Scene Report: Equalizer (3.21.26) at No Fun Bar – Hosted by Heterodox Records

Equalizer – Hosted by Heterodox Records

Venue: No Fun Bar – 1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR

Date: 3.21.26

I feel most alive when I walk into a show and dark ambient music is playing. Usually there’s a little bit of time to rev up the senses and get my little stims in before the show starts – you know, to acclimate, to let the senses catch up. But when I walked into No Fun Bar this time, Desdemona Club was already putting me into a dizzy existential crisis. Earlier in the day, a question had been circling in my head with unusual persistence: what does love mean to you? Sitting in that booth at No Fun, that question resurfaced at the exact moment a sullen and long synth string vibrated my chest – of course as I pondered this, I looked up and locked eyes with Enzo Caselnova. Ah, universe – you win again.

The last time I heard Desdemona Club’s music was on a wonderful Universal Broadcast Network Compilation that I reviewed last month. Of course I loved their track on that album, but I was still somewhat surprised at how raw and, dare I say, invocational this set was. It’s no secret to anyone I talk to, that dark ambient music is probably my favorite genre of music, so to say I enjoyed this set would be an understatement. Lots of long, slow and deep drones that sometimes morphed into contemplative arps. Just a great set to start the evening.

That was a heavy set and before I could get my wits about me, barely enough time to get one of those plastic cups of self serve water, Sporothrix was already underway. Sitting here now, trying to account for it, I can’t say with any certainty how much time actually passed between Desdemona Club and Sporothrix’ set. Time warps, man.

Usually when I go to a show, I know what I’m in for. Or at least I have an idea. But because I haven’t heard Sporothrix before, I guess I was expecting … not this? Sporothrix has an old world voice, but not of this wretched planet – no more like Jupiter. Like pointing a radio telescope into that atmosphere and picking up a massive fire – moon-sized, suspended in the Jovian clouds, burning without oxygen and making its own rules. Also about midway through the set they started modulating their gear with some kind of object.I actually said out loud, “What is that?” and right on cue Wet Mango, who was sitting next to me, fired back, “It’s a stick!” So there it was. A stick. No elaborate explanation, no overthinking it. Just a cool looking stick being used to reshape the sound. This was a really good fucking set – check out some of it below.

Just as Sporothrix’ set was winding down, Occurian sat down at the table and was no doubt relishing the opportunity to add a new chapter in our ongoing Wesley Snipes saga. Then he tells me – calmly, with no hesitation – that he’s pivoting his entire journey into a, wait for it, Pauly Shore journey. I had to sit with that for a second. The idea that those two bodies of work could occupy the same conversational space, let alone serve the same purpose in a person’s cultural intake, is deeply unsettling to me. Occurian seemed fully committed to it, though, which I suppose is the only way to approach a decision like that. I remain skeptical. But I did find out that his new album is probably coming out in late June. I was sent a screenshot of the track list but most of it has been censored heavily. The album is titled “Omenist.” That much you’re allowed to know.

Acroyear is on! What a nice change of pace. Don’t get me wrong, I love wallowing in my own existential dread and everything, but this the transition into the rest of the night landed exactly where it needed to. Also I need to give a big shout out to axenfeld loop for these amazing visuals tonight. They were dialed in. I barely registered the visuals during the earlier sets, which says a lot because they integrated cleanly with the sound and didn’t pull attention away from the performances. It wasn’t until Acroyear set up in the booth off to the side, that I really noticed what was happening on stage. Amazing work.

Acroyear’s set is so fucking good. It’s the perfect balance of IDM for me – just perfect. You could feel the sequencing working in real time, so it felt deeply personal – at least that’s how I felt. But what’s great is that it still had moments where the music drifted back into dark ambient territory with long, deep, ominous tones. Beautiful stuff. Check out some of their set below

Up next is our good friend d.phono (aka Micro Genre contributor Prof. Eww). When I heard his set immediately triggered that familiar reflex in my brain: someone, somewhere, is going to call this “IDM” because that’s the easiest label to reach for when the drums start moving like that. Not in this room, though. Different crowd. People here actually listen. So I turned to Enzo Caselnova and asked him, “What genre do you think this is?” and without hesitation Enzo said, “It’s jungle. Maybe a little drum’n’bass but it’s jungle.” It reminds me of all those years listening to the vast array of different genres in and outside of my OWN HOUSE and watching people using blanket terms like “IDM” to wash away fun shit out ignorance, but I digress. For more on that personal journey, read this. Anyway, all bullshit aside, this was an amazingly tight set. Clean, rapid subdivisions of fuck yeah and a consistent sense of propulsion that kept the rhythmic destiny intact from start to finish. Good set.

What is love? I think Terminal 11 has found it, because what they were doing tonight definitely felt like love. Twisty, turn’y with all the fun that pure chaos can bring to a party. The programming moves at a relentless pace – hyper-detailed break edits, rapid shifts in pattern, and dense layers of shredded, well, chaos. There’s a clear compositional logic behind it, and just before it descends into pure noise, the sheer velocity of the slingshot orbit careens it back into that mad drum space. I was really into this set – an absolutely intense end send off.

Our cultural and environmental ecosystem often encourages isolation, speedy thought and semantics – conditions that reduce human connection to mere transactions. What does love mean to me? It’s kind of in this room. Under these conditions, love reads as an alignment – people choosing to remain, to listen and to respond. What showrunner Production Unit Xero does with Equalizer is build that condition deliberately. The structure of the show rejects hierarchy. It blasts fragile egos and the focus remains on collaboration and the community as a whole. Each set contributes to a larger system rather than competing for dominance within it. In this case it emerges through participation, through the maintenance of spaces where perception doesn’t narrow, but deepens. The experience may not resolve anything outside the room, but it clarifies what remains possible within it. Grounded in sound, sustained by community, and made visible through the simple act of people choosing to be there together.