Scene Report: HARDWARE (4.23.26) at Proces PDX

HARDWARE 06

Venue: Process PDX – 5040 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR

Date: 4.23.26

I arrived at 7:50 and made my way to the front entrance, where one of the humans inside unlocked the door, gave me the full visual audit from head to toe, and asked, “Are you the D.J.?”

No.

No, I am not.

A fair question on a beautiful April evening. This is Portland after all, and at Process PDX the line between attendee, performer, visualist, and person who simply wandered into the wrong industrial building can become thin enough to require that kind of question at the door.

Normally my process (no pun intended, though the universe clearly set this trap) when I go to a show is to take notes, talk to people, listen as closely as the room allows, and try to come away with enough fragments to reconstruct the night without lying to myself. But with Process PDX, as I’ve covered in the past, you’re not allowed to take pictures/video on the dance floor and there is also not much light in that area – so I usually find myself in the other room (the fucky geometric chamber aka the angular little psycho annex where the walls seem to be watching) and let the music bleed through me while I absorb the mood of the building itself.

Shortly after I got settled sans a beer, I realized that shit had already started. Limanjaya was on – MGM contributor V. Rose did a wonderful write up of their set at Outside Issues in 2023. Wait, this reminds me I need let you know that you can listen to this set along with all the other sets at S.P.A.Z. Radio in their archives. Limanjaya‘s set was very unsettling towards the end and a very appropriate start to the evening. Always love hearing their work.

While Limanjaya was wrapping up their set, I caught up with Casual Decay for a minute and found myself wondering whether their shoes were truly built for the physical demands of the evening. I also confirmed that they still had not managed to get their hands on a Live in the Depths shirt. It was about this time I realized the place was filling up with some familiar and not-so familiar faces. Slurgeon is starting and the sound immediately drifted into 16-bit adjacent territory. It’s the kind of music I like living my life to: sharp, bright around the edges, and built with enough rhythmic confidence to carry my limping life forward.

X Wife is here, and little did I know they still had another 48 hours (minus the cops) of raving stored somewhere in their reserve tank. They’re playing a show on 6/13 under the moniker Dossier at AzØth. Some kind of Live PA Showcase. Should be a fun one, especially if AzØth still has those slushies in rotation – nothing better than a good slushie rotation. Oh shit, Casual Decay has entered the chat. The cool thing about HARDWARE, is the collaborative spirit behind everything. It’s hard to know where one artists starts and the other one ends.

I need to pause and talk about the ball caps. Ball caps everywhere. No seriously, I’m still in the geometric side annex and there are nine … make it ten people wearing ball caps right now, not including bandanas. Did I miss something? I feel like if I ran out of Process bareheaded right now, the hat police would materialize from the industrial fog and demand my credentials.

“Ramon it is time. It is time for you to join us,” says Casual Decay to Production Unit Xero. Very “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers” coded. We always love a good jam session involving these two. Production Unit Xero remains a master of dystopian dance music. Machine discipline on full display with enough magically mixed motion to make the collapse of the country feel briefly hysterical. Speaking of that, D. Phono (aka MGM Contributor and resident pizza fiend Prof. Ew ) told me he’s playing a Jungle show with Production Unit Xero on 5/8 at Mischief Manor. Just heard some sirens, I think Slurgeon has re-entered the chat. Then I spotted a “Faith No More” shirt on a fully hatted chap, and moments later I swear I heard Pac-Man devouring a pharmacy’s worth of pixel pills somewhere inside the music. For the record, I have not had any alcohol. It went back to Production Unit Xero and Casual Decay, so the set had a nice, vocal decay’ed landing. Some illegal video below:

Next up is Omari Jazz and e.n.e.r.g.y.a.n.g.e.l. (aka Cole Mitchell Johnson, founder of Barn Radio). I guess it’s serendipitous that I mentioned Pac-Man earlier, because this music makes me feel like a ghost. What is a person out of time? A ghost. Am I a ghost? I feel as though sometimes I can be a dreadnaut, drifting through the darker corridors of my own mind and letting the music fill whatever rooms I’ve been avoiding. So let’s not go down that path and instead talk about something that’s important.

Barn Radio is one of the only Black-owned electronic music venues in the United States dedicated to the underground. Since 2023, they’ve hosted over 130 events with hundreds of artists from over thirty countries, and tens of thousands of people have come through our doors. It’s run by Cole and co-director Jasmine. Cole and co-director Jasmine have built something that deserves material support, so contribute to their GoFundMe if you can. Help sustain that infrastructure.

Man, I really need to bare down and listen to some more of Omari Jazz’ stuff.*

*I did, in fact, listen to their album Dream Child and will definitely be putting it on my list for future reviews.

This was the part of the evening where I had to step outside and get out of my head. Process can do that to you – the room, the angles, the sound pressure – it all adds up. Luckily, JAK from SubSensory was outside of the venue getting some air. We exchanged the usual late-night field pleasantries, and they mentioned a May 1st show at Process featuring DJ TOOL, Tracy Why, and Pr0xima. We’ve covered a few SubSensory releases before, so that one immediately went onto the mental calendar.

That’s all I can give tonight. I’m worn out and building up my stamina for the long year to come. This year is going to demand stamina from anyone who values community, collaboration, and the simple act of keeping each other intact. The long war ahead is a spiritual & emotional war – a psionic war if you will. It will not be won by isolation or ego. You will only survive through shared labor, mutual care, and the fortitude to keep building spaces where egos go to die while collaboration draws new breath.