Two-thirds of New York's Robots collaborative — Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers — invade Laundry Bar this Friday. The trio formed in New York in 2003, the members' common denominator an obsessive interest in twisted, mind-bending techno and house. Patrick was a resident DJ at Arc, mainly performing warm-up duties, when he met founding member Nick AC, a UK transplant. Disappointed with the general apathy of clubgoers toward New York's dance parties, the two founded Robots in part to reignite the scene and simultaneously indulge their fetish for electronic music.
The crew took up a weekly residency at Café Deauville, a dark, hidden place that's nevertheless conducive to great parties with its big sound and fun DJ setup. All hidden treasures are eventually found, though, and so last year the trio left the East Village spot for swank Chelsea club Cielo. The guest DJs of their monthly parties read like a who's who of the techno/electro scene: Trentemøller, Superpitcher, and Matthew Dear are recent examples.
From Patrick you can expect to hear a "mixture of druggy twisted techno mixed with percussive and melodic house" soaked in funky undertones, he says. "I grew up listening to a lot of older hip-hop, dub reggae, and punk music, so I definitely take influences from all of those." His accomplice for Friday's Laundry Bar show is Dennis Rodgers, the final member of the Robots trinity (he was the last to be convinced that all this resurgence-of-dance-clubbing business was going to take). A producer/DJ heavily into deep house, techno, and minimal sounds, Rodgers heads up Native Theory Records alongside his partner, Hisham Samawi. Rodgers's output for the record label (most notably, a remix of his "Through You" was picked up by James Zabiela for the Utilities compilation on Renaissance Records) has been limited, but he and Samawi are deep into writing mode now. Thus fans won't have to wait long to see some new releases coming from the label.
