DEFINING WEST COAST TECHNO SINCE ’03
DEFSF is a collective of independent techno DJs, producers, and promoters dedicated to advancing techno on the West Coast, by way of selflessness and partnership in the underground electronic dance music community.
::DEFSF’s MISSION STATEMENT::
- To form a collective of support and growth of the underground techno community by means of selflessness and partnership.
- To help promote techno as a whole and as a positive and viable genre of music that focuses on the evolution of electronic dance music.
- To promote awareness of techno through its history and reveal it’s past to rebuild a better cohesive unified underground dance culture.
- To give West Coast techno DJs and producers a place to voice themselves, be represented and be heard.
- To advance DJing as an artform and assist truly talented techno DJs and producers in chasing their dreams.
In a traditional sense you could call DEFSF and it’s associated site, a party crew, blog, internet radio, sound crew, dj/artist promotion site.. it is a lot of those things but it’s something more.
For the most part, DEFSF is a crew of a few loosely affiliated techno heads interested in furthering techno on the West Coast. Our goal is to bring about techno’s awareness to the devoted, the curious, and to the oblivious. We work towards this goal through organizing and planning our own techno oriented events and also by attempting to expose the talented DJs and artists within the West Coast techno community through various channels of media, all while staying true to the original ethos of techno; its origins, ideals, artistry, and forward thinking musical philosophy.
Culturally speaking, if you look at the all advancements in human history, they have been due to cultures meeting together and exchanging information and ideas.
DEFSF wishes to be at the crossroads of information in West Coast techno communities, to help advance the genre of techno in various cities along the West Coast. If there is a center for information, new concepts and ideas may take hold. Currently, the techno scenes of the West Coast are very insular and do not associate with each other freely. It is felt that at present, there are various unaffiliated techno scenes bubbling up in various cities in the West Coast, with each city coming into its own with a creative potential that could possibly benefit each other. If one city knew of the other’s potential, a greater collaboration could occur.
Typically, how people usually discover new music is socially, via word of mouth, one to one, or a group /peer connection or introductions are made based on a single review. Often, it’s not easy to see who or what is happening in a scene based on face value, or based on a broad survey alone. To find new artists in a particular community, you’d have to be apart of it, know someone, or spend a very long time trying to piece through the tapestry of online social sites. DEFSF, is here to help cut to the chase. This is what’s here and who’s doing what.
Everything and nothing. Usually people suspect there’s ‘something rotten in Denmark’ when you offer to help and you get nothing in return… but really, there is something in it for us, there’s something in it for everyone. If we bring up the scene together, we all win. That is essentially the goal. Integrate or disintegrate.
Well, that’s all on you and you’re on your own. But DEFSF is a nice to have, maybe one more link in the search engine string to help your site, artist page, Facebook fan page, or Soundcloud be found by people actually interested in your music. Or maybe, if you’re too busy actually making music instead of trying to ceaselessly promote your music and identity, DEFSF would function as an automatic resource to help link people to your music for you through tags and similar artists in your area.
‘DEFSF’ originally comes from the DEF Audio sound system coming out of the SF Bay Area, and the name just stuck. We would like to think we’re a pretty def crew anyhow. ;-)
DEF stands for Dynamic Efficiency and Fidelity. Dynamic Efficiency Fidelity is to refer to how the
DEF AUDIO system was built strictly for PA/ pre-recorded playback and to also acknowledge how the sound company would choose to handle business practices; dynamically, efficiently and with loyalty and fidelity. The SF stands for San Francisco Bay Area and is our base of operations, where the sound system was originally run, and where the site continues to make its home.
DEFSF is also responsible for DEF AUDIO, a full range, small, yet mighty sound system capable of blasting 4000+ watts RMS power in your area code. In short, It’s the crew’s soundsystem in case we should feel the need to rattle some warehouse sheet-metal. Though, we’re not adverse to helping you throw your own techno event for dirt cheap or doing a collab on a 2 room event. For photos, specs, and more info, see
www.defsf.com/defaudio.
Anyone who is interested in furthering West Coast Techno collectively and selflessly is welcome in the DEFSF family. If you are a West Coast techno: DJ, producer, artist, promoter, etc., and believe you can benefit DEFSF creatively, feel free to contact us any time at our
contact page.
After several years of throwing our own underground techno
events, DEFSF is now directing its focus more towards collaborations; emphasizing unity within the Techno scene. Co-producing events with other collectives, hosting rooms at multi-room events, Throwing parties featuring primarily West Coast techno artists, and renting out the DEF Audio sound system, are areas in which we would like to expand. We are also excited about the long overdue relaunch of DEFSF.com. We are looking forward in the very near future to re-purpose the site as a network reference for artists and collectives that are rocking the West Coast techno community, feature interviews and articles on the scene’s history, and of course, hear some fresh tunes and sets from the West Coast’s DJs and producers.
