Plus residents: SUTEKH (Context, Mille Plateaux) KIT CLAYTON (~scape, Orthlorng Musork) SINDRI (Imputor?) PICADUB (XLR8R, The Wire)
214 Valencia St @ Duboce (NOT Amnesia!)
$5
http://www.musork.com/trouble
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True story: I was playing records one night in Montreal when a frizzy-headed gentleman walked up to the booth, squatted in front of my record crate, and started flipping through my vinyl. Highly irregular activity, but I am a generous soul, and so I left him to his flipping.
Flip, flip, flip, pause. Flip, flip, flip, pause. And then, in a French accent, he exclaims: "You have very good records, yes! Zee best!" I thank him, although I am not, I must admit, entirely unperturbed.
And then he asks me: "May I play zem?"
May he what? This - this is beyond the pale. Unheard of! I am tempted to demand that he unhand my vinyl immediately - but then a curious thing happens. He holds up a copy of an obscure 12" called "Le magicien d'os," a convulsively brilliant record that rides on the irresistible line, chanted over and over in a ridiculous falsetto, "I like the way your booty shake, uh huh!"
"I made this record," he says, and it hits me in a disco flash that this - this crazy Frenchman - is none other than ARK, the Parisian microhouse genius, the shufflepunk, clicks-and-crunk producer, remixer of HERBERT and MR. OIZO, collaborator with PEPE BRADOCK, veteran of labels like PERLON, PLAYHOUSE, and TIGERSUSHI, a figure whose grasp of funk is no less demented than SF's own Sutekh and Safety Scissors (who wisely commissioned a remix from him). A kindred spirit, if you will.
Naturally, I granted him full access to my humble box, and unsurprisingly, he played my own records far better than I could ever hope to do. Two days later, he rocked Montreal's 2000-person Metropolis venue with a shuddering live set, and as far as North America was concerned, the legend of Ark was established.
This Saturday, May 24, TROUBLE is proud to present Ark's only live performance in San Francisco, at a very special venue in the Mission. We're no longer throwing our parties at Amnesia (due to a misunderstanding between the owner and a dozen or so loaves of bread), so for one night only we'll be getting down at 214 VALENCIA, the former Pond Gallery space, kitty-corner from Zeitgeist - house party stylee, baby. - Philip Sherburne, Trouble
