MAN POWER

Geoff Kirkwood operates under the Man Power moniker as a British DJ and producer whose atmospheric, luminous house productions draw from disco, post-punk, and electro sources. He co-established Last Waltz, functioning simultaneously as a club night and production outfit, and initially launched Man Power anonymously, issuing a self-titled debut album in 2015 via Correspondant after earlier EPs on Hivern Discs, Throne of Blood, and ESP Institute. Kirkwood subsequently created the Me Me Me imprint, maintained an active schedule of performances and recordings, and explored additional guises including the atmospheric Bed Wetter project alongside the zoned-out techno alias MPX. He partnered with Juan Maclean under the Juan Power name and joined forces with vocalist Amy Douglas for a 2020 DFA release.

Originally performing as Geoff Leopard, Kirkwood founded Last Waltz alongside Mick Rolfe and Lee Forster, securing a weekly residency at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Madame Koo in the late 2000s while also serving as resident and promoter for the Dada night at the city’s Cosmic Ballroom. Starting in 2011, Last Waltz issued neo-disco and house tracks plus remixes through outlets such as Endless Flight and Futureboogie. Kirkwood adopted the Man Power DJ name, with his opening two EPs, Kiloton and Flacid Trax, both surfacing in 2014. The Throne of Blood EP Trans immediately preceded the Correspondant album. He inaugurated Me Me Me in 2016 via the single “Tachyon,” followed by further output on ESP Institute, Optimo Trax, and DGTL Records. The 2019 Skint release “Do It Thin” paired him with Berlin’s Private Agenda. Man Power introduced the Now Now Now sublabel through the digital drop This Is Not an Album and issued a white-label techno EP under the MPX banner.

Kirkwood joined Juan Maclean to create Juan Power, delivering the Crescendo EP on Life and Death in 2019 before the 2020 full-length The Juan Power LP. The pair had envisioned two separate EPs on a fresh label but opted for direct digital self-release once the COVID-19 pandemic rendered touring unfeasible. Kirkwood likewise self-released his second Man Power album, Economy, digitally; the project had been conceived for packaging inside a biodegradable shopping bag instead of a conventional sleeve. Remaining prolific that year, he put out EPs such as Twitter Makes Everyone Hate You and Facebook Makes You Hate Everyone, appeared on DFA with Amy Douglas on the tracks “Flashing Lights”/“Acid God,” and debuted the experimental Bed Wetter alias via the album Billy Mill Is Dead. The 2021 EP Multi Periodic Oscillations represented Man Power’s first vinyl outing in two years, with the project advancing through 2022’s Closing the Loop.