Function

Dave Sumner is Function, a techno DJ/producer who found electronic music fame as part of the Sandwell District collective in the late ’00s. The crew – which also counts Karl O’Connor (AKA Regis) and Juan Mendez (AKA Silent Servant) as members – put the music first at a moment when the genre was becoming more and more about celebrity. From their distinctive post-punk-inspired artwork to the refreshing lack of information surrounding who did what, it was the type of operation that would’ve built a cult following regardless of the quality of its output. Unsurprisingly given the talents involved, however, it was some of the most accomplished techno to come out of the past decade, with their sole full-length, 2010’s Feed-Forward, being a particular highlight.

At the beginning of 2012, Sandwell District the label was put on permanent hiatus. Next month Function will release his new album, Incubation. It’s the record that he’s always dreamed of making – a love letter to the process of writing, recording, mixing and mastering that is rarely undertaken these days by techno producers. Mixed by Tobias Freund and mastered at Dubplates & Mastering, Incubation is very much a full-length statement of purpose. It’s set to come out on Ostgut Ton, the label arm of Berlin nightclub institution Berghain / Panorama Bar, a venue that has housed Sandwell numerous times over the years. We caught up with Function earlier this month in the producer’s Berlin apartment to talk about his relationship with Ostgut, his early DJing days at New York’s Limelight club and what happened when Sandwell went on tour in Australia with Skrillex and Deadmau5.