Super Fantastic Rocks the Body Eclectic

When it comes to that vague phrase "good tunes", Doug DiPasquale supports genre equality. No surprise, then, that Super Fantastic Soundsystem, the collective of DJs, artists, "nerds, computer guys, social workers, cooks and the president [of] Uruguay" (ya think?) DiPasquale represents, grew out of a mixed CD-trading club he started a few years with friends, sending members home from sessions with 10 new CDs of music traversing various moods and offbeat genres. The logical evolution to a live party series with a New Year's 2006 event brought together the same grab-bag approach with, DiPasquale says, "a dancing atmosphere for hearing music off the beaten path -- rare mashups, tracks for music fans in the most general sense. People," like DiPasquale, "into music not confined to one genre, and also into jumping around," hang out once a month or so to do just that. The mishmash includes the latest subgenre, Scandinavian-originated Skweee, "almost analog electro-sounding stuff," which DiPasquale plans to incorporate into his set at Super Fantastic's throwdown this Saturday night.

Known as Dugdeep when he's on the decks, DiPasquale says the Super Fantastic vibe maintains the diverse feel of the original CD-trading club, with touches of assorted world, hip-hop and electronic music stylings tossed in with the indie rock-electro concoctions -- "not the Top 40 hits or the real cheese", he assures -- comprising many of the selections. As for the crowd, "almost a different crowd each time" has shown up to join the rotating SF cast, which also counts multimedia trickster Marinko Jareb and Fukhouse fave Eric Downer among the crew.

Further samples of Super-Fantasticity come via the group's MySpace and their blog, a music and media potpourri -- Holy War Dance Party notices, Simian Mobile Disco vids, African hip-hop mixes a la Ghislain Poirier -- which DiPasquale reports has received 'nuff hits from across Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, "tons in Japan" and South Africa, though "we haven't tapped the Russian market or China. No communist or former communist countries are checking out our blog." Fear nyet, comrades, as Torontonians live in the Super Fantastic hub and can check out the blend of beats and people in person this Saturday night.

Super Fantastic Soundsystem
Saturday March 31 at White Orchid, 812 Dundas St. West. (at Bathurst) $5
With Dugdeep, Josh Ostroff (rare DJ appearance), Andrew Scriven,
Zik (Zach Viggianni) and Scott Wright
More Info, music preview widget (Flash) and map here.
(Note TTC work on Dundas; streetcar re-routed, lane reductions on Dundas west of Bathurst currently.)

Images provided by SuperFantastic Industries