Function

Born and bred in Brooklyn, David Sumner was brought up on the diverse musical landscape of the New York underground in the 1980's. His influences ranged from the sounds of Kraftwerk, Bambaataa, Man Parrish, Baker Robie, to The Human League, New Order and Depeche Mode. Hooked on electronics, Dave took to the turntables in 1989 at the age of 16 playing early Detroit techno, acid house, house, new wave, electro, and disco. Now more than a decade later, this native son has developed into one of the most internationally respected and influential techno DJ's in the New York scene. Revered for his musical selection, Sumner draws from these earliest of influences to his current unique mix of relentless unforgiving underground techno, keeping the crowd moving on the dance floor while adding an experimental slant sure to please even the most discriminating musical tastes. His uncanny ability to rock the crowd and please the heads both as a DJ and live performer have made him a regular face headlining events and festivals across the US and in 20 countries worldwide alongside some of the world's greatest talent. In addition, he has been booked and held down residencies at all of New York City's top nightspots and parties including Limelight, Twilo, Vinyl, Tronic Treatment, Arc, Sound Factory, Drinkland and Tunnel. David has also been an intricale part of not only the New York/New Jersey Rave scene but the entire US rave scene, headlining some of the nation's biggest events. As a producer and remixer, David has been both critically and publicly acclaimed. Looking back six pseudonyms, nine labels, and thirty-five plus releases later, Sumner's true scope and significance as a major player stand out. His career as a producer began in 1996 with the successful release of his first 12", f(q): The Function of Bandwidth EP for Damon Wild's Synewave label as Function, his best known alter-ego. Since, his music has been appearing regularly on mix compilations, radio show play lists, and charts of many top DJ's like Carl Cox, Sven Vath, Steve Bicknell, Adam Beyer and The Advent, just to name a few. David has gone on to release countless works and started his own imprint and production company, Infrastructure. Infrastructure was designed as a palette to support his own work while including peers like Regis and Ben Sims to do split releases like Inf-06/Symbolism02 and 'The Balance of Power'. In 1998 as DMO, Ulterior Motives, the first release on his own Ctrl. label was played religiously by Body Soul DJ's Danny Krivit and Francois K. and legendary Shelter resident Timmy Regisford (who is currently licensing it for his Shelter Classics label), cementing it's status as a New York house music classic. David is also well-known and respected for his work as the front man of Portion Reform and working closely with Karl O'Connor (Regis) for the UK based, cult techno label, Downwards. Continuing to push techno's outer limits of experimentation, he is the only person outside of Surgeon, Regis, Female and Ian J. Richardson to record for Downwards. David's productions as Richard Harvey (USER01, 02, and 001A) were instrumental towards ushering in a new genre of techno. Released on the USER label, an imprint he co-founded, four of these tracks were licensed by Richie Hawtin for his first Decks, FX, 909 compilation on m_nus/Novamute. His work has also been featured on labels including Theory, Internal, Integrale, and Audio in addition to developing his own imprints Infrastructure, Ctrl., Abuser, Dialect and Annex. He also had a hit with the electro circuit with his N.Y electro 12", VEX, which is revered as a classic by the likes of by Sven Vath, DJ Hell, Adam X and Frankie Bones. David's influence has also stretched to include events. Striving to create a proper showcase for quality techno talent, David has taken the time to produce, book, and coordinate countless events in New York. From one-off parties to his long-running series of Substance events and associations with the legendary Limelight, David Sumner has been instrumental in presenting to the Big Apple some of the World's finest Techno talent. Bi-monthly residencies with Berlin's Tresor club, quarterly exhibitions by Jeff Mills, Surgeon, Green Velvet, and regular appearances by Regis, Ben Sims, Claude Young, Oliver Ho, James Ruskin, Joey Beltram, Juan Atkins, Robert Hood, DJ Hell, Dan Bell, DJ Shufflemaster, Adam Beyer, James Pennington, Steve Bicknell, DJ Pete, Marco Carola, The Advent, Damon Wild, Neil Landstrumm, Billy Nasty, Christian Vogel, Chris Leibing, Mistress Barbara, Christian Smith, Rich Bourque and fellow New York techno stalwarts Frankie Bones, Adam X, and Heather Heart made Substance and Limelight the place to be for techno on the US East Coast. So far 2004 is looking bright for both David and Infrastructure. The latest release is INF-08 Substance vol. 1featuring Function 'Montage' and O/V 'Kes' IanJ. Richardson (Downwards Exclusive) which has already sold out and is receiving critical acclaim. Then in October expect to see INF-09 Substance vol. 2 featuring original tracks and remixes by Oscar Mulero, Christian Wunsch, The 65D Mavericks Olga + Jozef.