Function

Born in Brooklyn in 1973 and hailing from the Canarsie neighborhood, David Charles Sumner, known as Function, has built a career tied to the most austere and hypnotic strains of American techno. Active since the 1990s, Function released his first record in 1996 and quickly issued material on Synewave, later becoming the only non-Birmingham artist to release on Downwards. His work belongs to an austere, mental and repetitive techno, nourished by EBM, industrial music and the most minimal forms of the genre, with constant attention to texture, tension and long progressions. In 2004 Function joined the Sandwell District collective centered around Regis, an important frame for the development of his aesthetic and his presence on European and North American techno stages. Alongside his DJ activities, Function released the album Incubation in 2013, the collaborative record Games Have Rules with Vatican Shadow in 2014, and Existenz in 2019. He also participates in the LSD project with Luke Slater and Steve Bicknell, a trio oriented toward dense, linear and immersive techno.