The brainchild of veteran producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani, Metro Area was born out of the pair’s somewhat dichotomous love for both the old moods of R&B, disco and boogie and the more cutting-edge sound of innovative dance music and pop. Metro Area brings back the soulful experimentation of the early club classics, mixing live and electronic instruments. Simultaneously, the mood and minimalism of more recent forms creep into the mix: Detroit's cold futurism, Chicago's abstract track-modes, the warmth of New York and New Jersey's deep house and the experimentation of brave pop music. All of these influences combine with the duo’s unique perspective to create a distinctive sound that is unmistakably their own.
After over a year of late-night sessions in New Jersey and Manhattan, Metro Area burst onto the scene in 1999 with their self-titled debut 12” featuring the cult smash “Atmosphrique.” With an angular bassline underpinned by a grungy 4/4 disco beat and the most distinctive claps this side of 1977, “Atmosphrique” sounds futuristic and retro at the same time, and spawned myriad heated debates concerning the record’s production date. Most of all, it left both DJs and dancers wanting more, and 2000 saw the release of the Metro Area 2 EP and its equally diverse follow-up, Metro Area 3, which included the melancholy anthem “Caught Up,” a deadly cocktail of tender Prelude-style disco violins, metallic percussion à la 1980 New York and Detroit’s electronic atmospherics. With only three releases to their name, Metro Area had made an indelible imprint on the world of dance music.
However, the runaway success of Metro Area 4 EP (released November 2001) surpassed all expectation, not least the duo’s own. The feature track “Miura”, a sinister, spare and pulsating antidote to the melancholic sweetness of “Caught Up,” captured the imagination of a broad cross-section of DJs, dancers and listeners from almost every genre. Ubiquitously charted and still played with reverence today, “Miura” fueled sales of close to 20,000 vinyl copies of the EP, with myriad compilation appearances, digital sales and a not-insignificant number of bootlegs.
Exactly a year after Metro Area 4, Metro Area’s self-titled debut album finally emerged on Morgan Geist’s Environ label (and via Source/Virgin overseas). Comprised of the strongest tracks from their 12” series plus 4 new tracks, the CD/LP elicited superlative responses from The New York Times to The Onion, from online blogs to BBC and The Wire. Metro Area won a place among Rolling Stone’s “Top 50 Albums of 2002,” a rock- and rap-dominated area dance music usually is excluded from. Other accolades included BBC/Radio 1’s “Dance Album of the Year,” nomination for the 2003 Shortlist of Music, and the “Best New Artist” prize at the 2003 DanceStar/American Dance Awards, XLR8R’s Top Dance Albums of the Decade and others. In 2010, Resident Advisor awarded Metro Area’s “Miura” #1 in its “Top 100 Tracks of the Decade” poll and their debut album #2 in “Top 100 Albums of the Decade.”
The last Metro Area EP, 7, featuring the “Read My Mind” (Metro Area’s first proper vocal track, featuring Philip Owusu) was released to rave reviews in October 2007, and the duo have since released a mix CD for Fabric London. Alongside original productions, Metro Area remix and perform. The duo’s remix of Hugh Masekela’s “Mama” for Verve Remixed 2 was hailed as an elegant and innovative treatment of a classic recording, proving that Metro Area is more of an ethic than a production style and prompting Verve to release it and the original on their own 12” single. On the performing front, Metro Area have toured extensively, both as a live PA and as acclaimed DJs, playing their distinct and individualistic style to crowds from Norway to Japan to South Africa.
Aside from Metro Area, Morgan and Darshan are solo artists, producing and remixing their own (and others’) productions. Morgan runs the esteemed Environ label based in New York City and has released under his own name as well aliases including Storm Queen, a project recently licensed to Defected. Darshan has co-written a track for Tracey Thorne, has a collaborative venture with Escort’s Dan Balis called Arcade Lover and will soon be launching
Opening support by...
Bones
Greg Campbell
http://bones.dj/
http://fullflavormusic.com/
http://soundcloud.com/full-flavor-music
http://soundcloud.com/dj-greg-campbell
21+
9pm-2am (afterhours following)
Bar Standard
1037 Broadway
Denver, CO 80203
Última actualización
2 years agoCoste
$10 before 11pm, $15 after¿Hubo algún problema con el evento?
Ponerse en contacto con el servicio de asistencia de RA tickets