DANCE ZINE SCIONAV.COM VOL. 3

Story: Maud Deitch
Photography: Colin Young-Wolff
Brothers Vangelis and Vidal Vargas came up in
the Los Angeles rave boom of the 1990s, going to
parties and making music in their mom’s house.
It was a great time, but they came to realize
that the scene was limited and, in a way, that it
was limiting them. The two have subsequently
spent the past 20 years constantly expanding
and contracting their repertoire. The result is a
live set that is focused both in its technique and
attention to detail, but wide open when it comes
to possibility.
Their first project as a duo, the minimal techno
group Acid Circus, introduced LA to the brothers’
unique performance style, which involves live
mixing their original tracks. Now performing
as Raíz, they’ve refined the technique into what
Vangelis describes as “a digital DJ/live PA
hybrid.” This signature style was inspired in
part by Orbital (another brother duo) and then
combined with their love and respect for Detroit
techno DJs like Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills.
While the Vargas brothers watched Detroit
develop a reputation for its signature sound,
they decided that they needed to, as Vidal says,
rAÍZ
“put LA on the map as having a legitimate techno
scene.” In order to do this, the two, along with
friend Moe Espinosa (aka Drumcell), started
their label Droid Behavior.
In the ten years of its existence, Droid Behavior
mission’s has become less localized. “The focus
has become pushing American artists,” says
Vidal. “Right now the scene is probably more
European-dominated than ever. The whole
American sound from the ’90s has been taken
over by Berlin and stuff from the UK, so we need
to keep that American voice alive.”
Similarly, Raíz has broadened their own sets.
While they began with strictly techno selections,
they now flow from dubstep to deep house
and back to techno. What the Vargas brothers
figured out is that limiting your sound can be
advantageous when solidifying a smaller scene,
but that a more inclusive approach really gets the
power of the music across. As Vangelis puts it,
“The point is just to get people dancing, however
you have to do it.”
droidbehavior.com