Silent Servant

Silent Servant is the pseudonym of Californian techno artist Juan Mendez, and with a musical history stretching back to the mid-'90s; Mendez is no stranger to the techno scene. Originally producing as Jasper and running the experimental techno label Cytrax, Mendez befriended Karl O’Connor (Regis) at the end of the nineties and formed a long-lasting friendship which helped develop the Silent Servant sound. As a founding member of the Sandwell District label/music collective -- along with O’Connor, Dave Sumner (Function), and Peter Sutton (Female) -- it wasn’t long before the first Silent Servant material emerged. 2006’s The Silent Morning mined the experimental sound that he’d produced as Jasper, while also drawing on Karl O’Connor’s industrial-influenced style of techno that his label Downwards had become known for. 2008 saw the release of two more 12” singles, Violencia and The Blood of Our King, both on Sandwell District. Splitting his time between the Sandwell District project while helping his wife, Camella Lobo’s own outfit Tropic of Cancer, Mendez’s Silent Servant output slowly gathered pace. A handful of releases between 2009 and 2011 -- most notably Negative Fascination, El Mar, and Hypnosis in the Modern Age -- saw the Silent Servant sound evolve. With the Sandwell label brought to a close at the end of 2011, Mendez focused on recording what would become his debut album, and a chance meeting with Dominic Fernow (Vatican Shadow, Prurient, Cold Cave) saw Mendez sign the unfinished album to Fernow’s Hospital Productions label. Released in 2012, Negative Fascination, brought together all of Mendez’s influences; his early techno productions as Jasper, the shoegaze and post-punk sound of Tropic of Cancer, and the industrial-techno of Sandwell District and Downwards. ~Richard Wilson