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.

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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!

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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:

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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

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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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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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Support Guti on Facebook | Official Site

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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12th Planet Mothership Tour with Skrillex, Nadastrom, Foreign Beggars

I flew down to NYC at the beginning of the month after receiving my Electric Zoo press accreditation for the second year running, armed with my DSLR, audio recorder, and drive to cover the festival from a different angle than we usually hit.

The week leading up was correspondingly intense, trying to schedule the nine interviews we managed to capture while down there. Indeed, Monarch and I had to turn down some pretty big names just so we could keep our ragged two-man operation intact.

Photo Credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

John Dadzie, aka 12th Planet, was an obvious short list choice given our base here on SalaciousSound, but it wasn’t the first time I had spoken with the guy. When I confirmed my second interview with him after spending over 30 minutes on the phone just two weeks earlier, I wondered seriously if my background with him would help or hinder the interview.

Now that I’ve committed my edit, I hope you’ll all agree it had the former effect.

The whole affair was actually very strange, to be honest. After visiting New York four or five times in the last 3 years I had an idea about the city; that because of the size you could expect never to run in to anyone you know.

So when I ran in to 12th Planet at a small, dimly-lit, old-Canal-Street-sewer-shaped bar in Brooklyn, during a surprise Drop the Lime DJ set the night before my big interview with the guy, I was taken aback.

Even more surprising though was that the guy actually wanted to hang out, chat, and get to know each other; an opportunity I almost never get, as most people I’ve worked with immediately turn off when they figure out I’m a writer/press. After chatting with him and his pals, I came up with some seriously hard hitting interview questions for him the next day.

Photo Credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

When I finished the interview I had a solid buzz going as though I’d just captured something really special, and I still have that feeling. This look in to 12th Planet’s character and history reveals a charismatic and thoughtful individual with a genuine passion to back up the talent he puts on display in his productions and live sets.

Thanks so much to the folks behind Electric Zoo and 12th Planet’s team for making this one happen.

12th Planet has a major tour coming up with Skrillex, Nadastrom, and Foreign Beggars. If it’s in your city you NEED to see it!

Photo Credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

12TH PLANET: FALL 2011 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES THE MOTHERSHIP TOUR

(*Indicates dates outside of The Mothership Tour)
Sep 26 El Paso, TX @ Buchanan’s Event Center
Sep 27 San Antonio, TX @ Club Rio
Sep 28 Dallas, TX @ The Palladium Ballroom
Sep 29 Houston, TX @ Stereo Live
Sep 30 New Orleans, LA @ The Sugar Mill
Oct 01 Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
Oct 02 Raleigh, NC @ Longbranch
Oct 04 Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
Oct 05 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!
Oct 06 Washington, DC @ Fur
Oct 07 Richmond, VA @ The National
Oct 08 Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
Oct 09 Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
Oct 10 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
Oct 11 Syracuse, NY @ NYS Fairgrounds – Center Of Progress
Oct 12 Portland, ME @ State Theater
Oct 13 South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Oct 14 Montreal, Canada @ New City Gas
Oct 15 Toronto, Canada @ Kool Haus
Oct 18 Saskatoon, Canada @ Tequila Night Club
Oct 19 Calgary, Canada @ Flames Central
Oct 20 Edmonton, Canada @ Edmonton Events Centre
Oct 21 Vancouver, Canada @ PNE Forum
Oct 22 Vancouver, Canada @ PNE Forum
Oct 24 Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Spokane
Oct 25 Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
Oct 26 Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre
Oct 27 Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
Oct 28 San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
*Oct 29 Los Angeles, CA @ HARD Haunted Mansion – Shrine Expo Center
Oct 30 Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theater
Oct 31 Broomfield, CO @ First Bank Center
Nov 02 Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
Nov 03 St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Nov 04 Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Music Hall
Nov 05 Knoxville, TN @ The Valarium
Nov 06 Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
Nov 08 Bloomington, IN @ Bluebird Nightclub
Nov 09 Columbus, OH @ LC Pavillion
Nov 10 Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
Nov 11 Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater
*Nov 12 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
Nov 23 San Diego, CA @ Voyeur
Dec 09 Denver, CO @ Beta
Dec 10 Athens, GA @ Georgia Theater
Dec 11 Jacksonville, FL @ Freebird Live
Dec 12 Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon
Dec 15 Orlando, FL @ House of Blues Orlando
Dec 16 Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Theatre
Dec 17 Miami, FL @ The Fillmore

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