Posts tagged with movement festival

06/02/2011

2011 Movement Electronic Music Festival: Day 3 In Pictures

Ah, day 3, you cruel temptress. This was perhaps the day I’d longed for the most, with Fatboy Slim, Green Velvet, Flying Lotus and Little Dragon all on tap (in addition to so many others). And the fact that after a cool and rainy weekend we were now experiencing upwards of 90 degrees and that I was able to wear a pair of shorts for the first time since Coachella were both cause for great excitement. It also meant that lots of ravers in the Hart Plaza fountain and lots of shirtless bros in the crowd. Slightly less awesome but I guess it comes with the territory. Day 3 photo set is mostly just about showing everyone enjoying the great day and the great atmosphere brought on by the fest. As I watched Fatboy Slim’s incredible set, lights and lasers a-blazin’, I couldn’t help but think that the production at all of the stages had gone through the roof this year, or maybe I just hadn’t paid attention in years past. Either way, big ups to Paxahau again for putting on an incredible weekend and turning Movement into a world class weekend. Here’s some scheisse from day 3, fun in the sun.

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06/01/2011

2011 Movement Electronic Music Festival: Day 2 In Pictures

Perhaps the most interesting part about this photo set is that I hadn’t planned on it happening. Due to some annual family holiday gatherings, I didn’t plan on going to the fest for day 2. But then when I got home at about 8pm, I realized that I really had no reason not to go, and the rain had subsided for the most parts so I headed downtown and couldn’t be happier that I went. As usual, I spent the better part of the night at the Red Bull Music Academy stage but did make some time to wander around and capture some of Movement by night. It was a day for the more unusual acts, such as Beardyman, who I equated to a one man beatbox coverband (way more awesome when I realized that he was beatboxing all the beats) and the strangely sublime Aux 88, who were bold enough to deposit a slow and somber 10 minute synth solo into the middle of their set (not to mention the creepy full black bodysuit robots and dance crew at the end of the set. Here’s a bunch of pictures from the last few hours of day 2 after the jump. And here’s day 1 if you missed it

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05/31/2011

2011 Movement Electronic Music Festival: Day 1 In Pictures

If you live anywhere near Detroit, it’s very likely that, besides signifying the official start of summer, Memorial Day weekend means one thing: Movement. The annual electronic music festival, formerly known as DEMF, has been taken over by Paxahau several years ago and they’ve turned from something that was great to begin with into a real first class production. Despite some not so great weather on the first two days, this year’s fest was another for the books with top notch electronic acts from all over the world. And for those of you who are afraid of techno, have no fear because just about every kind of electronic music is represented, from dubstep to live bands to anything else you can think of.

Perhaps the biggest star of the show each year is the venue itself. Hart Plaza is a multi-level maze of walkways, built in amphiteatres, and of course its trademark fountain in the center of it all. It’s all of these built-in features that help to make this festival so special and it’s funny that I didn’t really realize that until this year. The best part is that even if you find yourself getting lost amidst the multiple staircases and paths that go up and down without any logic, you’ll always find yourself at another stage ready to keep the party going. And the production at each of the stages gets better and better each year as well. The Red Bull stage, despite its much smaller size, is becoming more and more like the famed Coachella Sahara tent each year, both in terms of visuals and just the unstoppable energy of the crowd, many of whom don’t venture away the entire weekend.

As I like to do with these festivals, instead of me babbling on about it, I think it’s better to share a giant collection of pictures I took throughout the weekend to give you a sense of what it’s all about. Click the jump to see pictures from day 1 of the festival, and check back all week for the remaining pictures from days 2 and 3.

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05/23/2011

2011 Movement Electronic Music Festival Preview

As a metro-Detroiter who loves all things Detroit, I can pretty confidently say that the Movement Electronic Music Festival (the festival formally known as DEMF aka Detroit Electronic Music Festival) is among my top Detroit events of the year. I remember back in the day when I drove down to Detroit all by myself for the first time to go to the fest (before I even knew what electronic music was, but just wanted to see what all the commotion was about) when it was still free, with every kind of character you could imagine in attendance, including all of the riff raff that comes with a free electronic music festival. Over the years, while the fest has started charging an admission fee (a 3-day pass will run you $70 and individual day tickets are $35 each), the fest has really come into its own and kicked it up a notch (not to mention kept out a bit of the aforementioned riff raff) perhaps thanks to Paxahau who has flawlessly produced the festival the past several yearsto turn into what has been for the last few years a fantastic Memorial Day weekend and the perfect way to officially kick off summer.

This year we’re happy to report that we’ll be covering the event again in pictures (check out last year’s pictures from day 1 and day 3) and couldn’t be more excited, so I figured I’d start out with some of the artists I’m most looking forward to seeing, and then let you in on some of the other cool scheisse to check out at the fest. Before we get started, you can check out the full line up with set times right over here.

To be totally honest, before Gorillaz released Plastic Beach last year with the vocals of Little Dragon‘s Yukimi Nagano gracing a few of the tracks (including my favorite ever, “Empire Ants”), I don’t think I’d even heard of the Swedish group much less heard them. But since then, I’ve found out that they are a totally legit group with a pretty unique sound with electronic roots. This is one of the cool parts of the festival, since most of us hear “electronic music fest” and assume it’s all DJs (which would be well enough), but there are actually quite a few live bands performing. And like many of us, I’ve got a soft spot for all things Swedish. But it’s really Little Dragons totally off the wall sound that gets me the most. It’s just so damn interesting on the ears and I can’t wait to hear it in a live setting on the waterfront. I may also have an indie crush on Nagano, so there’s that. Their third studio album Ritual Union is set to be released this summer.

Little Dragon – Nightlight

My latest electronic obsession, mostly because I only just recently started listening to him, is Daedelus. Los Angeles native Alfred Weisberg-Roberts was not only a pioneer of the elusive monome (which he proudly displays for his audience during his live show just so we can all see exactly what’s going on, even though none of us have any clue) but in just over 10 years has released a boatload of albums and EPs (probably close to 20 in total). And, if his Coachella set is any indication, he also dresses like a muthafuckin G (well, like a Victorian muthafuckin G I suppose) and wins the award for most elaborate stage design, with large panels covered in mirrors wired to move in every direction. And his live set that I got to witness at said Coachella included just about all of my recent jams including Tame Impala, James Blake, Siriusmo, and Bjork (among several of his own fantastic tunes) and he manipulated these songs in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I just kept thinking, “I love this song!”. We got a slightly abbreviated set due to some technical difficulties before the crew began setting things up, so I can’t wait to catch him again.

Daedelus – LA Nocturn

It’s not an electronic music festival without a Ghostly artist on the roster that I’m really excited to see, and this year that artist is Com Truise aka Seth Haley who we’ve posted about a few times before. He released his Cyanide Sisters EP last summer and then rereleased it with some bonus tracks and they are all real, real good. Haley calls his sound “mid-fi synth-wave, slow-motion funk” and I’d have to say that’s pretty accurate. He’s got a Sunday 1PM time slot, which is the day that I traditionally can’t attend the fest due to family obligations. But hopefully I will spend early Sunday afternoon as I did last year, jetskiing up the Detroit river and listening to the sounds coming out of the Red Bull stage which butts up right to the river. Or just going to the fest in the afternoon and leaving. Either way, I want to see Com Truise and see what he’s got in store for his extended early afternoon set.

Com Truise – Slow Peels

And last but certainly not least, closing out Saturday night on the main stage will be none other than legendary Atlanta via Chicago DJ Felix da Housecat. My first flavor of his tune was his killer jam “Ready to Wear” which I first heard thanks to Hipster Runoff on a drive home on a random late Monday night. I’ve since jumped into many of his other tunes and remixes of everyone from the top pop stars to some of our indie darlings. He’s been to Detroit a few times recently but I’ve never been able to make it to his sets, but that is all about to change. He also responded to me on Twitter once, I believe in reference to the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears, so that was pretty exciting.

Felix Da Housecat – We All Wanna Be Prince

So, that’s just a small sampling of the insanely awesome roster of artists that will be performing. Other highlights for me personally include Flying Lotus, Dam-Funk, Dirtbombs (a detroit garage band that covers Detroit techno classics), Fatboy Slim and Green Velvet, among many others. Point is, no matter what sort of electronic music you like, there’s really something here for everyone.

So now that we’ve talked about the music, let’s talk about some of the other great things that you will find at this year’s festival.

One thing that has been working it’s way into the festival the past few years is community art, and that will likely come to a head this year as Paxahau is teaming up with the Community Arts Moving Projects (CAMP Detroit) and Detroit Creative Corridor Center (DC3) and have selected teams of local artists who were asked to create original designs using repurposed materials found around town (if this doesn’t exemplify the DIY/repurpose everything attitude of Detroit right now, I don’t know what does). Over 50 artists submitted designs but in the end 6 were chosen. Most of the installations will be interactive and electronic, coincidentally. With the festival getting even more national and international attention every year, it’s a great way to highlight the rapidly expanding artist movement that is taking place in Detroit. The installations were all built in the Russell Industrial Center and will be moved to the festival grounds this week. You can check out sketches of all the winning designs right over here, and you better believe I will be checking these out and bringing you pictures of the real things.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, in one of the more interesting extensions of the festival, Paxahau has ALSO teamed up with Wheelhouse Detroit which has been giving bike tours of the city for some time now to create a special techno-themed bike tour on Sunday and Monday afternoon during the festival. Anyone with a festival wristband can get a discount to join these tours (but space is limited so sign up early!) which they’re calling “Techno in the 313″. I’ve been wanting to go on a Detroit bike tour for some time now, and I DID just recently purchase a bike, so I just might have to take part in one of these. The first will be on Sunday, May 29 from noon to 4 p.m. This is the “long” tour (recommended for more experienced riders as it goes as much as 21 miles) and will take riders past historic electronic music sites like The Music Institute, Underground Resistance HQ, and the Packard Plant. The tour price is $30; with bike rental it’s $40. The second tour is Monday from 12pm to 3pm and will take riders landmarks such as The Music Institute, Underground Resistance HQ, and the East Riverfront Warehouse District. The tour price is $25; with bike rental it’s $35. Even if you can’t commit to either of these tours, you should still hit up Wheelhouse Detroit because I hear their bike tours are pretty top notch.

And last but MOST importantly, for all of you who can’t make it out to Detroit for the festival, thanks to Resident Advisor and Awdio, the entire festival will be audio streamed over the internet so you can hear all the awesomeness that will be going on. From noon to midnight all three days of the festival, you will be able to audio stream all 5 stages. Here are the links to stream each day of the festival.

DAY ONE:
DAY TWO:
DAY THREE:

Not too shabby, eh?

So, what I’m saying is, 2011 Movement fest is shaking out to be a pretty good time. We hope to see you all there with your dancing shoes on ready to kick off summer at the Detroit waterfront in the best way. And if you can’t make it, check back here after the fest for photo recaps of the music, the good times, and, of course, the fashion. Oh, the fashion.

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06/03/2010

2010 Movement Festival – Day 3 Recap

Wondering what happened to day 2? Well, the truth is, I went jet skiing for the first time in a few years. Jet skiing on Lake St. Clair on a ridiculously nice Sunday afternoon. And on those choppy waters, jet skiing is extremely exhausting, more than I remembered. Although, we did jet ski up the Detroit river almost all the way to the music fest located just past it, so technically I did sort of make it to the fest that day. Anyway, let’s talk about day 3. I was, in a way, dreading day 3. Mostly because at the time I arrived, again around 7PM, the forecast was for rain/thunderstorms the remainder of the evening. Normally I would be all about it, but the fact that I had my nice camera and, more importantly, a rental lens that I did not feel like paying to replace, I wasn’t quite so thrilled to dance in the rain.

But as soon as I got there (conveniently meeting up with Jon without any trouble at all), the rain was all but forgotten about. We showed up just in time to catch the last half hour or so of Michael Mayer’s set just before Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco took the waterlogged stage, equipment covered in white plastic bags. I guess I never knew what he looked like, but he definitely resembles a bleach blonde Matt Peabody. Don’t you think? Next up was Pretty Lights who I had seen at Coachella, but didn’t actually see on stage. So I was pretty surprised when I saw the drum set on stage. I know I’ve said it before, but one thing I really love is a DJ with a live drummer. Just adds so much to everything.

After about a half hour I figured I should probably just stroll around and check things out since I realized I’d spent almost my entire time at the fest at the Red Bull Stage. So I went and spent a few minutes at the other stages before meeting back up with Jon at the Vitamin Water Stage. We met under the giant “CANDY/CIGARETTES” sign, at which point we noted that this sign is probably responsible for adolescent smoking habits thanks to its subliminal juxtaposition of two words such as this. Then we made our way to the floor to check out Kenny Larkin, another total boss.

But the moment we’d both been waiting for were the closing German duo of Booka Shade. I’d been hearing about them for years. A few friends had seen them at 2008 Lollapalooza. A few friends had randomly seen them in Europe (true story, in multiple cases). But all agreed they were not to be missed and I had to agree. It was one of the most energetic acts of the weekend and the most fitting way to end the festival. It’s almost not fair how good they sound live. Check out some of my pics below. And again, you can find these and many more from throughout the weekend on our Flickr page. Also, I think the shoe shot has become my signature shot. It is pretty interesting to see what footwear all these artists wear, right?

The best part about this post is that in the process of looking up the perfect Booka Shade jam, I find an awesome remix by my boy Gui Boratto. It starts to get real juicy at about the 2 minute mark.
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06/02/2010

2010 Movement Festival – Day 1 Recap

Aside from the unofficial start of summer and a much needed long weekend, Memorial Day weekend is always an exciting time in Detroit because it means that it’s time for Movement Festival (formerly known as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival or demf), one of the city’s biggest events of the year. 3 days of heavy beats and fun in the sun right on the Detroit riverfront. 5 stages going strong for 12 hours a day all weekend. What more could you ask for?

Saturday night, my main goal was to catch A-Trak so we arrived downtown about an hour before his set. After heading to the Red Bull stage, we caught the end of Excision’s set which was pretty rockin (even if it did feel a bit like Bassnectar) and then rocked out to A-Trak. I headed over to the Vitamin Water stage and caught a bit of Josh WInk before meeting up with the rest of the crew. We didn’t really know where to head next, but Julie said she heard good things about DJ Hype over on the Red Bull stage again (which ended up being our home away from home for the weekend). And that was a great decision. I didn’t know that I loved drum and bass, but it turns out that I do!

I wasn’t able to attend day 2 of the fest due to some prior engagements and the exhaustion caused by them, but check back for part 2 of our coverage with lots of photos from day 3. Instead of trying to describe anything else that went down, I thought it would be best to just show you. And there are LOTS more from the weekend on our flickr page. I tried to include some (potentially surprising) pictures of Detroit, since I’m sure so many of you think it’s all the gloom and doom you hear about on TV all the time.

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05/26/2009

beirut – my night with the prostitute from marseille

beirut

last night was day 3 of the movement festival in detroit (day 2 for me). it was, without a doubt, way more awesome than the previous day. the plan was to see tiga at 630, then a yet to be determined 8PM act, followed by benny benassi at 930. in true fashion, the group started talking at 6pm about we had to leave right now to make it downtown by 630. at 745, we finally found ourselves at the stage where tiga was performing. the 5 minutes we were there were pretty great and made us all wish we hadnt dragged ass for so long so we could have gotten there earlier. luckily in that 5 minutes we also ran into the other crew that we were trying to meet up with, and they informed us they were heading across hart plaza to see busy p, and lucky for us, we followed.

i had never heard of busy p, but from what i was told, he was the former manager of daft punk who started his own record label. eventually his label became so popular that he dropped daft punk as a client. how cool must it be to tell people that you dropped daft punk as a client? daft punk! his set could only be described as exactly the kind of electronic music i love. kickin beats, obscure songs ive never heard of all genres, and the occasional “song that everyone knows” that really gets the crowd going, just for good measure. a recommendation that definitely paid off. we also coincidentally ran into tribecalledjon, my partner in crime here on dailybeatz (i swear hes going to start posting soon) and all was well. it was my second time seeing benny benassi, i had actually seen him at the same festival the year before, but for some reason this time was much crazier and more enjoyable. i dont know most of his stuff, but i guess he played most of his big hits, but it was all new to me and i loved it. we also may have snuck our friends parents into the show, which was equally hilarious and extremely weird.

as i mentioned yesterday, all this electronic music has me really interested in trying it out for myself. thats why i chose todays track, as its part of beirut’s (zach condon’s?) first dabble in the world of music made without instruments (in their case, sans a full brass section, and under the name “realpeople”). i dont know what the consensus is on this new sound and if it will be further explored, but i for one approve. while the “holland” half of the latest album doesnt have that eastern european old world feel that so many have grown to know and love, its certainly a valiant effort at a complete departure from what has worked so well in the past. while the horns may have disappeared, the deep and haunting voice of condon still does what it do. kinda makes you want to spend the evening with a disease-ridden french lady of the night, dont it?

beirut – my night with the prostitute from marseille

Beirut - March of the Zapotec & Realpeople - Holland - My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille buy this track on itunes
buy this track on amazon

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05/25/2009

apparat – fractales

apparat

i just returned home from day 2 of the movement festival in downtown detroit. it was pretty enjoyable for the most part. we caught a few minutes of dennis ferrer, then caught all of rjd2′s set, and headed back to the main stage to catch loco dice vs. luciano, which was a little too housy for my tastes, although im not quite clear on the exact definitions of house, trance, techno, dance, etc. but what i mean is i like it better when djs mix songs with words rather than just the same beat over and over. anyway, the point is, i wanted todays song to be sorta electronic. im obviously more into indie rock electronic than dance/techno electronic, but i can definitely appreciate both (and in fact may go back tomorrow to see benny benassi, who i know will be mixing it up the way i like it. i need to get one of those beat pad things that all the djs use, mostly because i have no idea how they work and im intrigued by them. and when i become a famous musician, there will definitely be electronic aspects to my game, so i need to learn how that shizz works fast.

the other crazy electronic music making gadget i want is the reactable, aka the coolest thing ever. i first saw this device at the bjork show i went to fall 2007 (was it really that long ago?) and had no idea what it was. after some research, i found out that you cant even buy these things, and that she was pretty much the only person who was able to acquire one for non-exhibition use. its basically an interactive screen that reacts to certain markers that you place on it. depending on what pattern is on the blocks, how far from center they are, how theyre turned, etc, you can control the beat, pitch, volume, etc. and on top of all that, it looks like it comes from the future — always a plus.

anyway, todays jam is a 2 for 1, mainly because the song has two parts. its by apparat and was my instant favorite when i first heard his latest album “walls”. other favorites from the disc include arcadia and headup. part one is the up-tempo mover and shaker, while part two is the calm after the storm, if you will, nicely complimenting the rigor and speed of part one. i think i liked this song (and album) so much the first time i heard it because of my aforementioned secret dream of putting together a bunch of electronic rock on my own. i know how hard of a time i have trying to write music mainly because im not in a band, and all of my influences have big full sounds that i cant get on my own with one guitar, so everything i come up with inherently sounds boring and not awesome. but electronic is the one place where you can do it all on your own and still get as big of a sound as you want. kind of blows my mind how some of my favorite songs were probably made by some guy on his laptop, and how that could be me. “we could be that mistake!!” enjoy.

apparat – fractales pt I

apparat – fractales pt II

Apparat - Walls - Fractales, Pt. I buy part I on itunes
Apparat - Walls - Fractales, Pt. II buy part II on itunes
buy part I on amazon
buy part II on amazon

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