Navigate NXNW Intro ABOUT LAST NIGHT Schedule by Club Reviews of the Acts: Thursday Friday Saturday A-to-Z List of Acts Club Descriptions Conference Info Critics' Picks The Winners! Preview: Seattle's Sweet Mother record label zaps electronic music with an organic touch. Preview: Dave Bazan keeps Pedro the Lion running after his bandmates split. Preview: L.A. DJ the Angel spins her way out of the conception that women can't bring the beats.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST PREVIEW Human League? Seattle's Sweet Mother record label zaps electronic music with an organic touch. BY KURT B. REIGHLEY 243-2122 Dragonfly, Tripoli and DJ Nassir Zoot Suite, 13 NW 13th Ave., 827-4148 13 NW 13th Ave. Friday, Aug. 21

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about...Seattle? Not if the topic was dance music--until recently. But discerning DJs and fans looking for the perfect beat are starting to think differently, largely due to Sweet Mother Recordings. With a carefully chosen roster of local talent, the label's savvy sensibility reflects the inherent dichotomies of a region equally proud of its high-tech industries and breathtaking natural splendor. Whether it's the bluesy intonation of Strange Voices singer Nikol Kollars or the rubbery dub underpinnings of Dragonfly, decidedly human elements provide the primary focus on all Sweet Mother releases to date. Nassir Rashid, who in 1995 launched this enterprise with Alex Calderwood and Jared Harler (key players in Seattle's Tasty Shows/ARO.space nightlife empire), traces his A&R aesthetic directly to his programming style as one of the Emerald City's groundbreaking radio and club DJs. "What I sign is anything that I would play out," he explains. With broad tastes encompassing drum 'n' bass, rare groove, hip-hop, house and more experimental offerings, Rashid throws his net wide. Yet he's still managed to uncover artists who make distinctive music that isn't too esoteric for the average listener. "I definitely didn't set out that way," he admits, "but even my spinning is like that. I'll play records that are accessible to most [people] but aren't pop." But as any hostess who dared to be the first on her block to serve rumaki will confess, holding cosmopolitan aspirations in Tinytown, USA, can pose challenges, a lesson Rashid learned all over again when assembling the most recent Sweet Mother release. Limitless Luxury* The Sound That Surrounds You is an exclusive, limited-edition compilation for the style and design bible Wallpaper*. This promo-only souvenir for Stockholm's Forum for Form exhibition sequences Sweet Mother mainstays Strange Voices, 3xInfinity and Tripoli alongside artists from Japan (Fantastic Plastic Machine, United Future Organization), France (Air), Sweden (Doris Days), England (Lamb, Talvin Singh) and Washington, D.C. (Thievery Corporation). That's a lot of record companies--and a lot of time zones--to wrangle with. And Sweet Mother had only a month in which to accomplish it all. Calderwood told Rashid his intentions for Sweet Mother to create this top-drawer tchotchke right after the Fourth of July weekend. "I said, 'You're crazy,'" Rashid recalls. "But as I did preliminary investigation and things began to happen, I thought, 'This actually could work.'" Although he knew virtually nothing about rights and licenses, at first Rashid seemed to be making headway obtaining non-Sweet Mother tracks. "So then I dived in--and realized the water was much deeper than I initially thought." But when it came down to the wire, Rashid managed to slip through doors that would normally never open for a vanity project on a small independent label. "I pulled off everything in one day," he says. On the Friday afternoon scheduled for mastering, Rashid had little more than a handful of approved selections and his own back catalog to draw on; Calderwood encouraged him to wait out the weekend. "And Monday--boom!" Rashid says. One after the other, tapes sent via courier began landing on the mixing board with a joyful thud. Next on the Sweet Mother calendar is a double dose from Tripoli, including the duo's remixes of Strange Voices' "Breathe On." Tripoli's eponymous four-song debut, scheduled for late August, will precede that single. "I hope our EP comes out when it's still summery out because it has that summer vibe," says member Adrian Sosa. The duo's compositions, particularly the effervescent "Coding," spotlight warm, organic sounds that recall the textures of Fila Brazillia or early Future Sound of London, yielding an especially refreshing house vintage. "It's really deep and funky, but soulful at the same time," Rashid says. "Nothing else coming out of the Northwest sounds like Tripoli." Selecting just the right timbres is an integral part of the creative process for Sosa and partner Brian Pamintuan, who have little interest in relying on standard presets. "We spend a lot of time working with our sounds, getting them to turn out exactly how we want them," says Sosa; that's what initially drew him to electronic music. Raised in a household that bustled to Latin sounds and more than a little disco, Depeche Mode came as a revelation to him. "I remember sending them this fan letter as a kid: 'What kind of instruments do you use? How do you make those trippy sounds?'" he says. Ironically, because of Sosa's subsequent immersion in Seattle's emerging scene, Tripoli began life with a much harder bent. Booking clubs like Electrolush and Power Plant exacted a toll on his tolerance for certain sounds. "I was on this whole 'I hate house' kick," Sosa remembers with a broad grin. "And having that attitude, that shaped what I started writing." But the groove warmed up quickly and shows no indication of heading back into techno country: "I'm not trying to fight the funk anymore."