MUSIC ARCHIVES Music
by Tricia Romano
Perhaps more than any other subgenre of dance music, if you are a female artist or fan, drum’n’bass is the most difficult to run with. A true boys’ club, most of the fans and artists are men who still behave and dress like adolescent teenagers, who wear baggy clothes, baseball hats, and cultivate sci-fi obsessions with unyielding fervor. So, when a fierce, sexy, talented DJ like local lady Empress enters the fray, all bets are off. Her technical prowess and tough beats gained her entrée to venerable U.K. weekly party Movement, but these days, she’s expanded her repertoire (like so many other junglists) to include hip-hop, soul, funk, etc. Tonight, she headlines Direct Drive with old-school junglist Odi and DJ Force. Sat @ 10, Rothko, 116 Suffolk, 212-475-7088. You can also catch her at her new weekly Funk You with Danomyte, where they stretch beyond the jungle for soul, electro, and hip-hop at old favorite Frank’s Lounge. Tue @ 10, Frank’s Lounge, 660 Fulton St, Bklyn, 718-625-9339
Cool Germans before cool Germans were cool, the Jazzanova collective hit the clubs in the early ’90s with a greater emphasis on jazz, as well as nu-soul and broken beat. This week’s outing features Alexander Barck—who spun an eclectic mix, ranging from soul to drum’n’bass to Brazilian beats, during his last go-round—and who, we’ve been warned, will do more of the same. Thu @ 9, Cielo, 18 Little W 12th, 212-645-5700
Sonic Groove stalwart Frankie Bones comes out of hiding to burn the hell out of your ears, which have gotten weak and limp from listening to micro-blips. The original Brooklyn techno gangsta headlines a party that also features Mr. X, long loved by the Berlin Love Parade fans but who’s never been to these shores; Dominik Schöller; and another local, Caffeine’s Micro, who’s gotten a little too trancey for me to give my seal of approval—but you might like him anyway. Fri @ 9, the Delancey, 168 Delancey, 212-254-9920