Nuit Noire II is L.A.'s sonically-darkest dance party

By August Brown

Feb. 21, 2013 12 AM PT

There may be no place in Los Angeles with a higher coolness-per-square-foot ratio than the Highland Park store Mount Analog. The music/fashion/sundries boutique on Figueroa St. is L.A.’s general store for noise-punk tapes, occultist supplies and home decor for the Illuminati enthusiast.

But occasionally it expands its reach with old-fashioned club nights. Nuit Noire is a sporadic private party series that the store’s owners host, featuring live acts and DJ sets from the globe’s best goth-inclined electro and house producers. This Saturday is its second installment, and if the first one (which included LA Times’ year-end favorite Andy Stott and Demdike Stare) was any indicator, there will be a small sea of black-clad bodies in motion.

There is no published address for the event, but if you pass RSVP muster and land the details, you might be in for a long night of dystopic techno from seven acts signed to labels at the flashpoint of dark, experimental electronica.

Headlining the night is a rare one-off set from Chicago’s Mutant Beat Dance, a duo specializing in handmade house rooted in the city’s pioneering dance-floor traditions. They go out of their way to preserve some human performance in their mixes, and the end result is at the tipping point between brittle, sad machine music and lusty floor-fillers. J.T.C., White Car, Traxx, Silent Servant, Profligate and the crew behind the VSSL party series scope out similar sonic territory, and have cut releases for lauded experimental labels like Ghostly, Nation, Hippos in Tanks and Not Not Fun.

Added bonus – the physical tickets from graphic artist Christopher Norman are truly classy and downright frame-able. If the bright lights and saccharine dance-floor flavors of L.A.’s current club land are making you feel a little bleak, Nuit Noire will take you to the dark side and keep you there.

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