As You Like It Podcast

Sol y Luna: https://www.ayli-sf.com/event/robotheart/ Interview: https://www.ayli-sf.com/2024/04/30/ayli-podcast-105-dj-sneak/

Ahead of The Stud Fundraiser party with The Carry Nation and Prosumer at Public Works, As You Like It spent a little time catching up with one of the longest running DJs in the SF nightlife scene, Steve Fabus. Steve has been on the forefront of the Disco and Underground House community since the 70s. Having seen it all and experienced all aspects of the SF nightlife, we thought we'd get a chance to ask Steve Fabus' thoughts on where the scene has been, where it's going and of course what pivotal role The Stud has to play in the San Francisco Nightlife community. https://www.ayli-sf.com/2024/02/29/ayli-podcast-104-steve-fabus/

David Grunzweig performs as Tape Ghost, a solo project which incorporates a clubbier flavor than the deep crystalline ambience of his duo Night Sea. The dancefloor-friendly sounds of Tape Ghost found a home on As You Like It's record label — first a remix on Christina Chatfield's new EP and soon a full record of his own. To celebrate, he contributed the latest edition of the AYLI podcast, a mix full of groove-forward dub techno.

As anyone who has heard one of his records knows, Tin Man, aka Johannes Auvinen, creates acid techno. But his acid goes deep, and he continually seems to find new worlds within it, despite having worked exclusively in this style for about 15 years now. He's been an AYLI stalwart since the earliest days of the party, and so it only makes sense that he's contributing a remix to Christina Chatfield's new EP, Ascent / Descent, the first on AYLI's new record label, As You Like It Recordings. He's also responsible for the latest edition of the AYLI podcast.

Christina Chatfield has been in the AYLI family since the beginning. For 10 years, she has been an As You Like It resident performer, playing live techno, improvised and not, on stages both big and small. Anyone who has caught her sets more than once will easily recognize her sound: tight, loop-focused acid techno with a particular interstellar feel. Now, after gracing As You Like It's stages an untold number of times, she's kicking off their record label. To be released on November 27, 2020, in commemoration of the four year anniversary of the Ghost Ship fire, her first release for As You Like It Records, Ascent / Descent, captures the twisting, tunneling spirit of her live performances. Backed by remixes from Tin Man and Noncompliant — both AYLI mainstays in their own right — plus Lily Ackerman and Tape Ghost, the record highlights American techno in a way that strikes me as distinctly As You Like It. Altogether, the record feels like a snapshot of Chatfield's live performance, but cut for the club.

For many, Prins Thomas and Gerd Janson likely need little introduction. Thomas comes from Norway and has spent the past 15 years amassing a discography of perfectly composed synth-y cosmic disco; Gerd comes from Germany and co-founded Running Back, perhaps the most dependable European deep house label in the business, in 2002. This installment of the As You Like It podcast, the hundredth, is a recording of Thomas and Gerd going back-to-back at The Midway in San Francisco, celebrating AYLI's 7th anniversary in 2017. For those who were there, this is an opportunity to savor the memory, and for those who weren't, this is a chance to experience them in full party mode.

Wonja Fairbrother is a DJ for the heads. She's been quietly but steadily putting together mixes for years and years now — with her partner Dan as Herzog Hideout and now Do/While; solo, in the beautifully delicate series Wood Glass Metal and the beautifully weepy Melancholy Italo Disco (does what it says on the tin); and increasingly for club-focused mix series, including a recent stint for San Francisco's Boiler Room. To quote her own words, it's an "i'm not crying it's just the smoke machine" kind of mix — dedicated to those lost-but-not-forgotten club moments that are regrettably inaccessible right now.

Lando — sometimes Lando Kal, or just Antaeus Lando Roy — has been around the block. Born in Daly City, raised in Sacramento, came up in San Francisco, did stints in New York, Berlin, LA — he's been around. As a producer, he's released records on Hotflush, Rush Hour, Icee Hot, and Ultramajic, to name a few. As a DJ, he's played clubs all over the world, including the ones you namecheck to your friends. His own music and his DJ sets are hard to pin down, picking and riffing on bits and pieces from different scenes and different eras. He's also responsible for the latest edition of the As You Like It podcast.

Sis Girl has made a steady approach on San Francisco dancefloors, building off their work throwing a party in Pittsburgh, MESH, which highlights queer, nonbinary, and female talent from the midwestern and eastern United States. After several appearances behind the booth at The Stud, Public Works, and more, they recently joined forces with Kosmetik, perhaps the city's most out-there queer DJ crew. Dov's responsible for the latest edition of the As You Like It podcast, an hour-long swirl of rubbery minimal techno and cooled-down house flavors.

Space Ghost, the alias of Oakland-based house-funk player Sudi Wachspress, has been steadily producing and releasing tunes since 2010, and in the past several years, he's picked up serious steam, releasing three LPs, two on Denmark's Tartelet Records and a third on Steven Julien's Apron Records. Besides producing tunes as Space Ghost, Wachspress has flexed his DJ technique, playing out with friend Steve Sandwich as a duo called Late Feelings, and launching a party at Starline Social Club called Open Soul. True to its name, Open Soul focuses on boogie, house, and disco — influences you'll hear in Space Ghost's sound. Wachspress has mixed up the latest edition of the As You Like It podcast, a mellow collection of modern soul, gospel, and boogie-flavored tunes.