Drumcell
Drumcell is the founder of Droid Recordings and co-founder of Droid Behavior along with the Vargas brothers of techno duo Acid Circus. Since the mid Nineties Drumcell has been a firm believer in the power of techno and over the past decade become one of Southern California’s greatest champions.
As a graduate of the Musician's Institute, a veteran performer at parties, and longtime recording engineer Drumcell harnesses a strong musical background with a gifted sense of technological intuition. The delicate balance keeps him pushing the limits of his gear continually as a way to develop his artistic express. Forming the Droid Behavior collective with Acid Circus earlier this decade was another other major step in this ongoing development. In turn, Droid Behavior has helped expose other local artists as well as established DJs to the growing legion of techno fans in the Los Angeles basin. In the past five years, he’s played alongside nearly every major DJ in the genre via Droid Behavior’s own Interface parties and also recently did a mini-tour of the US which culminated in him playing the main stage at the 2009 Detroit Electronic Music Festival
Drumcell ‘s constant push into the bleeding edges of music technology has earned him the title of product specialist for Native Instruments. He is out there pushing the limits of what current technology has to offer- developing homebrew software as well as cutting edge hardware solutions to bring a fresh innovative taste to his production and performances. Innovations that blur the lines between live electro-acoustic performance mode and a traditional DJ set up creating “a thick blend of acidic techno and aggressive but funky minimalist groove”. Drumcell is one of the few artists exploiting the full power of softwares such as Traktor and Ableton run through state-of-the-art Allen & Heath mixer technology. In conjunction, the trinity is used to create a hybrid of flexibility and fidelity for the ultimate in performance. Drumcell uses this platform to highlight his own needles-in-the-red brand of aggressive, discordant techno. In fact, this summer’s Droid Recordings release “Cell Injection”, with longtime production partner Audio Injection, crystallized this amped up testosterone booster meets Quaalude jack and funk perfectly and in turn captured the attention of many of the world’s top techno jocks in the process, including Speedy J and Ritchie Hawtin. It’s a sound born of musical menace, sincere Nine Inch Nails affectations, and the kinds of wickedness that only the poisoned airs of LA can conjure.
Recently, Drumcell has had a string of additional successes including remixes of techno legend Chris Leibing on Leibing’s own CLR label as well as the seventh anniversary of Droid Behavior’s Interface parties (with Liebing headlining). These gatherings have brought the best of the old school warehouse vibe together with intense new school multimedia presentations that defy explanation. He is currently developing a audio/visual performance to be unveiled by the end of this year in hopes of elevating his performances to the next level. Drumcell will definitely be one artist worth watching in 2010.