Actress b2b Skee Mask

One of the UK's most singular electronic musicians, Darren Cunningham, aka Actress, has been sculpting his distinctive sound since 2004, when he released the eccentric 'No Tricks' on his own Werk Discs imprint. In time, his hybridization of galaxy-brain Detroit techno, British bass music and noisy dub extended in widescreen across a series of acclaimed full-lengths, such as 2010's woozy 'Splazsh' and its darker, conceptually-driven follow-up 'R.I.P.'. His latest album 'Statik', released on the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound, is his most ethereal to date, a reflecting pool of liquified beats and buoyant Drexciyan synths.

Mysterious Munich-based producer and DJ Skee Mask looks back to move forward. His music, a knowledgeable blend of dusty breakbeats and euphoric synths, takes its cues from the '90s backroom canon – Chain Reaction, Warp Records and Counterbalance, for example - but revitalizes the formula, ignoring nostalgia in favor of constant innovation. The method is best exemplified on his 2018 breakout 'Compro', released on the Ilian Tape label to wide acclaim; dripping with vintage rave energy, it's familiar but staggeringly varied. And as a DJ he's just as versatile, slipping through genres to create a groove, not a repetition.

Actress b2b Skee Mask has been co-curated by Reworks Festival, as part of a collaborative curation supported by TIMES (The Independent Movement for Electronic Scenes).