The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, now in its fourth year, is just a few weeks away. The two-day festival, taking place Friday and Saturday November 11-12, will be held across more than five Williamsburg venues. A 40-strong lineup is in development; Matthew Dear, Diamond Rings, Four Tet, Hudson Mohawke, Braille, Dubbel Dutch, and Daedelus are among the artists announced.
Compared to last year, production company MeanRed has doubled the capacity. This not only allows for significantly more musical performances, but also for street art projections, installations from local experiential artists, and a food truck lot.
The festival will run from 4pm-4am. Primary venues are Music Hall of Williamsburg, Public Assembly, The Cove, Cameo, and Zablozki’s; all will be 21+, with the exception of Music Hall of Williamsburg (18+). $45 buys a 2-day pass.
In addition, MeanRed will host a pre-BEMF Dark Disco party, which will feature Lvis-1990 and will be held at a secret location in Chinatown on Saturday, November 5. Advanced tickets are $10, or $15 once those sell out. Alternatively, a ticket to both the pre-party and BEMF can be purchased for $50.
Tickets to BEMF and the Dark Disco pre-party are available from Ticketfly. HiFi will continue with festival coverage as information becomes available. See you on North 6th Street!
Shuffling into the back room of Public Assembly, we weaved over to the far side, getting cozy amongst the suby sound system and the filling crowd. Anna Lunoe warmed up the house with a wide selection of tracks. She was a delightful opener with striking elegance in her style to her charged delivery. This brilliant DJ from Sidney Australia brought confidence onto the dance floor. Cuing up tracks as well as her dance moves, one only had to follow the swish in her hips to notice she was delivering her own swing. Staggered bass kicks, vibing Latin rhythms, and spun back decks that snapped straight into rhymes atop driving subs. Catalyzing these first drops of sweat, Lunoe launched the crowd into their flow for the night.
Climbing the stage steps, Orlando Higginbottom of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs dropped behind the curtain for a quick costume change. Emerging in a black cloak adorned with silver stegosaurus spikes lining the crown of the hood, he stepped up to his table of wire woven electronics. Anna Lunoe faded out one last song into an effected draw, allowing TEED to pick up the energy where she left off. Immediately the crowd followed his command. Tapping through his computer, and swiftly dodging over to his Korg we anticipated his every composition. Shifting his attention to the mic the music emptied into a clearing allowing his effect-pedal etched vocals to drift through the space. Shoulders relaxed and ears softened into the melodies of his lyrics. Then only beats after his last word in the chorus, the surge plummeted. We found ourselves in the air after the perfection of treacherous sound erupted through the floor. These infectious drums pounded through souls the entire performance.
Never knowing what might come next kept all eyes locked on the head dressed conductor. His slightly somber attitude asserted a confidence over his drifting set. However the understated vibe did not take away from his music’s energy. Constantly switching between dodgy bass lines, vocal breaks, and tense builds, the set flew seamless. I constantly found my self praying for the release of an album. But then again, it might be impossible to translate the spontaneity of his live act to into the realm of a full-length recording. While dropping into one song he had the crowd following his every move, clapping along with hands overhead throughout the build. The bass finally let out and the entire audience jammed along with him, jumping and twirling, hands still clapping in the air. In that very instant driven by his enthusiasm for carefully articulated bass and techy percussion, Orlando Higginbottom accomplished what he came here to do. Enable this crowd to confidently unravel themselves into the undeniable joy of his sound.
2Following this unforgettable one-man band came the second Australian. Beni hopped on deck striking quickly towards a specific direction. His enthusiasm was not well received in part of the crowd, which soon made their exit after TEED had left the stage. Charging through some opening tracks, the dancing feet soon started to stutter over the electronic breaks. His selections were slightly more acute than the breadth that Lunoe and TEED had covered. Between the faithful TEED fans leaving, and the sonic energy now sculpted into a new shape, the remaining Public Assembly patrons seemed to dwindle. There appeared to be a longing for the familiar deep droning tribal bump that fueled the night up to this point, but this was already left behind. Beni tried to twist through his set and grab the audience, but they had already seen what they had come for.
Despite the flickering crowd at the end, this past Saturday at Public Assembly rumbled with international talent. Lunoe conjured up the dancing spirits inside us all and handed over the rhythmic wand to TEED. Then orchestrating our travel through sound Orlando Higginbottom enchanted the room with his ingenious resonance. Wandering atop the charm of his vocals and then dropping straight into shredded pulsations the crowd lost its self in his magic. Either fully satisfied with no room for more, or just simply out of the know about the massive talent to follow, the crowd dissolved leaving Beni little to work with. I am grateful to of had my calendar marked for this event, because if you were there that night, no matter what time you exited the doors of 70 N6th, there was certainly an echoing pulse in your step the entire walk home.
Sifting through the event emails a while back, this popped up and made its self a highlight on my calendar for the month of March. On Saturday the 19th, Public Assembly will host Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs alongside Beni. Brought to you by the beautiful people at MeanRed Productions, this show will restructure perspectives on what it means to perform dance music.
Coming straight from Austin with a slight detour through Montreal and Toronto, TEED finally lands in Brooklyn. The performer behind the dinosaur headdress is Orlando Higginbottom, who has built his career starting in his hometown of Oxford England. Growing up with his dad as a music professor for Oxford University, composing, performing, and teaching have all been part of his development. Orlando’s expressions have been recognized by the likes of Annie Mac, who aired his very own ‘Household Goods” on Radio 1. There after the song received a spaced-out-tickly remix by Justin Martin. Now he finds himself stepping on stage at some of the year’s largest events including HARD in LA and SXSW.
Stepping on stage the same night is the Australian extraordinaire Beni. Trekking throughout the world for his career, Beni has stepped along side Gang Bang Deejays, and produced with Riot In Belgium. His sound has been identified on a global scale; working in remixes for Tiga, Digitalism, Fischerspooner, La Roux, and Alex Gopher. Most well known for his single ‘Maximus’, Beni’s sound stretches deep into the reaches of funked up disco to the deep acidy club jams.
Night owl that I am, I am naturally attracted to underground lairs, secret passageways, dim caverns, and generally anything secret, mysterious and moody. Good Units clearly feeds right into this tendency to be drawn to the dark, as the entire space is underneath the Hudson Hotel, with plenty of narrow staircases, seedy looking couches, and a distinct lack of light. Last Saturday night’s activities at Good Units were extra dark, with Dark Disco bringing out the vampires of New York City’s underbelly who sipped whiskey by the back bar and got down in front of the DJ booth to some serious bass music.
A generally rambunctious attitude permeated the entire experience, and even the nearly naked dancers on their platforms seemed to be having a good time. After all, “anything goes” is pretty much the theme of a dark, underground, bass party, right? Blaqtarr, Jakwob, Redfoxx, and Tittsworth all provided aural entertainment, with Tittworth in particular pleasing the serious dubstep fans in the crowd. The walls nearly shook from the basslines he dropped, which is no laughing matter when you’re deep underground and the exit is a narrow staircase down a hall. FaltyDL truly stole the show with his closing set of perfectly mixed tunes, originating in garage and drum & bass.
We look forward to seeing who MeanRed will bring to Dark Disco the next time around. Until then, check out the full photo gallery from Good Units HERE.
It’s that time again! Meanred’s Dark Disco is back this Saturday January 29th, and I couldn’t be more excited. This time, the merriment will take place at multi-level, subterranean Hell’s Kitchen space Good Units, which is sure to lend itself perfectly to the vibe of the event because hey, what’s darker than being underground at night? It’s no secret that we over at The HiFi Cartel are massive Ikonika fans, but if that’s not reason enough to attend, the lineup features Blaqstarr performing live, as well as sets from Jakwob, Tittsworth, Falty DL, and Redfoxx.
Ikonika is a UK-based electronic musician, producer and DJ often associated with Hyperdub Records and the Dubstep genre.Ikonika’s music combines melodic synth patterns, driving drums, melancholic sub bass and unorthodox song structures. She was described by The Observer as “a rare female face in the male-dominated world of dubstep, Ikonika melds the genre’s juddering bass with Aphex Twin-style melodic mischief-making.”
Blaqstarr is a crafty producer and a unique vocalist — his beats hit hard but leave plenty of room for mind-altering textures, while his voice carries a high-pitched, practically atmospheric, rough-hewn elegance. He gained a lot of recognition for his contribution to M.I.A.’s 2007 album, but he had already been well-established in his base of Baltimore, with productions notched on Young Leek’s “Jiggle It” and D.O.G.’s “Ryda Girl,” along with his own “Tote It” and “Feel It in the Air” — tracks that filled up Baltimore’s airwaves.
Jakwob first came to acclaim via some major appreciation in the blog world for his bootleg of Ellie Goulding’s ‘Starry Eyed’ and bolstered such support with his remix of ‘Under The Sheets.’ He’s since gone on to remix the likes of Empire Of The Sun, Temper Trap and Penguin Prison as well as the likes of Audio Bullies, Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and I Blame Coco. Jakwob is a multi-instrumentalist, which goes a long way in explaining his style, transcending genres and combining elements of dub step, electro, ghetto-tech and break-beat (to name a few). This eclecticism also manifests itself in Jakwob’s DJ sets, which take in dub, hip-hop, drum and bass, dub step and beyond.
Representing club music from the U.S. Capital, Tittsworth continuously dominates crowds with his signature blend of energetic dance music.From URB and XLR8R to NME and Fader, his production continues to gain equally high praise. Titts music is a permanent fixture in blogs, charts and DJ sets. He has been asked to remix pop icon Kanye West, disco legend Grace Jones, D&B front runner Subfocus, Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak label and AC Slater’s Party Like Us Records to name a few.
New York City’s Falty DL ia making garage ‘n stuff with his hands. He crafts nostalgic tracks immersed in the old New York and Chicago sound, yet creating a more subtle futuristic Big Apple version mashing together influences from hip hop, dubstep, garage, soul, jungle and electronica, thereby creating his own unique sound.
Get pumped with this awesome mix that Ikonika put together for FACT Magazine in November 2010.
Check out photos from December’s edition of Dark Disco HERE.
We’ve got two tickets to give away to one lucky winner! Just fill out the form below to enter.
I’ve attended a few parties in dodgy locations before, but finding a bit of revelry in a Chinatown mall was a first. Enter Flashing Lights: your no-nonsense solution to realizing a sublime NYC evening. Spearheaded by DJs Ayres (The Rub), Jubilee (Nightshifters), and Nick Catchdubs (Fool’s Gold), these tastemakers bring a genuine dance party to life without the pretentious attitude found in clubs across the apple.
The NYC debut of Toadally Krossed Out begged a comparison to Dim Mak’s Bloody Beetroots as the two DJs donned green toad masks while rocking the dim sum restaurant. What stood out for me was the attendance from label heads, Diplo and A-Trak, who both came out to support their artists and partake in the action. In return, the DJs played their respective remixes of tracks by Switch, A-Trak, and Major Lazer. Their presence exemplifies a certain kinship that exists amongst labels like Fool’s Gold and Mad Decent and the artists they represent. All this juicy party goodness is wrapped together with big help from MeanRed Productions and Good Peoples.
We look forward to what artists and collaborations Flashing Lights will be offering in the future. In the mean time check out the site www.flashinglightslightslights.com and be sure to catch their next party at Glasslands September 4th! Also check out some photos from the evening debauchery as well as the M.R.I. Lightpainting blog.
Major Lazer – Hold The Line (Toadally Krossed Out Remix)
On Friday night, MeanRed Productions hosted NYC Sub-Session, an event for applicants to the Red Bull Music Academy in London. Both informative and entertaining, the event featured live interviews with DJ Harvey, Gary Stewart and 88 Keys, and music by DJ Kingdom.
The featured surprise guest, Flying Lotus, was a great choice – his unique musical style and insights into the industry are the makings of an artist that will be around for years to come.
Click here to see photos of the event by Oliver Correa. Read more about Flying Lotus and listen to his essential mix after the jump…
