Joe Rice

Joe Rice built his reputation in San Francisco’s underground scene of the 1990s and 2000s, exploring the deepest shades of abstraction in downtempo, house, and techno.

After co-founding the eclectic weekly Dub in Los Angeles with Monty Luke and Markem X, Rice moved to San Francisco in 1994 and became a resident at Mad, the weekly techno club that brought Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, Dave Clarke, Mark Broom, Neil Landstrumm, and Alan Oldham to SF alongside local residents Sho Kuwamoto, Monty Luke, Ethan Miller, Jon Santos, and Alex Windsor. During this period, he made a formative trip to Detroit—hearing Ken Collier one night, being cautioned not to trainspot the synths in The Martian’s studio the next.

Rice went on to help produce SF events including Sabotage, Static, and Circuit Breaker, while writing for XLR8R and Urb. He currently hosts Bar Miso, a weekly kissa-inspired streaming series (and occasional pop-up) exploring ambient, jazz, and adjacent territories.