Xotec, otherwise known as Chris Moody, is a veteran to Buffalo’s scene. He grew up in Niagara Falls, and has spent time living in Buffalo, Rochester and Boston. Since 1989 he has been an integral part of the development of the Queen City’s underground house and techno. He attended Berklee College of Music to study music production and engineering, and music synthesis. Almost five years into DJing he obtained a residency at Club Marcella, still frequented by many for the dancefloor and drag performances, when it first opened in downtown Buffalo in 1995.
Consistently there for 13 years, he has taken an “extended sabbatical” after being in a car wreck. His life flashed before his eyes and he said there was no way he could do five-hour long sets until fully healed.
“I’m healing slowly, I’m currently able to do two-hour sets back spasm free. Right after the wreck, I could barely do an hour,” he says. “More importantly, since my life flashed before my eyes I had to seriously re-evaluate where I expend my limited creative mojo. Having a weekly residency, especially at somewhere as legendary as Marcy’s, what I still consider ‘home’ and ‘family,’ is awesome and I’ve been so fortunate in that regard! However, when you find yourself constantly dumbing your unique style down, to the point where you can’t even be unique and creative and house it up properly – while keeping it familiar – even in a commercial club context … that’s where the weekly downtown Buffalo grind enters mojo killing territory.”
Since the accident he has been spending his time healing and rebuilding his style. Deemed Xotec 3.0 he has been writing house music and focusing on performing gigs that don’t drain his mojo, but rather feed his creativity.
“I realize basic bitches (with closed minds and shallow musical palates) will remain basic. The struggle is eternal, although it’s been more incrementally prevalent over the past five years. Asking me to be more ‘open format’ when I’m already too whorish/commercial, is another way of telling me I’m still not basic enough. EXACTLY! Never can be either,” he says.
At the first party Xotec threw in 1994 he met the people that would soon comprise the Knowmatic Tribe Soundsystem. The core of the group included Marcos, Scott (God Morgen), 3P0, Mattius, and also saw the likes of Mike Parker.
“They are my eternal brothers in funk, my family. We covered a lot of pioneering ground over the past 20+ years in Western New York, the years which laid the foundation for what is happening now and those years had a huge impact on me … While we all separately cover different creative stylistic paths when we perform, the real magic happens when we combine forces into one future cosmic funk stew. The funky flava is in the sauce!”
He is stylistically versatile and remixes samples, loops and acapella bits on the fly. “The debut mix I provided Sequencer is a clear example. Even though I re-mix, re-rub, and add beefier drums throughout the mix, there is over 30 years of house music history within that hour.”
His track selection is always high energy and evokes the inner freak. To be inspired Xotec says “the tracks have to touch me ‘there’ and give me the material I need to touch you ‘there.’ The groove, the bassline, the spastic nature of the acid, the drums, the swing…I could go on. But given all of that, I still end up ripping shit apart, editing them, adding or removing elements, as my mojo compels me to, as I read a room when I perform out live. When all the elements are right, it’s an intimate conversation between the floor and me.”
Tune in and turn on for the debut Sequencer Soundcast and in the words of Xotec, “You must be this fierce to ride.”
3 great DJ sets and a good vibe was a perfect warmup to my big surprise for the night. XOTEC’s set. Now, I see the flyer – XOTEC. Ok – I know him, he’s been around – he knows wassup. But Xotec can sometimes be a wild card. His range is wide and sometimes you don’t know what he will play. But on this event, he billed himself as “Ver. 3.0”. I didn’t really take any notice of this –but that is fine – right? Wrong! Xotec was not DJing. He was live. I wished this description was clearer in the advertising of the event. The setup was 3 controllers and a DAW *.
I thought he would go his own route with his own musical range – but he didn’t. He played the same style as the whole night. Which was nice and continuous. He did bring it up a little more, but added his flair to his compositions. Very minimal 90’s acid rifts could be heard, sampling from past elements, and mixing in new school beats. I really enjoyed his style – hard hitting new school compositions with a flavor of the past mixed in. Done very non-cheesily!*
You could tell he has been doing this awhile and he was very articulate in his performance. I was impressed with his set and amazed that he’s currently doing this. Really great to see and a good surprise.
*Digital Audio Workstation. Laptop driven, using a sound editing/composition program. Example: Ableton. ** We’ve all heard cheesy 90’s/acid played with new school to some horrible results – but he was nowhere close to that.
Time to re-add all of the mixes I have available on my web server. Here is Part 1 – The Digital Bitchslap series. The Digital Bitchslap series of mixxes reflect the sound of my long standing commercial club residency in Downtown Buffalo (almost 20 years) – Club Marcella. (http://www.clubmarcella.com). There are over 10 years worth of mixes here – enjoy!
(right click – save target or link as)
xotec@black party X (2004? Last one at Sphere, now known as Town Ballroom)
