Boston’s oldest active techno label, Zero G Sounds, celebrates 5 years this Sunday at Bump!, who have again opened their arms to some techno (see blog below). The featured performer is our own local legend, Fred Gianelli (aka Kooky Scientist, aka Telepathic) his Flickr is here). Fred goes back over 20 years in Techno, and a live set from the man is always a special event.

Zero G founder Eddio O. (aka Triton) is also a member of the unlockedgroove family, who are featured in our movie Speaking In Code.

We had to blog about this when word came down that Kompakt DJ and remix champion Tobias Thomas included Fred’s “A Little Older, A Little Bolder” B-side in his upcoming mix CD for Kompakt. In addition to being well thought out and meticulous, Thomas’ mixes are always deep in style and developed like a good photograph. You can buy his other mixes here.

It’s the same Tobias Thomas who is talking about being addicted to love in our latest teaser trailer.

Gianelli gets mad respect from all our German friends. BPitch Control’s Kiki also included him in a mix CD.

Tobias is the focus here, though. His new mix CD (pictured above) is another staid ambient wonder. Recorded live at the empty Studio 672 in Koln, it comes out April 30th. In our film he is the representative of the Kompakt empire, and a quite worthy emissary at that.

He created one of the world’s greatest end-of-the-night tracks when he and Kompakt labelhead Michael Mayer collaborated on a remix of Ada’s “Maps,” which is itself a cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Ada - Maps (Tobias Thomas and Michael Mayer Mix)

You certainly heard this if you’ve been to Make it New at 2am for the last two years.

As for the film, we’ve had to move it back to the homebase in Jamaica Plain, and the struggle continues to get it complete. It seems angel investors may be harder to come by than actual angels.

If you’d like to help out, we are always accepting $50 donations to the project here. 1/2 a sawbuck gets you a “special thanks” credit and a big cyber-hug from sQuare productions.

Ghostly records wunderkind and DJ supreme Matthew Dear stopped into Marz Entertainment’s Bump Sunday night at the Phoenix Landing this week. Although it was cut short by our city’s 1am curfew, it was still a great time.

Significant because Bump doesn’t usually welcome techno into its fold, and the more people in this town get turned onto the new sounds of electronic dance music, the more genres like that seem to not matter as much.

Something I tackle in the Matthew Dear piece here.

Been seeing Marz proprietor Randy Deshaeis out at more of our affliliate nights (electrolite, Make It New, Black Magic, Hearthrob and so forth). Dude is old-school Boston and knows good music. The more we can come together, the better the music, the people and, ultimately, the city.

There were a ton of folks who turned out Sunday and Matt’s set, complete with minimal breakdowns and near-silent transitions, set people on their ear.

This Thursday, more techno:

Mike runs the Brilliant Mistake blog, the Thunderdome parties, and is one genuine dude. DJ Die Young is a fresh face who we’ve mentioned before, and Baldur is the new Icelandic wonder.

Make It New has Baltimoroder spinning techno (his natural habitat) with Alan Manzi and DJ Alex Zahara.

This Friday: PAN AM RETURNS.

Sergio Santos opened for Mr. Dear and did an excellent job. You can download his latest mix here which includes Gui Boratto, Carl Craig (who is coming to Boston April 20th, fyi) and this track:

Hot Chip - No Fit State (Audion Remix)

Which reminds me greatly of the Hearthrob Montreal trek. Shortly after leaving Boston, this track comes on the CD player and Red Foxxworth and Morgan Louis, upon the first break in the track, let out a unison “Ooooooo”. It was hilarious.

Hot Chip remains one of the strongest creative groups on the planet. Here’s their remix of an Amp Fiddler track, he of Detroit and deep house grooves:

Amp Fiddler - Right Where You Are (Hot Chip Mix)

“I want to be / I need to be / Right where you are”

For over two years now, your humble crew of resident DJs (that’s Erik, Alan, Billy and me above) have held court at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, MA, bringing new stacks of dance wax every week to a sleek spot between Harvard and M.I.T.

For our second anniversary, we brought in German pop-techno auteur Popnoname who took our crowd pictures (provided by Ricardo De Lima) to create his new website:

Pretty cool. With regards to Boston/New york producer Mike Uzzi, the four resident DJs are spreading their wings a bit this summer. Erik as Baltimoroder (Hearthrob!), Alan as a part of the unlockedgroove family, Forced Exposure mastermind Billy with his Leggo Dub project and myself with various plans in the works.

But Make It New will always be at our beating heart. The phrase “Make It New”, taken from Ezra Pound’s controversial Confucius translation, describes taking an old form or standard (”It”) and updating it to modern relevant interpretations (”New”). “Make” is what we do. By respecting the US House and European Techno traditions we can fuse them into something new and fresh.

April 19th the biggest guest since the Popnoname/Juan MacLean celebration comes to Make it New and no one Makes it Newer than Morgan Geist.

A rabble-rouser from NYC, Geist is one-half of the uber-classic production team Metro Area and the operator of Environ Records. His Unclassics 12″/CD project is a cornerstone of our sound, especially the early sound. Geist transforms Disco into new wave club style. His informed disco choices and sound aesthetic are one of the world’s finest.

Consider this remix he did from Tiga:

Tiga - “Good As Gold (Morgan Geist’s Monophonic Mix)”

Geist gets attention from world-class production teams, too. Like the PanAm Fridays classic Hollertronix reedit:

Metro Area / Mr. Vegas - “Muira/Pull Up (Hollertronix Blend)”

Or this classic from his fellow NYC production gods, the M.I.N.-compatible DFA:

Metro Area - “Orange Alert (DFA Mix)”

This week, it’s an extended set from me, resident DJ Daviday, alongside genius Billy Kiely — and next week sees Baltimoroder take the decks again with Alan Manzi.

But April 19th, people. Superfied Discosound.

Literally just started playing the Boogie Bytes Vol. 3 mix from Modeselektor, two of our movie stars. Spank Rock, James Holden, Burial, Mr. Oizo, Radiohead (?!?). Excellent.

Welcome to those of you we may have added through our old Eavesdrop list. We found an old notebook doing some spring cleaning and wrote to add a few of you if you’re still in the area.

Eavesdrop was the first weekly party we hosted at River Gods back in the day. An archive of the emails is here.

Now there are many. An index of our photos from the Hearthrob DVD release party is online at Nicky Digital, a real class party pic site that hosts pictures from some of the best events in the US. Click the photo above to be taken to the (sometimes racy!) archive.

The Hearthrob DVD is AMAZING. BTW.

We met many of our favorite Bostonians through Eavesdrop, one of which is music visionary Tim Haslett [his blog is here], who used to help run the old Other Music Harvard Square as the buyer. He occasionally took the decks at Eavesdrop, it was always special.

We also uncovered a mix CD Tim made for us a few years back called the “No Sleep Raver Euro-Edition” which compiles 15 of our man’s favorite old rave vinyl. Like anything Tim told us about, it seems more relevant now than ever.

Here’s one of the tracks that cuts to our core:

Holy Noise - “H.O.U.S.E.”

I was born house… I will die… HOUSE.

Oh, and if you missed the email (sign up above right) special guest Eric McLaughlin takes the decks at our night at the Middlesex Lounge.