STORE MIX 099: AFFXWRKS
IF THE LATEST AFFXWRKS DROP HAD A SOUND, IT WOULD BE ‘BRUM AS FUCK’. TO LEGENDARY CLUB NIGHT HOUSE OF GOD, THIS IS A 30-YEAR HISTORY AND COMMEMORATIVE COMPILATION. TO WIKIPEDIA, IT’S “A HARD, FAST AND UNCOMPROMISING STYLE”. TO AFFXWRKS, IT’S THE INSPIRATION FOR THE SPRING/SUMMER 23 COLLECTION.
When Michael Kopelman offered his warehouse as the London base for cult radio station Know-Wave, he opened the doors onto his next creative venture. AFFXWRKS is the collective platform for the Gimme Five founder along with project designer Taro Ray and creative consultant Stephen Mann. The team behind AFFXWRKS all speak English but, unsurprisingly for a brand born out of a pirate radio station, the club is their mother tongue.
Music, and its adjacent scenes and culture, may have provided the foundation of the AFFXWRKS voice, but the group’s commitment to delivering a rounded POV is similarly linked to the ‘New Utility’ they’re known for. In the AFFXWRKS school of thought, a democratic groupthink empowers the design process to create something more universally functional.
“AFFXWRKS is a collective exploration of redefining utility. AFFXWRKS is a channel for individual and collaborative projects. AFFXWRKS is a POV with audiophile culture and nightlife.”
For 2023, the brand is simplifying the history of Birmingham. A British town at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the birthplace of the sound now associated with UK techno. This season’s AFFXWRKS tees are characterised by two phrases. The first, ‘huge slabs of unrelenting unchanging minimalism', is taken from a Wikipedia description of ’95-05 Birmingham techno. The second, ‘Workshop of the World’, was a pseudonym for the city when its iron and steel industries dominated world trade during the Industrial Revolution.
Telling the Brum story as only they can, with words printed in tonal shades and tiny font, AFFXWRKS show that as its essence, Birmingham is a prolific and influential maker. Much like the London-based brand that honours it.
For their latest creation, AFFXWRKS crafts a Store Mix of two halves, one represents the Industrial/Urban/Outsider influences that play into the spirit of Birmingham sound, while the second is techno driven and a little harder. As with all things AFFXWRKS, it’s the combined output that counts and in totality this mix is Brum as Fuck.