Sometimes music can leap in to one’s life quite unexpectedly. I was hanging out at HM157 on the night of December 12th, chilling in the Church of Fashion with KtB, writing music while she worked on sewing the glorious pizza skirt. I did not know that there was a show that night. When some people showed up with musical equipment, we deduced that they were bands. After introducing ourselves briefly, Kt and I headed out back.

As we returned, I heard magical sparkly sounds coming from the living room. I approached and saw a bunch of young hipsters gathered around Zack Robinson, who I had met earlier. Everyone was bobbing their heads in rhythm as retro beats from his laptop poured out of the PA system. Zack alternated between playing live keyboards on his midi controller and doing some serious shredding on a guitar.

Zack calls his one man project D/A/D, and has released a free 6 song EP called “SUPERMOTIVES” which is available for free download from his myspace. D/A/D’s sound could be described as a amalgamation of 80′s synth movie soundtrack (think Tangerine, Vangelis, Toto), the french dance sound championed by the Ed Banger label, and cheese-tastic 80s cartoon theme songs. I was particularly remind of Stan Bush’s songs from the 1985 animated movie of Transformers. Although I was a bit turned off by the decidedly non-epic album art, the EP is pretty rad. My favorite tracks are the moody but danceable “10 Day Vacation” and his catchy remix of “Ce Jue” by Yelle. Nothing like girls babbling in French to make you want to dance right?

D/A/D is part of the foundling 80′s retro disco label, Rosso Corsa Records. If you like the “SUPERMOTIVES” EP, be sure to check out some of their other artists.

After D/A/D wrapped up his set, Baron Von Luxxury (formerly known as the electro group, Luxxury) graced the audience with a few electro dance numbers, despite a bit of a cold. Then The Icy Lytes with their nu-rave influenced booty bass sound. Finally, Manimal Vinyl’s La Co$Te closed out the night with a dramatic bang of noise, glitches and glamour.