Event: Azari & III at Mezzanine, Wed, Nov 27 9:00p

[clubmaster]

with Conor, Myles Cooper, Split, LDL DJ's Azari & III have always been outsiders and iconoclasts. Alixander III, Dinamo Azari, Fritz Helder and Starving Yet Full first came across each other in the mid-00s Toronto underground club scene, to which they’d all gravitated on moving to the city to pursue their creative dreams – and it was their sense of being misfits even in a community of outsiders that drew them together. In their words, Alixander and Azari used to “take on the warehouse scene†in Toronto, throwing dark, late-night parties that would attract a clientele ranging from Hell’s Angels to Catholic schoolgirls – “bad-ass bitchesâ€, remembers Azari. Their music-making ranged from fusing modern technology with native folk music in previous outfits, and both were heavily into improvisation and crazy old synthesisers – all of which continue to influence the spontaneous, instinctive way in which Azari & III now make music. Remixes for the likes of Cut Copy, Robyn, Creep and Booka Shade further reinforced their credentials across the worlds of both techno and pop – and the growing demand for a sound that was equally at home in a warehouse or at a fashion show, combining grit, glamour and a fierce, politicised attitude: the group speak frequently about the dancefloor’s historic role as a place of liberation for marginalised communities, and throughout their work the feeling persists that something is at stake beneath the furious kineticism of the beats. (They’re outspoken about plenty of issues, to say the least: from protest movements to nutrition, the four have much to say.) So far, Azari & III have done everything their own way – and don’t be surprised if they have a long way to go yet.