Thread the Needle with PLO Man, Tracy Why

an elusive legend returns to portland for his first solo set. come join the thread of plo man building relationship with our process community.


the records and music have been around for most of the time. i live with them, they travel with me. we’re close. they’re tools, tools for building. they build relationships between me and strangers, and deepen bonds between me and people who are already close to me. in a space is sound; a physical sound built with a picture and a shape, and the records are the tools that look and sound and feel like a space. i find them in buildings. they keep people together. same thing goes for the studio.


emotion is always in the music and in the space but sometimes it isn’t on the records. sometimes the greatest sound is sound. either way, we step into them to laugh and dance and bug out. sometimes when the music is playing, i think about other stuff like the time of day or my friends or the temperature outside. how is this space connected to that space? that kind of stuff. there is just so much of it and it won’t run out.

tracy why is a veteran techno dj, event organizer, designer, and creative with a reputation for impeccable taste and deep crates. a resident dj for subsensory since 2008, she’s a favorite performer at events, known for driving dance floors with carefully curated selections while also designing some of the collective’s most iconic event artwork. she later founded cock block, a legendary pdx monthly led by female artists dedicated to underground electronic dance music. more recently, she co-created the function, a semi-regular event that explores the grey areas of techno music and pushing beyond genre boundaries.