No Bias is still a nexus of the Bay Area electronic music underground. Almost exactly a year since the release of the first volume, they’re back today with Bay Area Renegade Trax Vol. 2. Featuring 31 tracks from nearly as many producers, it’s hard to imagine a better collection for capturing the breadth and essence of what underground club music sounds like in the Bay today—rooted in foundational genres like house, techno, and jungle but blossoming and expanding for an audience that grew up long after they’d been established.
In addition to tracks by our perennially favorite producers—like Soeneido, Taraneh, Bored Lord, Bastiengoat, and DJ Juanny, to name a few—there are also many worthy contributions from artists who we’ve reviewed less often. On the fast funky “Who Can I 160 To?”, Rayreck dubs out a heavenly vocal sigh and breaks over cut up soul jazz. On “Overnight,” DJ Caro offers up raw and raspy four to the floor reminiscent of addictively simple early 90s house music. Since we loved the incisive, shapeshifting minimal techno of Capp Street Project, Vol. 5, we’re also glad to see contributions from that crew, including Zero Idea, @@, and Benji Backwoods.
Celebrate the release with No Bias and an absolutely insane list of DJs going B2B tonight at F8.
