Also this issue:

Positive Charge
For all the controversy, Steve Earle's Jerusalem ends on a profoundly optimistic note.
-Sam Adams

Star Power
Homer Jackson's Dogon PM finds art and science under the same sky.
-Patrick Rapa

Joe Kim
-Patrick Rapa

The Capital City Dusters
-Paul Burress

Engine Down
-John Vettese

GZA
-Paul Burress

Pleasure Club
-A.D. Amorosi

Smog
-Paul Burress

November 21-27, 2002

musicpicks

DJ Garth

Over on the West Coast, before trance, happy-hardcore and jungle mesmerized the underground dance culture, there was house. When you think of that spaced-out, euphoric, organic, head-twirling San Francisco sound, who springs to mind? Mark Farina? Doc Martin? Miguel Migs? Somewhere at the top of the list has to be DJ Garth and his notorious Wicked Sound System. Garth's philosophy is "feeling over formula" -- an ideology which allowed him and his Wicked crew to give life to the Bay Area's dance scene in 1991 and continue to captivate house-junkies from behind the decks with their heady, dubbed-out, four-to-the-floor rhythms. Originally from London, the ultra-busy producer/remixer continues to drop countless body-movin' 12-inch gems (primarily on his own prestigious house label, Grayhound) and umpteen remixes of artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Onionz & Master D, Nick Holder and Philly's own Rob Paine. More recently, Garth and partner-in-crime Eric James have unleashed deep, floor-pumpin' dub-house under the name Rocket. Last time Garth was in Philly, it was in the mid-'90s during Circle Productions' mega-rave, It, held at the Valley Forge Convention Center. Whether it's that trademark, spacey, West Coast house sound or raw '70s disco, his heady sonic excursions are always bound to enthrall a dancefloor.

“The Wicked Experiment” with DJ Garth, Rob Paine, Zach Eberz, Willyum, Carl Michaels and Kevin V, Fri., Nov. 22, 10 p.m., $8, Silk City, Fifth and Spring Garden sts.

—Sean O’Neal