As stalwarts of the iconic and hugely influential Birmingham's Downwards Label, Function and Regis have been breaking down and re-arranging the DNA of conventional dance music for over a decade -  forging a sound that blended Chicago house with darker European electronics, influenced by Industrial, Musique Concrète and 80's definition of Trance music. Sharing many of it's ideals and energy with the Downwards music label, with the same aesthetic harshness, Sandwell District is very much a label of the here and now. Always leting the music remain the most important factor, with Sandwell District releases Regis and Function have been reworking the original definition of Techno: anonymity.
Resident Advisor's prestigous Label of the Month in 2008, with support from all quarters, they have not just blurred the boundaries of techno, but have dissolved them and re-built it in their own unique image with their austere minimalist sound aesthetic.
Going from strength to strength with every release over the past few years, both Function, with his claustrophobic minimalism and bleakly hypnotic warehouse techno, and Regis aka Kalon, whose distinctive definition of Techno reached it's acme through his collaboration with Surgeon in British Murder Boys project, got major airplay, media and DJ Support.
In a preemptive strike before Sandwell District releases its first set of albums by its short yet massively impressive roster, due this autumn, the label hit the ground in 2010 running with two EP's of new material from its four key members.
As you would expect, Function and Regis's approach to live/DJ work is forward thinking and challenges convention. Digital and analogue equipment is combined to create the maximum creative environment for both artists to feed off each other during a set.
On stage, in a format halfway between a live show and a session, they combine analogue and digital sounds to obtain the purest samples of techno DNA.