Dave Harrington & Friends

While producer/DJs are not uncommon in the slash-filled electronic music world, it's rare that an artist will venture beyond one slash. Two, maybe. Three, forget about it. And yet, here we have Dave Harrington, that rare musician whose adventurous ears and multi-instrumental chops have taken him well beyond the restrictions of genre and performance into a sort of holistic musical being, a slash-eschewing polyglot. These days, Harrington is known as one-half of duo DARKSIDE with Nicolas Jaar, as the guitar-and-effects wizard in Jaar's live band, and as an internationally booked DJ.

The NYC-bred Harrington's story is marked by obsessive genre-hopping, moving from jazz jam sessions to post-theatrical art productions, from conducting John Zorn's game piece COBRA to playing in Brooklyn indie-rock bands. After meeting electronic producer Nicolas Jaar, Harrington began playing in Jaar's touring band, and the two eventually collaborated on 2011's DARKSIDE EP, a 3-track slice of slow-moving minimalist funk that garnered rave reviews from Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, XLR8R and others. Alongside Jaar and as DARKSIDE, Harrington has toured the world, playing sold-out shows everywhere from Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg to London's Fabric and The Roundhouse, to clubs and venues across the US and Europe, and at festivals including Roskilde, Glastonbury, FYF, Lowlands, Oya, Flow, and Pukkelpop. In between tours, Harrington commands his own outfit, a noisy five-headed beast called EL TOPO, which synthesizes krautrock, drone, exotica, and Italian film scores into something altogether sinister and strange.

As a DJ, Harrington conjures a microcosm of a life spent in sonic experimentation, mixing far-flung sounds with those near and dear. Techno bangers mingle with out-jazz and international psych; indie rock rubs elbows with deep '70s fusion and house rave-ups. Harrington's live sets are journeys through progressively more alien soundscapes that swirl, shriek, and explode while remaining tethered to a floor-filling 4/4 beat. Whatever he lays his hands on, though, be it a bass guitar or an MPC, there's no mistaking Harrington's singular approach, born of a deep-rooted dedication to atmosphere, groove, and immersive listening experiences.