While it would be a blatant lie to claim Jeff Samuel invented techno, it would only be a slight exaggeration to say his efforts were instrumental (pardon the awful pun) in bringing the form to where it is today. Back in 1998, the prevailing wisdom in the electronic community was that you simply had to have hardware. Samuel thought otherwise, and released his first record, produced entirely on the computer, in 1999. Since then, nearly all of his peers have followed suit, with software studios becoming the norm rather than a mark of eccentricity. In the intervening years, Samuel has risen to the top of the electronic community, both for his original works and for his efforts remixing everyone from Hot Chip to minimal house mastermind Ricardo Villalobos. Jeff has also proven his proficiency on the wheels of steel, garnering praise and worship for his innovative DJ sets, spinning everything from the type of blipped-out funk he prefers in his own material, to more intense house grooves.
Sat., Oct. 6, 9 p.m., 2007
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2007.