What was the designated party time last night in Chicago?

Well, if you were at Studio Paris, Joel Zimmerman would say ‘9:30’. He performed an up close and personal, two and half hours long set, for a small but frenzied crowd.

With fewer than 400 people in an intimate setting, Deadmau5 took to the main stage with only a MacBook Pro, a pioneer mixer, effects unit, and a crowd within arms reach. The mix of close proximity and no LED cube to hide behind gave the party-goers a peek at the wizard behind the curtain, though still no one could figure out how he was making everyone’s heads vibrate in such a manner.

The set kicked off hard, with no iconic Mau5head in sight – just an explosion of signature fat drum and squashy bass sounds that sent the crowd wild. About a third of the way through, as if flown in from above, an all black Mau5 helmet was lowered from the retractable ceiling for Joel Zimmerman to give the partygoers what they came to love, a Deadmau5.

The entire set was a mixture of previous banner hits like, Some Chords, Ghosts N Stuff, Sofi Needs a Ladder, Cthulu Sleeps, Raise Your Weapon, Sometimes Things Get Whatever, Brazil, Complications, remixes with Tiny Dancer, Rage Against the Machine, and Daft Punk, and some of his new work, including the newly released The Veldt. (played twice). The whole night came to an end with an epic build up of I Remember.

One of the most ironic things of the night was not the fact we were all in a small nightclub with a retractable roof watching one of dance music’s biggest stars, but the fact that several of the patrons were there the previous night doing the same thing with Tiesto.

But that’s another story.

Related posts:

1. DeadMau5 Comes Home!
2. New Track Limit Break by Deadmau5
3. The Monarch Presents Deadmau5

My recollection of M83‘s sold-out performance at the Sound Academy this past Sunday is somewhat of a hazy blur, thanks in part to a wisdom teeth operation I underwent the day after. Admittedly, I can’t remember much of what happened yesterday (other than drinking half of a chocloate milkshake from McDonald’s) however, I couldn’t possibly forget the euphoric rush that surged through my body as Anthony Gonzalez and co. dove into the sublime opener “Intro”. Although Zola Jesus was not present to deliver her howling vocals, Morgan Kibby (whom also has a fantastic solo project called White Sea) astounded with her flawless rendition of Zola‘s eerie croons. For a minute there, I was convinced that Zola in fact, had made a guest appearance.

After the rousing ‘Intro’, the euro synth-poppers didn’t waste any time, immediately launching into their enchanting classic “Teen Angst”. As soon as those arpeggiated synth tones hit my eardrums, I was overcome by a wave of nostalgia. M83‘s music has a very wistful and nostalgic feel to begin with but every time I hear “Teen Angst” or for that matter, anything off of “Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts”  my thoughts instantly harken back to March of 2010,  where I’m staring out of a bus window at the Autobahn highway, snow lightly falling, and nothing but M83 echoing through my headphones. There’s just something about their gauzy, dream-like sound that really strikes me emotionally. I just can’t help but swoon over the heartfelt sincerity of Gonzalez’s lyrics mixed with his exultant synths, the cascading guitar riffs of Jordan Lawlor, Kibby’s gorgeous incantations and Loïc Maurin’s reverberating percussion. To see them live was truly a revelatory experience.

The only thing that I found disappointing about this show was its runtime. M83 blasted through their set in just about an hour (including the encore). It really was quite a condensed show with the opener, Swedish M83 sound-alikes I Break Horses playing for only about half an hour and M83 themselves playing from about 10:00 to 11:15. However, I didn’t mind it too much considering that they managed to concentrate the majority of their crowd-pleasers into just one hour. They played basically everything I was hoping they would from “Graveyard Girl” to “Steve McQueen” to “Skin of the Night”. The only songs I thought they snubbed were “Unrecorded” off of 2003′s “Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts” and “Kim & Jessie” but overall, their set-list was quite satisfying.

What really astonished me about M83 was their versatility. Gonzalez, being the musical mastermind that he is, effortlessly transitioned from bass, to guitar, to synths, and back to bass, all the while cooing breathy lullabies. Morgan Kibby manned keyboard and synths while belting gorgeous vocals and whoa-oh-oh’s. Lawlor played his part impeccably, thrashing about with his curly mop of hair and black skinny’s stopping only to pummel the drum machine now and then . Being a drummer myself, I was thoroughly impressed with Loïc Maurin’s spot-on fills and downright thunderous beats. Live, M83‘s sound is very tight and a number of the songs they played (“Reunion”,”Wait”, “Midnight City”) sounded almost exactly the same as the studio recordings. This proved to me that M83 are technically skilled musicians but what I really wanted to hear was some variation. Sure enough, on “We Own the Sky” Maurin threw in a new drum beat and they added an atmospheric segue into “Steve McQueen”. Sure, it wasn’t total improvisation but it showed that M83 are capable of manipulating their sound in a live setting.

As expected, the song that sent the crowd into a frenzy was hit single “Midnight City”. If you weren’t there, you can watch the mediocre quality fan-shot video above. It was certainly one of the highlights of the night but I was surprised that they didn’t save it for the encore. In any case, I was actually glad that they didn’t; instead they happened to play two of my favourite tracks off of “Saturdays = Youth” for the encore: “Skin of the Night” and “Couleurs”.  ”Skin of the Night’s” spacey drum pads and seraphic vocals of Gonzalez and Kibby enveloped the crowd in a meditative reverie before propelling into the rapturous 8 and a half minute dance number “Couleurs”. Almost entirely instrumental and one of M83‘s clubbier tracks, “Couleurs” was a perfect song to cap the night off. Swaying and nodding along to the four-on-the floor beat, flaring guitar, and star-like synths, I felt as if I was drifting off into a narcotic haze. Hmmm…sounds familiar.

Full Setlist:

1. Intro
2. Teen Angst
3. Graveyard Girl
4. Reunion
5. Sitting
6. Year One, One UFO
7. We Own The Sky
8. Steve McQueen
9. Wait
10. Fall (Daft Punk Cover)
11. This Bright Flash
12. Midnight City
13. A Guitar And A Heart

Encore:

1. Skin Of The Night
2. Couleurs

Related posts:

1. Show review: Sound Pellegrino vs Body High showcase [SXSW2012]
2. If It Bleeds It Leads — Knife Party at Ministry of Sound [Show Review + Photos]
3. Reflection Eternal Plays Sound Academy June 5th 2010

The concept of a Happy Endings party is simple: an extremely high level of music curation in a venue seemingly in complete contrast to the care spent in selecting the artists. A dim sum restaurant, to be exact, albeit with a cash bar and a soundsystem powerful enough to mix a martini.

So if you’re not one to be fooled by veneer and lazer light shows of death, come enjoy the finest underground rave Toronto has on offer.

Get complete event details on Facebook

$5 DRINKS ALL NIGHT x $5 DIM SUM PLATTERS x FREE BIRTHDAY LOBSTERS

For $10 Advanced Tickets (Guaranteed Entry), please visit Soundscapes, Rotate This, Play De Record, or Ticketweb.com: http://www.ticketweb.ca/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=4485035

For $10 Reduced Guestlist (Subject to Capacity), please e-mail names to guestlist@themansioninc.com

Related posts:

1. Show Review: Munchi in Vancouver, April. 5th
2. Dada Life – Happy Violence Remixes
3. Best of the Blogosphere: April 2012

Vancouver moombahton ambassador Ziad from 110BPM here. One of the pioneers of moombahton, Munchi, recently played a show in Vancouver and wanted to share the experience (along with exclusive excerpts from my interview with him) with Cal and the rest of Salacious Sound. 

If you’re not familiar with Munchi (shame on you!), here are a two of my favourite tracks to get you acquainted:

The first thing I immediately noticed when I got to Republic was that a lot of the people there definitely weren’t from the moombahton or even EDM scene. With $12 cover the night before a long weekend there must have been a lot of door traffic. I know what you’re thinking and yes, I know that $12 cover for a normal Canadian club is ridiculous. This is Vancouver.

...and this is Republic's light-up bar

To my disappointment the opening DJ didn’t play a single moombahton track, but the performance that followed more than made up for that. Arriving straight from the plane, Munchi got behind two shiny CDJ 2000s right away and put his CDs in. Singing and dancing along to every track, Munchi’s energy immediately transferred over to the 400 shuffling club-goers and got them moving right away.

If you’ve never seen a Dutch man with a giant ‘fro and an ever bigger grin on his face jump up and down, shouting “Mother-fucker!” along with lyrics… it puts a smile on your face. What I loved at this show was that instead of the typical ‘build and drop/melt your face’ off’ style that I’m accustomed to hearing at most shows he pulled off one hell of a rhythmic, high-energy set.

Now, I’ve been to a lot of shows in my 22 years of life and this was the first time I’d ever seen 6’3″ Persians with silver chains and girls in little leather jackets all dancing alongside each other and enjoying the music equally as much. In fact, instead of the usual situation where the line is dead by 12am-12:30am, it was constantly busy whether it was 1am, 1:30am, 2am, and even later people were still flocking to the club… I guess that’s what word of mouth can do for a show.

Hands down favourite point of the night? An unreleased remix of The Final Countdown. I don’t use this expression often, but people seriously went ham. Two days later, I sat down with Munchi to talk about the experience:

First off, I was at the show and I don’t think there’s any question that people loved it.

Munchi (M): “You were there? Why didn’t you come say hi. After the gig I was talking to everybody at the show.”

Ziad (Z): “Haha, well I tried talking to you, but Jason said you just got off the plane so I wanted to give you some time.”

M: “Aw, naw man, that’s not that big of a deal. I just like talking to everybody. I could tell that there were a lot of people coming that weren’t in the moombahton scene or weren’t used to going to Republic and everyone came together and had a good time it looked like. That’s why I went out into the crowd after to thank everybody for coming out because I could tell that a lot of them came out of there element and had a good time regardless.”

That’s actually something Republic is trying to get past, this perception that it’s a Top 40 club or a club for a select group of people.

M: “For real?!”

Z: “Yeah, recently there’s been a big push to expand their audience. They’ve got a successful reggae night on Sundays, and Tuesdays they do drum n bass/jungle, and now they’re really pushing new artists to come do Thursday shows.”

M: “That’s good shit, it’s always good to bring different crowds together.”

And what do you think of the layout of republic?

M: “It was weird, it’s in the middle of the air. Downstairs was crazy, upstairs everybody was judging and I felt really peer pressured, you know?”

What was Fortune like? I know that you weren’t on the bill until the last minute, was it strange playing for people that don’t know your music?

M: “Aw, no, it’s all good, dude. I actually prefer to play in front of people who don’t know my shit and then I try to convince them… but sadly, it didn’t work this time…

Z: “Really?!”

M: “I mean, it worked up until a certain extent, but when I started playing moombahcore they were like ‘nah, fuck that shit,’ haha. I don’t mind though, I was like ‘fuck it,’ you know?”

————————————————————————————————-

I hope you all enjoyed my expose of Munchi’s debut show in Canada. If you want to read the rest of the interview it’s all on Moomba+ for your viewing pleasure, and if you live in or around Vancouver and want to talk moombahton (shows, tracks, whatever) don’t hesitate to send me a message through my Facebook page.

The Republic show was made possible by the great guys at the Donnelly Group, as well as 110BPM, Winnie Cooper, and Vancouver’s Very Own. To see more photos from the event, head over here.

Lastly, Moombah+ has a swell Facebook group that you can keep up with us on:

- Ziad

Related posts:

1. Show review: Nadastrom, Torro Torro, Toddla T, Diplo, Dillon Francis, Nicky Da B, and Bro Safari [SXSW2012]
2. If It Bleeds It Leads — Knife Party at Ministry of Sound [Show Review + Photos]
3. Porter Robinson, Adventure Club, and The M Machine at Fox Theatre, Oakland [show review]

1. JacquesMaster at Icee Hot, Barcelona

On the closing night of SXSW, Jackmaster and Jacques Greene’s last minute surprise, back to back set — dubbed “Jacquesmaster” — pulled out all the stops at Barcelona to delighted partiers at Barcelona. Straight from earlier performances at the SBTRKS showcase at The Madison, Numbers label head Jack Revill stepped in to accompany Jacques Greene at XLR8R Magazine’s party to deliver a stunning mix of classic house, techno, hip hop, and bass music. The two worked the crowd into a swirling dance-vortex; alternating between Jackmaster’s signature selections, and Jacque Greene’s unmistakable productions, the set was a complete success.

2. Boiler Room, SXSW House Party Edition.

London’s seminal online music show has traversed the Atlantic on a number of occasions, all to great success — but there has never been a Boiler Room party quite like this one. The scene was as follows: a three story rental house in east Austin, complete with garden and rooftop patio; an all-star cast of DJs including Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, Machinedrum, Jackmaster and Oneman, Nick Hook; and a couple hundred euphoric partiers rammed inside. This night, the name “Boiler Room” was more than appropriate. The walls dripped with sweat, the house bulged at its seams, and over two hundred people packed into the living room and the roof of the house. It was a house party of the tallest order — all friends of friends of friends, drinking, dancing, crowd surfing and shaking the house from its foundations. Yet somehow, it was also a Boiler Room party; its raucous energy was instantly transmuted, encoded and broadcasted to thousands of viewers across the world. The party was good — so good, in fact, the Boiler Room hosts were evicted the next day.

3. Surfire Showcase: Machinedrum at Barcelona.

Travis Stewart’s critically acclaimed solo project, Machinedrum, shook Barcelona’s foundations on the Thursday night of SXSW. Playing what seemed to be one of his wildest-ever shows on this side of North America, his signature juke inspired rhythms, lush production, and soaring melodies from his landmark 2011 release, Rooms(s), as well as harder cuts from all around the 160bpm bass continuum pummelled the audience into a frenzy — and they pummelled right back. The crowd was ravenous; the rapid-fire, heart palpitation inducing bass, along with Machinedrum’s live vocals, elicited chants, singalongs and dancing of the best kind.

4. Apparat DJ set at Wunderbar Brunch

In what seems like a never-ending chain of wild and brain rattling parties and acts, The Wunderbar Brunch, on the Wednesday afternoon of SXSW was a welcome oasis — a German techno oasis, that is. Located on an intimate rooftop overlooking the madness of 6th Street, gourmet German fare was served, while acclaimed electronic artist Apparat, a.k.a Sasha Fink played choice cuts of prime time techno and house to patrons. While some of these selections may have seemed more suited for a 5am party at Berlin’s Berghain, the experience was positively sublime under Austin’s sunny, blue skies. It was definitely one of SXSW’s calmer — but no less excellent moments.

5. Sepalcure at the Madison Thursday Night,

Sepalcure — comprised of Praveen Sharma (Braille) and Machinedrum (Travis Stewart) took the stage at the intimate Madison to a full house. Hot off the release of their critically acclaimed, self-titled LP, they were in top form. The duo came together to deliver, not only their trademark lush production, head nodding rhythms, and infectious melodies, but their inimitable and highly magnetic stage presence. Straight from their second or third performances of the day, Sepalcure’s performance was flawless, leaving only one thing to possibly yearn for: visual effects guru (and often third member) Sougwen Chung’s visual show.

Click photo + use left/right directional keys to navigate

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Related posts:

1. Show Review: Jacques Greene, Machinedrum, Oneman x Jackmaster, Nick Hook + Andrea Balency [SXSW2012]
2. Photo gallery: Sepalcure, Salva, Ghosting Season at The Madison [SXSW2012]
3. Photo Gallery: Shigeto, Robot Koch, and Machinedrum [SXSW2012]

Saturday night was the grand finale for me in Austin. And while my recollections have all but faded to memory as we are nearly a week past its completion, I can assure you that I had very little to go on even on Sunday morning.

I had been trying to catch one of Jacques Greene’s shows all week. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make it over to the Icee Hot party at Barcelona, and it wasn’t a big deal – I had seen everyone else on the bill, and I’d been in the venue over a half dozen times since Tuesday. Moreover, I knew that The Madison was going to be an absolute mob scene – it was, so much so that I had to beg AND bribe the bouncer to let Zeds Dead and Omar Linx in – so I showed up nice and early.

The first photo is of Montrealer, and extremely talented DJ + sexy house music producer, Jacques Greene. This guy’s set is easily as good as his songs, and that’s high praise from my point of view. Jacques is about my favourite producer out there right now, so to see him live and support him was a treat.

Next up was Machinedrum. I saw Travis perform three times over SXSW, and each time he managed to surprise me. His set this night was the most daring, with the most extensive use of his keyboard and even live vocals on his part.

It was nice to see – and I don’t mean this derisively about the other performers – an artist flex their musical muscles beyond just incorporating the turntables and mixer in to their set.

If anyone really pushed the limits that night though, it was without question Nick Hook and Andrea Balency. I don’t know where the hell I recognize Nick Hook from – if it’s from the RBMA videos, a performance in Toronto, or something else entirely – but I ran in to him more than anyone else during SXSW. Him and Andrea used keyboards and live vocals extensively throughout their set, and put on a really entertaining dance party for the packed house at The Madison. I’d jump at any opportunity to see this guy again, no question.

Click photo + use left/right directional keys to navigate

Related posts:

1. Jacques Greene – Motivation
2. Photo Gallery: Shigeto, Robot Koch, and Machinedrum [SXSW2012]
3. CBot’s best of SXSW [review + photo gallery]

I made it out, and I was in the absolute right place at the right time. I’ve seen The Roots three times now, and each time I’m that annoying + too-pushy fan desperately clamouring and climbing over the crowd to try and grab a drumstick thrown from the stage. Not this time. I had a camera in one hand, a drink in the other, and jumping no less than five feet in the air I managed to catch not one but TWO drumsticks with my teeth (this may or may not be what is oft-referred to as “Texas-tall-tale.”)

The Roots, unsurprisingly, were polished and fun as ever. The guys spend so much time jamming and playing shows that they control the crowd with a skill few others match, and are similarly skilled with their instruments. Here’s an ill pic of a ?uestlove doll levitating Tuba Gooding Junior, Captain Kirk Douglas, and the rest of the band.

The event production itself was pretty special – Intel and MOG put together a fine cast of musicians at the best venue of SXSW, The Mohawk, and live streamed everything through SalaciousSound. My face wasn’t the only one beaming big smiles that sunny Saturday:

If you’ve been following our SXSW 2012 coverage, we have several more pieces of content coming this week including all the video I shot, and a special wrap-up editorial that I’ll be penning throughout the week. Stay up!

Click photo + use left/right directional keys to navigate

Related posts:

1. Show preview: MOG at the Mohawk featuring The Roots [SXSW2012]
2. Photo gallery: Sepalcure, Salva, Ghosting Season at The Madison [SXSW2012]
3. Live streaming on SalaciousSound: The Roots & more perform for in-person and internet audience [SXSW2012]

I’m sometimes faced with “as good as it gets” moments in live music performances, and it always leaves me with feelings of confusion, a touch of sadness, but also very deep satisfaction. Pretty standard stuff for a hedonist.

So, last night’s Moombahton Massive SXSW 2012 showcase was what I expect will be the best event of my week down in Austin, and I still have two and a half days to go.

Like a really quality DJ set, the party was a mix of great performance by people I was expecting, some HUGE surprise sets, and an absolutely brilliant and absurd end to the evening with a live 5-piece act.

The evening started out comfortably, with a few dozen dancers on hand, winding away. I arrived just as Torro Torro was taking the stage, and was delighted to see the enthusiasm the crowd had for their tracks, new and old.

The first big surprise came when a colourfully dressed Toddla T took the stage, and dropped some serious dubby riddims. The most exciting part of his set was a moombahton edit of Sean Paul’s Gimme the Light.

His extended set got the room REALLY fired up, and was testament to the fact that UK dub is really coming back in a big way.

Some time in the middle of the set, Diplo showed up and started setting up. Predictably, the crowd of 50, who were now clacking away on their cell phones, swelled to over 300 in a matter of 30 minutes.

As a quick aside, one of the best parts about the energy of last night for me was the closeness of the musicians hanging out. A huge cast of people were there to support and perform, as well as engage in a rare opportunity to have all the boys in one place.

The exciting news was, Diplo wasn’t just there to bro out – from intro to conclusion, he performed a set that utilized every last part of the mixer, radio drops and reggae horns, and an incredible selection of tracks. His tremendous skill was apparent in every aspect of his set, from the on-the-fly editing during masterful builds in to new songs, perfect timing, and crowd-energizing drops.

And that’s only the half of it. Diplo back-to-backed with one of the finest A&R + producer/DJs in the business – a man off his own label, who has had a meteoric rise to fame in the last twelve months: Dillon Francis.

The real testament to Francis’ success over the last year was the sheer number of tracks him and Diplo were able to incorporate in to their set which were collaborations of remixes by other artists that were in the building. His opening track, a new one I hadn’t heard before, got the crowd really amped. But the highlight for me was when Diplo and DF dropped the Torro Torro remix of their collaboration with Maluca, Que Que.

And if that were all of it the party would have been a huge success, but the most exciting performance was about to take the stage.

When Diplo showed up, several characters were in tow which, broadly speaking, fit the extremely weird visual aesthetic of his label Mad Decent. Picture wild haircuts with shaved patterns and dye & booty shorts + fishnets, and you’re getting warm.

The group is called Nicky Da B, and they had the crowd more riled up that any act I’ve seen in perhaps the past year.

Every last detail about this show was tight. The vocalist was a great singer and amazing hype man. He was really interactive, and had everyone in the audience shouting out his call-and-responses.

The dancers were the real highlight though. I couldn’t believe my eyes at the things the three of them could do. Every one of them were bouncing in and out of the splits, executing earthquake-grade booty-claps, as well as other antics too many to enumerate., but a highlight was when the they were bouncing in and out of the splits. Check the look on the crowd’s faces.

Opportunities for music discovery like this party, where I find something that I love and I discover that special something live for the first time is the best part about going to festivals like SXSW. So did my week really peak early? Maybe in a sense. But experiences like these are rare as they get, and besides, every time I’ve had to describe the ridiculous scene this party was to people I can’t hold back the smiles. Moreover, I know that this is a memory I’m going to keep close for a very long time.

Related posts:

1. Photo gallery: Moombahton Massive ft. Diplo, Dillon Francis, Torro Torro, Bro Safari, Nicky Da B [SXSW2012]
2. Torro Torro Remixes Dillon Francis and Diplo
3. Dillon Francis ft Diplo – Que! Que! [Video]

The show began with a set by The M Machine, a San Francisco electro group signed to OWSLA, who did a great job warming up the crowd.

Their sound and stage presence were unlike any other EDM group I had ever seen; they had a very well organized and methodical approach to DJing. Their set reflected this as well, the transitions were super clean and everything was very… tidy. Also, they had a really awesome “M” over the stage that had a synchronized light show going on the whole time, and the central guy (there were three of them) had a seriously awesome mustache.

Despite the mustache and the light show, their set still lacked something. I think it was variation. The energy they put out was the same throughout their whole performance, and by the end, it did feel like we had been hearing a lot of the same stuff over and over. Some random person next to me put it best, saying, “Okay. I’m ready for Adventure Club now”.

But we weren’t ready. Nor could we have been; Adventure Club’s set was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever experienced. They opened with Do I See Color, displaying right off that bat that they were not about to take it easy on our eardrums, and that they certainly were not going to go light on the bass.

The theater has a hardwood floor, and it felt like we were standing on a trampoline.

I could write for days about the individual works of art that they blended in their set, but all that’s important for you to know is that it was glorious. Something else that was very noteworthy was their stage presence. Their whole show was just a table, laptop, mixer, two guys, and a bottle of vodka. And that was all they needed. At the peak of their set, right at the drop of their Crave You remix, they both flung themselves into the audience and permanently sealed their spots in my personal list of biggest badasses. Their performance was only slightly marred by the moment that they threw some of the aforementioned vodka into the crowd… and directly into my awestruck eyeball.

Porter Robinson had his work cut out for him. I wasn’t even sure that it was actually possible to top his openers, because by this point everyone in the building had been jumping up and down for two hours already.

But, people went nuts. His drops were massive, his synths were smooth as silk, his mixes were flawless, his light show was staggering, and the energy in the room went to 11.

At one point in the show he worked in a build-up that literally lasted for 45 seconds before he dropped into a rendition of Levels that made me entirely forget how overplayed it is, as well as re-experience the enjoyment I had felt the first time I heard the song.

I think it’s incredible that he’s only 19, which then reminds me that Madeon is even younger, which then reminds me how jealous I am of them. In any case, Porter Robinson is an extremely talented DJ. He read the crowd, gave us what we wanted to hear, displayed his skill and showmanship and really gave an exceptional performance. What a night it was.

Related posts:

1. Porter Robinson Breaks on to Electro House Scene at Top of Beatport Charts
2. Win 2 Free Tickets to See Porter Robinson, Nero, & Skrillex in Toronto Saturday Feb 19th 2011
3. Porter Robinson – Ticket Giveaway

The Japanese, especially in the mid-century, were prone to a disease that psychiatrists called Paris Syndrome. You see, Paris was so built up in Japanese culture, that when they came to Paris expecting to arrive at Elysium, they arrived at a real city with its own quirks, its own seedy underbelly, and with many dimensions.

They then lapsed into catatonia and could not be roused…

The thing is, though, that you should look for this side of Paris. It’s there, it’s gritty, it’s a little bit drunk, and it kicks off at 2 AM.

This is my kind of Paris.

Therefore, at the beginning of January, I took a cheeky trip. Ulterior motive: I wanted to go to Paris to do various naughty things to this pretty, french-speaking, former native of Paris. As any sensible travelling music journalist would do, I called her and asked her to be my “guide and translator.”

We met up in the dining car of the 5 AM Eurostar, and over a ten Euro breakfast of weak espresso and dry sandwiches, I told her the game plan.

One, we’re going to check in at Mama Shelter in the 20th arrondisement.

Two, we’re going to fritter the day away.

Three, we’re going somewhere cool to eat tonight.

Four, music schedule begins tomorrow.

Dig?

Dug.

Mama Shelter (109 rue de Bagnolet 20e) is a cheerful modern building in the midst of the up-and-coming 20th — live music venues like Fleche d’Or (102 rue de Bagnolet 20e) are popping up between the copy shops and grey apartment buildings. The hotel’s lobby is dark, and there’s chalk graffiti on the ceiling. Phillipe Starck seems to have designed the building while on a quick Brooklyn vacation, as “vintage-store,” “deadstock,” and otherwise “random” things that aggressively put quotation marks around themselves. Think Star Wars figurines nestled up against a 60’s looking device to imprint the Eiffel Tower on a piece of toast.

In the small, designer, and, most importantly, cheeeaaaaapppp room, I must admit that the bed called to me at first. It was soft, and huge, and it was flanked by Batman themed lights (I can’t stay mad at you, Philippe Starck)… but NO! I had a little of Paris to see before going out tonight. I steeled myself, put down my bag, and, ushered Guide and myself out. She wanted to show me her old neighbourhood.

Hotel du Nord (102 quai de Jemmapes) is neither a hotel (it’s a restaurant and bar), nor is it particularly Nord — it is east, and easy walking distance to the Oberkampf/Bastille area. Get off at Goncourt, have a walk up, go inside, and continue drinking. Cocktails were pushed into our hands, as our table was almost ready. The whole thing gave the impression of a library, and the music slowly got housier and loungier as the night went on. I had the two Chinese options on the otherwise purely traditionally French menu — the crispy spinach salad, and the raw tuna. The only real meal I had this weekend, and certainly the best. Over the next two days, as I went to shows, I kept half expecting our waitress to pop up — it seems Hotel du Nord only recruits cute hipsters in glasses and legwarmers. Very salacious indeed.

Tired, ol’ Guidey heads back to the hotel… but she’s a wuss, and I have it in my mind to meet Woman 2.0 at Paris Social Club tonight when I go see the ClekClekBoom show.

French Fries, DJ MikeQ and the Kube Hotel
Paris Social Club is a large (by European inner-city nightclub standards) club in a lower-number arrondissement. I would remember more of its location, but the cab ride after Hotel Costes is, to be honest, a little… fuzzy.

I’m greeted by my man from Younggunz, Guillimame La Donche (right? So French!), a drink is pressed into my hand, and I’m off to the main stage area for some sorely needed beats.

MikeQ was up first… I wondered where I’d heard these songs, with their explosive snares, chopped vocals, and some of the QUEENIEST lyrics in house music (try the song Battle Kunt) — before. This guy’s on Mad Decent, which is where the fuck I heard this before. International — impressive. I made the Mad Decent connection (before doing further research) when I heard a sample of Torro Torro’s remix of “Que Que.” In a random Paris nightclub, no less!

MikeQ’s style of Vogue/Ballroom House is a massive feature of the East Coast underground LGBT community’s dance music scene… I’d never heard of it, but was very interested. A little research showed me a few stylistic hallmarks which I recognized from the night in question. Vogue House is limited to the gay black party scene in New York and, to a lesser extent, Newark… and nearly every song contains a snippet of the song “The Ha Dance” by Masters at Work. I love finding new, emergent trends in house music, and I think stumbling across this niche, regional, subcultural genre in Paris was a delight. Featured on some of my favourites of MikeQ’s bangers was a song featuring Party Squad (!!!) called “My Bad” (Ballroom RMX) and his rework of “Whip My Hair” (apparently a huge song on the Vogue/Ballroom scene?) mashed up with Ha Dance… another huge song on the V/Br scene.

It was interesting to see how a totally unrelated crowd responded to beats that usually accompany catwalk-dancing and fauxbitch transvestites. Everyone was in to it… the crowd was getting down, crowding the front of the stage, and having a great time. It’s interesting how a particular style can cross oceans and subcultures to arrive at the doorstep of hipster Parisians and still groove the hell out of them.

Diplo wrote an article about Vogue House in October 2011, which I’ve attached here if you want a closer look at something that might go global in the next couple months: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/10/diplo-slideshow-201110#slide=1

French Fries were a little more French and a good deal less North Jersey Cross Dressing Nightclub. A Parisian native, Mr. Valentino Cazani put together the ClekClekBoom imprint to push a signature Paris sound to the rest of the world. Cazani pulls UKF, Hip Hop, and Jungle influences together and slaps a little French flair into his remixes, popping on the occasional filter to remind us where he’s from.

Again, however, the name of this game was eclecticism — he pulled influences from literally everywhere to keep the (rapidly swelling, now that it’s… like 2:30 AM and the night can finally start) crowd swaying. The man knows how to play a crowd too… he kept the swells and drops tight and fast, every song placed along a precise crescendo to peak around 3 and even back out into a rework of The Ha Dance (one of about a dozen I’d heard that night… DJ MikeQ loves that song).

It’s a million AM. The sound of the speakers is now just normal; silence would sound weird. I’m flirting with an adorable Parisian hipster (the hipster girls I met in Paris are precious, rather than snobby) when I realize there’s already a woman in my bed. I need, somehow, to postpone this girl to some other night. I formulate a cunning plan.

To this day, I don’t know what number I gave her, because I certainly couldn’t have summoned the wherewithal to remember my own birthday, let alone my new and temporary Parisian cell. Confident that the random string of information I gave would eventually lead her to my door, Nicholas Cage in National Treasure style, I found a cab (a bouncer found me a cab) and sent me on my way.

This night, I did not lie down my head on rue Bagnolet, but on a little alleyway off Marx Dormoy up in the 18e. The Kube Hotel exists behind a featureless wall with an invisible door (it will swing open for you when you buzz in). The wee hours saw the normally buzzing bar going through the last motions of cleanup, the last of the night’s winding down (check out the bar before unholy o’clock, even if just for a pre-mad-beats cocktail).

I woke up the next day in a room of perfectly white cubes, wearing a leather jacket and pulling my sticky, aching, stubbly head off the bedside cubetable. My Guide, responsible creature she is, was already up.

She made me coffee.

What a darling.

After she “cured my hangover,” I went downstairs, got myself a subsequent coffee and a bloody Mary, and then looked at my iPad to see if I wrote anything down the previous night.

I liked Kube as a hotel to have a hangover in. Giant bed. Espresso maker. Recovery bathtub. A bar that makes a decent Bloody Mary. I want to give a shout out to the young man stayed up all night to make sure I didn’t get locked out after I came back from a show that was over at 5 AM.

This is a place to stay when you’re in Paris to go to clubs, see shows, and generally be a young person who’s seen enough of the Eiffel Tower on every other sucker’s “Zomg Paris 2010 <333” Facebook albums.

The area was pretty funky. It was right next to Montemartre, a ten-minute walk to the Sacre Couer (good place to have a coffee and see a beautiful, yet slightly touristy view of Paris for your 1 PM “morning”), and beside the mind bogglingly authentic Algerian quarter. Loved it.

Hotel Costes
Instead of eating dinner, we decided to go drink at one of the most famous lounges in history. The DJ didn’t go on until 11, but we were thirsty, so got there an hour or so beforehand to sip on some insane cocktails (hand crushed gooseberries, anyone?) and listen to the curated music selection.

We arrived, greeted by Greg, the bar manager (with Guidey-Guide translating), who immediately sat us in a booth and asked if we liked mojitos. Heavens yes… yes we did. He looked around the bar… every table full, three deep queue at the bar — by any measure, this place was very full — and told us with some disdain “c’est mort!” This place must, I concluded, get pretty wild on a regular basis.

Here follow some of the ad hoc notes I took on the music at this famous bar between sips of cocktail made of delicious madness and house-infused spirits:

1. Regina Spektor
2. Diamonds are Forever
3. Guide says: “Remixes are very cheeky… everything around suggests opulence, but the songs suggest they don’t take themselves so seriously.”
4. French lounge/chillout house returns
5. Wait, Amy Winehouse + Louis Armstrong + Breakbeats?
6. Booker T and the MGs!?!?
7. THE NAME OF THE GAME AT HOTEL COSTES IS ECLECTICISM

Greg’s other job is to curate the music before the DJ comes on (before you ask, it wasn’t Mr. Stephane Pompougnac that night… though he’s still around once a month entirely at random if you’re lucky enough to catch him).

It was at this moment that I was swept out of my seat by a very drunk Austrian businessman, and, very gone myself, was waltzed around the bar and deposited into the arms of a woman who turned out to be the editor of a famous, French fashion publication. More cocktails. Foie gras fed to me. Cliche?

I decided to be responsible, and, summoning every modicum of balance my beleaguered, waltzed-out legs could offer, wobbled back to my table to be a goddamned adult about the situation.

Needless to say, Guide had become more than a mere translator at this point.

She tells me (I was somewhere deep in the secret cocktail menu of the Hotel at this point) that Greg told us that chill house and lounge were a little too mature, and he wanted Costes to become a little more approachable, youthful, and cheeky in the early hours in order to draw the unsuspecting public into its diamond-encrusted web of cool French house.

“I want to make it,” he said, “more rock’n’roll.”

Hotel Costes, while eclectic, is not confused — it knows exactly what it wants to be, and exactly how to pull together seemingly disparate elements, in terms of music, design, and drinks, to create a unifying impression of luxury and irreverence. It was, personally, a privilege for me to experience, and in no small part for personal reasons. The first electronic music I ever listened to was one of Stephane Pompougnac’s famous Hotel Costes compilations, which, like the hotel itself, mix disparate elements to create a unified whole. Chill house transitions to hip-hop transitions to electro swing, and so forth. These are people who know how to make a compelling collage.

“So,” said the guide, “you’re responsible for that?” She gestured to a Keith Richards-looking gentleman sitting with two statuesque young black women. Either this man owns a record label, or he bought out the snakeskin jacket and heroin chic store on the way here, beside a table of models and businessmen, beside the fashion editors from earlier.

Greg laughs.

“Oui!”

Joris Delacroix
“Allez, Joris!” the entire crowd shouted (did you see me start this section in media res?). From my perspective onstage next to Mr. Delacroix, this was pretty cool to see, as Machine de Moulin Rouge (near the infamous tourist trap of the burlesque, but, as far as I can tell, unaffiliated). Again, I’m at a show that finally picks up speed around 2:30am to really get going by 4.

I got here by walking backstage, expecting to poke my head out and snap a couple shots from the side… Instead I was told to just join him on stage (in front of like a thousand Parisian hipsters and otherwise by myself) and snap some snaps.

Unlike previous nights of great eclecticism, Joris Delacroix’s set was laser focused on house, and on his own considerable catalogue. One notable deviation was for a quick remix of the XX’s Crystalized (which I think everyone enjoyed).

One of the reasons I love Joris Delacroix is that his clever use of silence makes any and all of his tunes eminently listenable on headphones (I have “This Is Not Tango” on while I write this). This does not detract from either their depth (at this very moment I count six instruments) and does not suffer from snore-itis, a disease to which modern European house music is particularly prone. He is able to make interesting music, despite his lack of instantly gratifying, Knife Party-style immediacy, through cleverness — the little moments of silence that pervade his songs are like bubbles in an Aero bar. The space between each instrument, and the notes he’s intentionally not playing all come through as cleanly as any synth. It’s so clear, not because of the quality of the Machine system (which was high; I’m not saying it was clear despite the system), but because of the precision with which Mr. Delacroix chooses to make songs.

Joris uses multi-sentence vocals, layered synthesizers and keyboards, and disregards oversimple quarter note melodic structures. His songs still certainly follow a house pattern — adding a new element with each phrase — but do not conform to the house stereotype of boring (to us residually-rock-obsessed North Amurricans) instrumentation. There are always at least two beats going, a complex piano, and a synth effect — Joris Delacroix makes aurally interesting, complex, funky house, and this makes him special among house producers, who, as I said, are prone to make their songs too simple. While he is by no stretch of the imagination an obvious producer, Joris is a much more approachable beatsmith, and one who I will always jump at the chance to see.

Paris Syndrome Redux
So I didn’t get Paris Syndrome, fortunately, because I sought the underbelly, and to always tinge luxury with a little debauchery.
I think, for Salacious people such as ourselves, Paris Syndrome is caught in queues for the Louvre, outside the Eiffel tower, and on meandering boat cruises down the Seine.

Save your catatonic state for the Eurostar back home.

Related posts:

1. Paris Hilton Starts Her Own Music Blog
2. Watch Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def’s video ‘N****s in Poorest’ (N****s in Paris remix)
3. French Fries’ upcoming release on dirtybird [stream]

On Wednesday, Bassmentality played host to one of the biggest parties I’ve seen at Wrongbar in a very long time. The arrival of 12th Planet, Flinch, and Crizzly has been hotly anticipated, and it was clear to me in the days leading up that this was going to be one for the books.

I arrived around 11pm – extremely early by Wrongbar standards – to see a giant tour-bus out front which complemented the already budding line-up nicely, as hipsters of all walks had wisely arrived before the midnight crush to avoid disappointment.

There’s an odd phenomenon that occurs in Wrongbar on all of the truly memorable nights I’ve spent there which provides an odd, somewhat disgusting, and visceral reminder that what you’re experiencing is special and, dare I say, epic — the club sweats. Don’t mistake me, because I am not mincing words here. When this mid-sized 400′ish person room is full to capacity, the temperature has a way of rising with the emotion of the night (read: the air-con in Wrongbar is shite). And so on these evenings, water accumulates on the much-cooler ceiling. The club’s perspiration, or rather the aggregate condensation of Wrongbar ravers’ salty steam, then rains down on the dancers as if the club itself were alive.

Sounds gross perhaps, but it’s one of the things that makes Wrongbar great. Other venues in this city should take note: it’s not about appearances, fine finishing, or crazy lighting. What’s enough is the Funktion 1 sound system, a door policy which attracts an easy-going crowd of music-lovers who, despite disparate appearances, get along famously, and the absolute best bookings in the city.

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Related posts:

1. 12th Planet, Flinch, & Crizzly tour video feature, shot by Salacious Sound
2. 12th Planet @ Wrongbar
3. Free 12th Planet EP + 28 Date Tour

Knife Party - Fire Hive.mp3

School, family, work, friends, hobbies, health, happiness, clean living… These are just a few of the many things that rank below Knife Party on my list of lifetime priorities.

So, when they showed up at Ministry of Sound, I figured there was no way I wouldn’t see them. And lo, It was decided — with a group of fifteen or so intrepid adventurers, I set out to Elephant and Castle, and away from the usual Dalston and Shoreditch haunts. Because Knife Party.

Before I talk about the show, I want to talk about the cultural context of Ministry, and condemn those who dismiss it with bad or no reason.

Technically, Ministry is an excellent club — it’s an easy to navigate space with an absolutely top class sound system that gets pushed to its limits. In terms of the crowd, I found people I could just as easily have met at The Nest or Corsica Studios.

To what degree is audience-makeup due to the venue or the artists? Well that’s the point — when it gets the right artists in, people who appreciate those artists will follow. I think it’s time to accept that it is foolish for this vocal minority to discount this excellent space, and that if they can book acts of the calibre and musical legitimacy of Knife Party, then they could become a (a blogger who wears round glasses) favorite venue of mine to which I look forward to returning.
/dearlondonhipsters.

Okay, enough bitching about hipster opinions on clubs. Let’s be honest — it’s the music blog equivalent of a TED talk on how social media will revolutionize something.

Knife Party’s set was, as I expected, primarily their original work. They opened with Internet Friends and the room went nuts. I haven’t seen Lonodners go this crazy since… well… since I’ve been here. They proceeded to drop their EP, their new single, and some curated electro and dubstep of dispersed origin (more on this later!). Technique-wise, I noticed that they were having a lot of fun with their transitions, cutting and mashing them up live. Their jocking was, obviously, masterful — it seemed quite natural that they were teasing drops, pulling out builds, dangling opens, and, generally putting on a great show of spinning the platters that matter. Remember, though, this is 2/3 of Pendulum we’re talking about here — the fact that they displayed skill is not interesting…

I’d like to think about some things that make Knife Party’s performances unique — the blending of electro and dubstep into one set, the changing of the character of a song as it moves from laptop speakers to giant-fuckoff-Ministry speakers, and finally, the curation of some standout, non-Knife Party songs McGrillen and Swire chose to include.

As anybody who has ever mixed will know, tempo is everything — how can you beat match 128 BPM and 70/140 BPM? It’s why we have electro/house sets and dubstep sets, and not-often-the-twain-shall-meet. McGrillen and Swire’s peculiar mixing techniques — a demonstrated preference for cutting, as opposed to blending — allowed them to create a coherent set out of songs with very different tempos. When you combine this more difficult mixing technique with the similar-across-the-board instrumentation of the Knife Party catalogue, then I think you can begin to see how this would work, and how easily these songs might mash up live. This esoteric style had a couple effects on the show: first, each song, from beat one, is clearly distinguished from each other song, and second, each song is remade to the point of challenging the audience’s preconception. On the first point, I’ll just note that, as Pendulum, Swire and McGrillen opt for a more blended style of mixing — and I think that relates to the more consistent style of the Pendulum catalogue. On the second point, I noticed the crowd struggling to keep up with the new songs. The Knife Party boys were not just handing them familiar beats on a silver plate, but rather undermining their expectations of how these songs progress. During Internet Friends, for example, they decided to use this cutting tactic to delay “You blocked me on Facebook, and now you’re going to…”“Die!” I think we can all agree that it’s a cop out for DJ’s to simply fade their songs into one another, operating as a glorified sound technician — Knife Party’s approach to the DJ set as performance rather than technical venture showed through, and I think the audience appreciated it.

I think every electro fan has listened to Knife Party on his/her Macbook (pro?) speakers. If you haven’t then go listen to Antidote. I’ll wait. Okay, well, it’s awesome in any context, but I think it’s worth saying in italics that these songs are not meant for small speakers. The “lazers” on Destroy Them With Lazers, for example, may be bold, may be new, may be your mother’s brother… but their intended effect; piercing, shrieking, is lessened by smaller speakers. While my assertion may seem banal, I think the point is important — Knife Party is music that is meant to be experienced rather than simply listened to, but the experience is empty unless the equipment is able to match the level of insistence of the tunes themselves. It’s aggressive, pounding, and, I’ll use this word again, visceral like Korean cinema. Believe me: this quality does not come through on headphones, but it is now crucial to my future enjoyment of these guys.

The last thing that jumped out at me was some of the choices they made in terms of non-Knife Party tunes to exhibit. My favourite, without a doubt, was from our favorite filthy devils, Zeds Dead — Undah Yuh Skirt (feat. Mavado). Knife Party’s original and collaborative productions maintain a high level of energy, so to curate other artists’ music to match that intensity is a delicate task. I cannot think of a more rage-driven Zed’s Dead song than Unduh Yuh Skirt, and I think this choice in particular demonstrated a singularly excellent understanding on the part of Swire and McGrillen as to the “work” done by their music — they are able to look at their own catalogue, and find complementary work elsewhere in the world of dubstep (most of the electro portions of the set were Knife Party originals). This was the most-standout of any of their choices in particular, so I think it’s the one that bears mention more than any other (Skrillex and the like which, will it performed its function perfectly does not bear much interest for me as a writer).

I predict that Knife Party, especially on the festival scene, is going to be the show to see in 2012. If you haven’t yet, get on it and find out when they’re going to be in your town.

Related posts:

1. Feed Me vs. Knife Party vs. Skrillex – My Pink Reptile Party (Maluu’s Slice’n’Diced Mashup)
2. Saturday Mixcast: Knife Party – Unreleased Summer Mix
3. Knife Party – 100% No Modern Talking EP Release Date Announced

For complete coverage, hit the Re:mix Lab category link at the top right of the article!

The last packed day of events for Re:mix Lab was Saturday, and the evening portion featured my favourite performance of the week.

I showed up early in the day for a hip hop event featuring Cut Chemist, and later a crowd of young’ns going crazy for a local 3 piece (singer, DJ, rapper) act. Hopefully someone in the comments can point out who these talented locals were.

The long wait til the evening events was worth my patience, as the evening could not have turned out more entertaining. First up, there was a long technical-delay in getting the band, Boxer Rebellion, playing. Instead of playing music for the not yet in to their second drink / past their awkwardness crowd, the house let them ruminate.. until your Cal saved the day.

Now obviously this event was sponsored – how else do you think you can throw a week worth of free events with an open bar, featuring some of the finest artists in the world right now? I’ll tell you – by placing a tricked out to epic Pimp My Ride’esque proportions Hyundai Veloster on the dancefloor, complete with ridiculous pounding soundsystem more than capable of entertaining a ruminating crowd of 100, and Serato Itch DJ set up in the trunk.

So yea, I “jumped on the decks” and made people move a little bit. This basically makes me an international DJ now, amirite?

Aaaanyway.

Boxer Rebellion played a solid hour-long set that got things properly heated.

And the event ended with Underground Rebel Bingo, which is a sort of cross between vulgar British street trash, a rock concert, improv comedy, and bingo. Everyone in the audience was handed bingo cards and markers (everyone proceeded to draw on each other), and absolutely loved the no-rules and no-holds-barred fun.

But the real highlight of the night for me was Mike Relm. This guy is an absolute g. A polished performer, talented turntablist, and a salacious selector. He threw down some sick live mashups, did a lot of vocal editing with the wheels of steel, and through the night scratched and mashed several movie samples, including but not limited to a Charlie Brown Christmas and the “O-Face” scene from Office Space. Awesome.

His solid performance was enhanced yet more by the fact that he is also a VDJ – imagine scratching a video instead of a song. It gives you an instant connection with the DJ and how he’s manipulating the music, which is an oft-missing ingredient with DJ sets!

I couldn’t be happier to have been a part of these events, and feel so fortunate that I was asked to come down and be a part. Thank you SO much to Hyundai Veloster and Antenna Mag – I’m expecting big things from all the forward-looking people behind this fantastic series of events!

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For extensive high-quality video coverage of the week’s events, check the player below!

Related posts:

1. Re:mix Lab Los Angeles December 6-11
2. WEMF 2011 Video Recap feat. Skrillex, Rusko, Calvin Harris, Pendulum & Others
3. Re:mix Lab Update – Kickoff and RE:Generation ft Skrillex, DJ Premier, Erykah Badu, Crystal Method

So Re:mix Lab is half over, and I am half dead from the series of open-bar x no-cover parties that have been running this week down at 401 S. Main St. Suffice it to say, the capacity crowds and top notch artists have made for an atmosphere conducive to partying.

There is a weekend full of events left: everything from DJ lessons to DJ dance parties, and of course… Underground Rebel Bingo!! Check the full schedule here, and make sure to RSVP – admittance is free, but only on guestlist!!

Night One – Anna Lunoe, Them Jeans, Yeasayer & College

The first night was not your standard dance party. First up was Anna Lunoe, who threw down some sexy disco jams that got the place properly heated.

Next was Them Jeans. He spun some more disco, and delved in to some throwback rap that, predictably, proved to be a big hit with the fashionable LA crowd.

For me the third act, Caught a Ghost, was the feature of the night.

These guys played a rad mix of indie dance and rock, with plenty of disparate influences (northern soul, blues, doo-wop) to keep the musically oriented on their toes.

My favourite track of theirs was Sleeping at Night. Video below.

The night capped off with performances by College and Yeasayer, who had us dancing until we didn’t have to go home, but couldn’t stay there. (Photo gallery below)

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Night Two – RE:Generation Film Debut and Artist Q&A + Dance Party

The second night in the Re:mix Lab series put several of my favourite artists in the same room: DJ Premier, my favourite hip-hop producer of all time, Skrillex, the biggest artist of the year, Erykah Badu, aka Lady of Rage, aka the First Lady of Neo-Soul, one of the finest female vocalists of all time, and last but certainly not least, The Crystal Method, dance music veterans of over TWO DECADES, were all in attendance.

Skrillex:

The beginning of the Doors thing was up in the air, I was nervous to commit to something if I didn’t feel like i have a real connection.

Any collaboration you have to have trust and faith in that other person or artist or group, and hopefully they have trust and faith in you because it’s a personal thing. You consult with each other… I don’t want to do a collaboration if I’m telling someone what to do and vice versa, but if you can be vulnerable for a second and sit back and let them do what they do and vice versa, those are the most successful tracks at the end of the day.

DJ Premier:

Q: DJ Premier, you took on the classical world and really challenged yourself on a whole other level with this project. Why did you choose the classical world, and were you ever sorry that you did?

A: When Richard Bishop and my manager Fat Gary brought the idea to me… once they told me who else was involved, cuz my manager knows I’m picky about what I step in to because I’m very, very, VERY protective of my image, and my reputation. In the hip-hop world I’m a god, and I’ve established my strategy [huge cheering and applause]. The classical world – I’ve sampled classical music – but I have a greater respect for it now… I like challenges, and I like stuff that I’m not used to. In the hip-hop world I’ma always do it the way I do it, and he’s saying “you’re gonna get a tutor, and all this!”

My tutor Bruce, he reminded me of the hip-hop world. He said “we don’t like calling it classical, cuz that’s putting it in a box”. In the hip-hop world we’re the same way.. “don’t call me nothin.” I’m part of the culture and you either know it or you don’t. That made me open up even more to him, what he was trying to explain, and try to listen to it in a different way. Now I want to go to an opera!

The best takeaway for me was how passionately Sonny (Skrillex) spoke about the creative process. The key for him, he says, is the willingness to be vulnerable:

Like the drama you were mentioning before… it’s not even drama, its the natural progression of when you open yourself up to another artist. When you’re willing to share yourself and also share your criticisms, and get that back as well from other people you respect, and at that moment you have mutual respect, if you’re open to that you can create something incredible. So to do that with people that are SO before my time, and create something that’s really beautiful afterwards and say I wanna have that feeling. The very beginning they started to jam over my loops, and the whole room caught on fire…after that it was like lets make some music, and it wasn’t about the cameras.

Once again, there is a weekend full of events left. Check the full schedule here, and make sure to RSVP – admittance is free, but only on guestlist!!

For other premium content generated from the series, including videos from the events, check the widget below:

No related posts.

Quintino’s latest mix (hit play and read on!):

On Thursday December 1st, Quintino, one of the most exciting new artists of the year was in Toronto for a performance at Cobra Nightclub. I had the pleasure of opening up the show to a group of people genuinely excited for this budding new artist, which is a big plus – amazing artists need be complemented by amazing crowds if a party is going to go down well!

Cobra Thursdays is nailing both every single time.

This was one of those nights where the club just looks fantastic. Every single person in the club grooving or rocking out, smiles and cheering party-goers surrounding you, and some truly salacious action on the couches / hanging from the LED ceiling. And great tunes too.

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Unfortunately for us North Americans, Quintino’s NA tour is done.. for now. Keep your eye on this guy – he’s going to be one of the stars of 2012!

Quintino Facebook | Official Site

Quintino Upcoming European Tour Dates:

10-12-2011
Dordrecht (The Netherlands)
21:00 – 23:00
@ Dordrechts Museum

10-12-2011
Breda (The Netherlands)
23:15 – 00:00
@ Grand Theatre

10-12-2011
Antwerp (Belgium)
02:30 – 04:00
@ Noxx

14-12-2011
Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
00:30 – 02:00
@ Café van Buren

16-12-2011
Lyon (France)
TBA
@ Sound Factory

No related posts.

Sorry about making you spit your vodka-redbull all over your macbook, but Salacious (an electronic music blog) is totally about to write about Neon Indian (an alleged rock band).

Bizarre, right?

Strap in and and hear me out.

Bands like Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, and Surfer Blood used more or less electronic instrumentation and techniques (think sampling, four-on-the-floor house beats, and the now-pervasive “hey, I’m an instrument, too!” laptop), with an indie rock aesthetic (plaid, shoegaze, and proper bands who play non-laptop instruments). They were grouped together by the monolithic blogosphere into a schizophrenic genre called “Chillwave” that was as much 80s pop as it was 90s shoegaze and 00s electronic. You with me? Cool.

Hipster Runoff, a satirical blog about hipsters, was the coalescent point for thought about the emergent genre, and that blog’s focus on Neon Indian made the band the de facto princes of the distributed fiefdom. Hipster Runoff may have been “just joking” about Chillwave (it’s clear they were satirical… I don’t think “Chillwave” is a moniker that any sincere thinker would coin), but there was something too substantial there, and interest remained strong. Well, until it dropped off the scene and was replaced a couple summers later by a new silly-named genre (Moombahton, anyone?).

Now it’s 2011, and since we’re on the verge of a new financial crisis (good thing I have all these blog dollars…), I figured we might do a little “where are they now” about Neon Indian and Chillwave more generally… by drawing parallels to the show at Heaven on Nov 16th.

Argument One: Chillwave is equally intelligible as either electronic music, or “indie” pop, but not as both at once. To my point, from Neon Indian’s new album (Era Extrana), Polish Girl is a highly danceable song with a filtered beat, synth progression, and a pop-house feel. The appropriate way to dance to this song is to jump. From the same album, Fallout is a more traditionally shoegaze song, with an 8th note rock groove and use of synthesizers more as a keyboard than dance inducer… The appropriate way to dance to this song is to look at the ground with your hands at your sides. If you really want to “rock out,” you can take a drag on your cigarette (I’m looking at you, South Park goth kids!). Guess what happened at the concert? Exactly this. It’s not a division by album (where Neon Indian started more-electronic, and became more-indie rock, or vice-versa), but a division by song. Chillwave, overall, then, does not fuse two distinct genres, but rather, produces songs that exist in both.

Argument Two: Electronic-type Chillwave songs are their own category within electronic music, and Chillwave is more distinctive as a category of electronic music than as a category of rock music. I can extend my point beyond Neon Indian as well: Washed Out’s Belong and Toro Y Moi’s Blessa fit in the same category of chilled out, chopped up, pastel-coloured, and, most importantly, decidedly non-rock beats. They avoid the 8th-note rock groove, and they avoid rock instrumentation. I am not arguing that all popular Chillwave is electronic-type (Neon Indian’s Terminally Chill is an example of an extraordinarily popular rock-type Chillwave song), but rather, that electronic Chillwave is far more distinctive as a kind of chillout that does not recourse to the smoothness of lounge, and that lets us keep the rough aesthetic that we seem to have fallen in love with over the last few years. As a genre of rock, on the other hand, it seems to fit in a little too well with the shoegaze/indie pop bands, and seems (with the exception of a few standouts) fairly forgettable. Case in point: the audience’s attention was almost entirely contingent on how synth- and laptop-heavy any particular song was. Even when Palomo raged around the stage during The Blindside Kiss, a hard fucking song if I’ve ever heard one, the audience was not caught up in the energy.

I guess this review is written more to Chillwave producers and bands (I think this is the only genre where we have both producers and bands as equal contributors?). You are better at electronic than at rock. Avoid implosion (Earmilk started nailing the Chillwave coffin shut two weeks ago, but we keep our hopes up here at Salacious) by emphasizing the electronic aspects of your music. What we saw at the show at Heaven was, ultimately, a great reaction to songs like Polish Girl, “kick ass laser display” (in the words of Bearded Magazine’s Ben Wood), and a band who is caught between two largely contradictory impulses. Chillwave, with the wave of releases that came in the second half of 2011, is facing an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Problem. If it wants immortality, it had better drink from the right cup.

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Related posts:

1. The 10 Best Classic Rock Electronic Remixes of 2008
2. The Monday Mixdown – Chill and Disco House
3. Heavy N.A.S.A Mashup, Chill-out Tunes and Funky Fun

At around 8pm on Saturday evening, East Illinois Street was buzzing. The block was completely full of young, extremely well dressed twenty-somethings waiting expectantly. Their destination, the Chicago East River Arts Center, played host to Theophilus London and hundreds of Chicago’s most fashion conscious – writers, photographers, marketing ‘suits’, designers, and a whole range of artists made up a fantastic crowd that was fun, and easy to make fast-friends with.

And they all came to see London with good cause. For starters, both his (and his band’s) personal attire and performance ooze style, and both draw on disparate but complementary influences. Through the course of the night I heard elements including, but not limited to; hip hop, electro, jazz, and even dubstep.

I found a lot enjoyable about this show; unlike other concerts with a focus on the fashion-conscious, people were super easy to talk – eager to talk even. And unlike other sets which include constantly changing genres and styles, the audience stayed engaged when the mood was flipped. And finally, despite the obvious fondness for image that the audience had, unlike other shows with such a crowd these people were really in to the performance – singing a lot, responding to the band, and dancing like crazy!

Maybe it’s a Chicago thing?

HUGE thanks to Re:mix Lab, Hyundai, and Antenna – they put on an absolute class event!

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Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) is a lot of things.

Not on that list: boring, moody, or remotely conventional. I’m going to get to this, but I want to set the rest of the scene.

So the Roundhouse is a special venue; it’s legendarily avant-garde; miles ahead of the times, etc. We know this already. It has space for circa 4000 people… and the show was sold out. This enormous, former industrial steam engine shop was already *rammed* and bubbling over when I got in.

Behind the stage was a mysterious canvas of geometric features that didn’t quite make sense. You can see it in the pictures, the shapes met at odd angles and weren’t identifiable as anything.

Got the mental image of an packed industrial building and non-Euclidean geometry? Good.

So: before I say anything about FlyLo, I want to mention Martyn; specifically, his style of dubstep. Martyn’s dubstep is about ethereality, a sense of unrealness you might expect to accompany an out of body experience. We all love to talk about dubstep in terms of filth… “yeah, that track was like getting drop kicked into a dumpster full of burning cowshit!” Martyn, however, refuses such comparison… And this style of airy, rather than grimy, dubstep is very normal in Europe, especially London. I would love to hear some more sounds like this from North American producers (who seem to have largely co-opted the grime style from the likes of Rusko).

Moving on! Ellison came on stage in a flowy white shirt and was immediately coloured by a shifting, three dimensional laser light show. This may seem strange, but the first thing I noticed about the show was not the music (which was remarkable for reasons I will get into in a moment), nor was it the light show (awesome), but Ellison’s attitude. Instead of swaggering on stage and expecting cheers, he seemed genuinely, pleasantly surprised by the love London has for him.

“We sold this bitch out, London! I want to thank you all for all the love… from the bottom of my heart!” All performers say something like this, but Ellison was so into the music, so into the crowd, so genuine and even humble, that I believe him, and, more importantly, I believe he believes himself. He looked like a man in the midst of having a pleasant dream, enjoying it as much as he can before he wakes up.

Needless to say, his enthusiasm was infectious. Moving on, I should mention that the visual was not forgotten, buried six feet deep in the audio. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the show, and some aspects of it weren’t working (though, I’m going to be honest, it was still so impressive that I probably would not have noticed had they not told us so). The canvas of shapes behind him (remember that thing?) warped and twisted, single laser beams shot onto the decks, and the whole thing was something surreal. The thee-dimensional illusionality (yeah, I made up a word) was not lost on me, and I hope you can suss it out from the pictures.

Now, finally a little about the music. Most of us know Flying Lotus to a greater or lesser extent, so I don’t think reciting a tracklist will be of much help to anybody… So I have two comments to make about FlyLo live.

First: Ellison’s bench is very deep in terms of musical catalogue… most recognizably, he dropped (and chopped) Yonkers by Tyler, the Creator midway through the performance, wound it down with some unidentifiable bro-step, and capped it off with Paint it Black (“I’m gonna leave you with one of my favourite songs with some of that rock-shit!”).

Second: his songs transform on the journey from small speakers to large. I’m going to use the word “ethereal” again (remember it from a couple paragraphs ago?) to describe FlyLo’s style on albums… Those complex, avant garde, light beats seem like something distilled from wispy clouds on a blue-sky day. On the (redoubtable) Roundhouse system, though, each song transforms into an insistent, driving, rumbling thunderhead. Ellison must know about this dichotomy, because he was not sitting back with his hand propping up his chin, Rodin’s The Thinker-style, he was headbanging with the rest of the crowd. I’ll restate: Flying Lotus, live, is head-bang-able.

Is it electro? Hell no! It’s way more complex than that, and still doesn’t have the all-payoff build and drop structure… it’s still about flatness, layers, and polyrhythmic complexity, it’s just… somehow rougher and deeper.

All in all, Flying Lotus at the Roundhouse was an experience for audiophiles, art-o-philes, and anyone who wants to use his/her head to think as well as rage.

Flying Lotus – Kill Your Co-Workers from Warp Records on Vimeo.

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Rainy weather aside, the atmosphere at James Blake’s performance at the Phoenix Concert Hall was one of unreserved anticipation. The crowd that filled the Phoenix was a soggy, but eclectic, mix of hip twenty-somethings, all of whom fell silent as Blake’s lanky figure took to the stage. Blake immediately hypnotized the crowd in a trance of vibrating bass, intricate drums and hauntingly beautiful vocals that have come to capture his renowned post-dub sound.

The most moving moment came with his performance of “To Care (Like You)”. The tempo was a sensual reflection of the human passion, with a mantra of vocals that made the performance irresistible. I left the venue intoxicated and even more enamored with James Blake and his craft.

Following his showing at the Phoenix that past night, I awoke to find the web abuzz with his name. Much of the attention was in response to his comments on the evolving dubstep scene in a recent interview with the Boston Phoenix:

I think the dubstep that has come over to the US, and certain producers — who I can’t even be bothered naming — have definitely hit upon a sort of frat-boy market where there’s this macho-ism being reflected in the sounds and the way the music makes you feel. And to me, that is a million miles away from where dubstep started. It is a million miles away from the ethos of it. It’s been influenced so much by electro and rave, into who can make the dirtiest, filthiest bass sound, almost like a pissing competition, and that’s not really necessary. And I just think that largely that is not going to appeal to women. I find that whole side of things to be pretty frustrating, because that is a direct misrepresentation of the sound as far as I’m concerned.

Truthfully, most art suffers from distortion by popularization, often resulting in a léger-version of the what adherents to the genre would refer to as the epitomized form or main ‘ethos’ of the sound. Nevertheless, Blake’s statements leave me more inquisitive than anything.

Who defines the authentic ethos of a genre? Should diversions from the purest form of the genre be discouraged?

Is Blake presumptuous to reduce other versions of the genre with the label of a lesser merit?
For any genre of music, this reoccurring problem arises with increased popularity.

‘Classicists’ within the scene are often filled with contempt when the genre becomes marketable and diluted by the ‘evils’ of the mainstream. Soon the authenticity of many sub-genres comes into question following the predictable pattern of a genre’s transition from the underground to the scrutiny of the mainstream. Reluctantly, the trajectory of many of these genres becomes unavoidable, with many final products being a watered- down, mass-produced sound marketed for the general public.

James Blake’s statement raises the issue of whether dubstep has reached this pivotal point. Is dubstep destined to suffer the same fate as the tiresome indie ‘buzz band’ phenomenon? Will consumers’ patience soon outweigh their appreciation for a performance like James Blake’s, instead seeking quick-and-easy crowd-pleasers such as Skrillex?

It would be a shame to believe that this is the case, but I hold out hope for a happy medium. Idealism, pretension and trends aside, the way the music makes you feel is what is of the utmost importance. If you are able to find enjoyment, entertainment, or inspiration from any variation of the genre, the music has served its purpose.

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1. James Blake Releases First Track Off Upcoming EP
2. James Blake – A Case of You [Music Video]
3. 16bit – Dinosaurs [Video]

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To call Guti an up-and-comer would describe the start he got just a couple years ago on his techno and house project in Germany.

It would also belie the incredible productions he has released under Desolat this year, and the support he is receiving from the likes of Carl Cox, Ricardo Villalobos, Stacey Pullen, Loco Dice, Luciano, Marco Carola, and Nic Fanciulli, to name just a few.

Photo Credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

No doubt he’s had such a rise – combine his own incredible skills as a classically-trained jazz musician with the mentorship of his close friend Loco Dice and you have one heck of a start!

Though he doesn’t care for the label much, or labels at all really. As he said in the interview “I don’t know what is house or techno, and I don’t want to know.”

Photo Credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

Guti’s attitude towards music is great, and it was rewarding for us to capture this chat on camera!

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