BLAKTRONIKS

BLAKTRONIKS

Oakland 1996 – Eddie Smith (aka EPS1) (from Detroit) & Badi Malik aka Percepticon (from Minneapolis) formed Blaktroniks to create an artistic platform for themselves, and like-minded artists in Oakland . Their first music- and video-releases happened on their own multimedia-company DKIM. Later their music was released on various platforms – including Moving Records, Reflective, Tokyo Dawn, and Rubaiyat. Underground mainstays, and Bay Area trailblazers Blaktroniks biographies of the individual group-members touch a lot of subjects, and connective tissue.

From gentechnology-patent-university-studies …2 running a barbershop.
From building electronic devices and lofi indi FPS PC games…2 programming official Star Wars-games.
From Count Basie-family-relations…2 music-relations to artists from Minneapolis…

These experiences along with living in Oakland are reflected in the art, and sound that has come to be known Blaktroniks. Without the spark of Blaktroniks Deepblak as a Label simply would not be. They held up the flame leading the way by pointing to the possible. If, and when a story is ever told about Electronic Music in Oakland it cannot be considered complete without the contributions Eddie and Badi. Their presence is Seminal!

– Armon

BLAKTRONIKS

Releases

[DBR-D023] BLAKTRONIKS – SlapMatik EP

AYBEE VLOG | 7881 | Hanging with Afrikan Sciences and Blaktroniks from Deepblak on Vimeo.

Larry Levan Richard Long

Knowledge/Power – Richard Long, RLA (Richard Long and Associates)

Richard Long (RLA)Long, Richard (1933-1986) Founder of RLA (Richard Long and Associates), dance club sound designers during the disco heydays of the ’70s and ’80s. Richard’s success grew out of his experience working as the sound engineer for the Paradise Garage in Greenwich Village during the mid-seventies. After developing his chops at the Paradise Garage, Richard designed many famous dance clubs including Studio 54, Annabel’s (London), Regine’s (a chain of 19 clubs scattered around the world from Paris and NY to Cairo) and many others that were the vanguard of the disco era. Indeed, continuing years beyond Richard’s unfortunate death in 1986, his designs flourish today in such icons as the Ministry of Sound (London). Further information available at GSA and see Richard and Alan Fierstein’s seminal paper “State-of-the-Art Discotheque Sound Systems — System Design and Acoustical Measurement,” presented at the 67th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, New York , 1980.

RLA Console

Richard Long DJ Console

Richard Long Speakers - Levan Horns

Stacks from the old Club Townsend in San Francisco, later moved over to Mighty SF in the mid 00’s.