, we figured several things to be probable truths:

1. There are others who would likely be in the same blurry position.
2. It would be quite nice to get said others together for a quaint and cozy night of warm beats and libations in a not-so-clubby-or-basementy environment.

Just thought we’d get this in now so you can get a jump on marking up your brand spankin’ new 2011 calendars; Chicago will once again be graced by the uncompromising compositional genius of Birmingham UK’s Anthony Child, better known amongst techno aficionado’s as SURGEON.

When Rajko Müller’s BEAU MOT PLAGE (Playhouse) was released to an unsuspecting public in 1998 under his ISOLÉE moniker, little did he know that it would cement him in electronic music lore amongst house and techno connoisseurs worldwide…

Since the early nineties, Jochem Paap (the Rotterdam artist owes the nickname Speedy J to his DJ skills) has been unanimously considered to be one of the first techno producers to come from the Benelux. Together with people like Laurent Garnier, Aphex Twin and Richie Hawtin he helped raising the genre just after it had escaped the Detroit delivery room. He comes to Chicago for one of three exclusive North American dates…