Sad news came down the pipe yesterday that truly essential Bay Area psychedelic house pioneer Scott Hardkiss of the Hardkiss Brothers passed away at age 43. The cause hasn’t been announced, but he had been having medical trouble recently with an eye implant. His last Facebook post, dated March 20, quoted Whodini: “Friends, how many of us have them, ones you can depend on?”
Well, he certainly had a lot of admirers who loved his production and DJ work, me included. Along with “brothers” Gavin and Robbie, Scott helped put the funky, pagan native sound of SF on the underground map in the early 1990s — unafraid to mix acid and deep techno sounds with psychedelic and prog rock effects to create a sublimely ecstatic noise.
I first met Scott back in 1994 when I first visited the Bay Area, working with Detroit producer Carl Craig, who was scouting around for remixes and West Coast connections at the time. Scott couldn’t stick around long to talk as he was getting ready to DJ for a bellydancing troupe, if I recall correctly. It was then that I decided I wanted to live here. (There weren’t a lot of psychedelic techno bellydancing troupes in Detroit back then, believe it or not.)
We’ll miss you Scott, thanks for all you gave to the scene. <3