The first day was extraordinary as fans marched to the distant venue dressed in their best summer gear. A giant rubber duck greeted attendees upon entry. This enormous figure was not only adorable to take photos with, but used as a beacon to locate friends when groups split up. There was also a series of breathtaking trailers decked out by talented local artists.

After exploring the food options and scoping out the merchandise stands, people swarmed the Rising Stage to see DanceLoud. The Chicago-based duo, DJ Kristen Sanchez and drummer Desereé Fawn, was a unique standout showcase. The ladies first met attending Columbia College where they learned that Sanchez’s hip-hop scratches blended well with Fawn’s jazzy percussion style. After their set, DanceLoud was nice enough to give Quip a tour of their renovated traveling van and let us sample their sour ales drink in collaboration with local restaurant Estrella Negra.

Luna Stage is where many stayed planted to watch a slew of big-name artists back to back. Eazybaked [image above] got the crowd popping with their gritty, dirty bass tunes. As the name suggested, their tunes bring the wubbs out making it completely stoner-friendly. Eazybaked played mixes from their Intertwined album keeping things mellow for the relaxed fans.

LSDream came on next which really amped things up. His psychedelic style took us to outer space with his alien-themed. He got the crowd rowdy with his remix of Genuwine’s “Pony”. LSDream ended the set with a positive message: “This is all about love. Being present. Put your feet to the ground and breathe. We’re all one”  he said to the crowd before wrapping things up with “High Vibrations”.

Fans had the hardest decision when choosing how to end their first night: Kx5 [images above] or GRiZ. Both are heavy hitters and well-respected in the EDM scene. The legendary producers Deadmau5 and Kaskade were also something you didn’t want to miss. Kx5 is riding high with the release of their debut album and their club-centric turns definitely got the ravers going wild all through the night. If you’re more into the heavier bass and jazzy tunes then GRiZ was the place to be. Bouncing back and forth from DJing to saxophone and rap solos, GRiZ’s set had a bit of everything. Of course, if you did miss either set you could hit up one of their after-parties but it getting in would have been a miracle.

Day two, however, was a complete 180. The weather drastically dropped from 85º to 55º. The sun went away and in its place were dark gray clouds leading to persistent rainfall throughout the day. Being next to Lake Michigan didn’t help matters either and winds chills kept blowing by. Yet the fans marched forward in the freezing winds hoping Heatwave’s lineup could warm them up. Fortunately, Elephante was there ready for the task.

Elephante immediately lit up the crowd with “Plans”. The track had a guitar solo during the breakdown of the song, a great showcase of his versatility. He continued to perform tracks off his debut album I Am theElephante and Glass Mansion with songs like “Dynasty,” “Starbright,” and “Otherside” keeping the crowd engaged in their soggy hoodies.

For many attendees, the reason for this quest was of course Tiësto. Honestly, no other DJ could close out the event or make folks forget their troubles quite like Tiësto. The legendary producer had everybody moving along to “The Business” before reviving things up into the next gear with “Lay Low”. He continued to shake things up with his tracks “Red Lights” transitioning into “Chasing Cars” keeping the energy at a high pace. Tiësto did give us a moment to breathe with “I’ll Take You High”. But the excitement couldn’t be contained with pyro, fireworks, and elaborate light show beaming from the Nova Stage.

Overall Auris Presents team did a terrific job with Heatwave. It was no easy task to follow the event that was beloved last year yet they managed to pull it off. The change of scenery was a nice touch as it took over a space that other organizers rarely use.

The post Heatwave Music Festival delivers through rain and shine appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Joaqopelli, a Native American Basque Gypsy, started Thursday off with a traditional flute performance at the Living Room stage, a beach stage with a casual feel beside the Salmo River.  The song called “Down spirits from the heaven to feel the power of the creator”.   The set was perfect for the 11:11am start, and set the tone for the Living Room stage for the rest of the festival.

The highlight of any music festival is discovering something new.  This year it was Big Gigantic.  The American Duo started in 2008, and combine live performance with “Djing”.  Funk, Dubstep, House, HipHop, Electro Soul, and Jazz all mixed with live drums, saxophone and keys.  The genres were all over the place, but each transitioned seamlessly to the next.  Some technical issues led to a late start, and the stage presence a little stiff at first, but that all became irrelevant as they got into the first song.  The dynamic between the two fits with the improv style that makes the live set so fluid with the audience.

Adam Shakih holds a special place in electronic music for me. He was the first DJ I saw almost a decade ago.  This year he played right after the opening ceremonies in the Grove.  A calming, lawn gnome covered venue in the woods.  The set was very relaxed and complimented the sunshine peeking through the trees.

DJ Anger is the embodiment of the mindset of the westcoast DJ.  The self taught, hip-hop influenced DJ plays a huge range, reggae, bass heavy, funk, breaks and more.  He calls Victoria home, and his influence is embedded in the Vancouver Island music scene.  Anger was the first DJ I photographed almost a decade ago, and has moved into producing, as well as helping aspiring DJs in the community.  He is involved in festivals, events, local sets, producing and DJing all over the place.  He is on one of the hardest working people I have come across.  Anger has helped build and shape the Victoria music scene, and it shows.

Dua & Generic also hail from my hometown of Victoria.  Generic has several DJ comp titles, a resident DJ, he teams up with DUA for big events like Shambles.  His sets are filled with glitch hop, drum and bass, dubstep, broken beats, while scratching and mixing his own tracks in.  This is an artist that is new to me, but after this performance I look forward to more.

Shambhala is more than music, it is a weird concoction of every genre of everything.  Morning yoga everyday, a unicorn parade, tourist guide tours, spirit hood gathering, potlucks, muay thai, tantric yoga, the rocket ship (you are placed between 6 gongs and they send you to outer space), aerial silk, and fashion.

Each year local vendors put on a fashion show, highlighting things for sale, as well as varied, unique creations by artists.  Previous years had outfits made from garbage, cleaning supplies like rubber gloves, and pieces that were not traditional clothing pieces (like rubber chickens).  This year saw a lot of sparkle and shine, with some avian influence.

A voice for independent music and an explosion onto the music scene over the past few years, Griz played a phenomenal set that got the crowd roaring.  I am biased, my two favorite performances this year had live saxophones in them.  Self-described Future Funk is ridiculously appropriate, combining electro-soul, funk and live saxophone is refreshing for those who miss the sax laden songs of the 80s, which apparently I do.  Griz is young, and extremely talented, but I do not think he has peeked yet.  He has come really far, really quickly, touring with big names, and even headlining on his own, but I predict the next couple years there will be major growth into a far more developed and multi-talented artist.  Big Gigantic was the highlight for me, but Griz is someone to watch.

Ill Gates & KJ Sawka are the backbone of bass. KJ Swaka is a member of both Pendulum and Destroid, also providing beats to a ridiculous amount of DJs, while Ill Gates makes production tools used by countless artists.  Ill Gates has collaborated with Bassnectar, Datsik, and more, and this shows in the body-vibrating Bass that exploded from their set.  Halfway through the set I stopped, and tried to separate myself from the music, and all I could feel was my internal organs buzzing.

Authenticity is the sound she strives for. Ill-esha pulls out turntables, vocal loopers, keytars, and more in her set to create a sound all her own.  Her initial foray into music was drum and bass, then into glitch-hop, but she strives to break out of being pinned down to any specific genre.

Scott Jackson was an unscheduled, high-energy suprise.  Either technical issues, or delay created a gap in performers and Jackson stepped up.  Jackson’s skills in beatboxing come from illness, being bed ridden he developed his skill.   “How many of you like Michael Jackson?” he yelled to the crowd before jumping into a medley of songs, followed by a ten minute solo, freestyle beatbox.  This is not an art I am intimately acquainted with, but the range in pitch, sound, a term I have no words for was astounding.  The speed in which he switched between singing and percussion sounds, and jumping from song to song was something I had only seen in YouTube videos, which has minimal impact compared to seeing it in real life.

I was born and raised in Victoria BC, and, in a tongue-in-cheek way, we have a love-hate relationship with Calgary.  This is where I set my holier-than-thou, hippy, west coast, surfer, tree-hugging, granola munching, yoga doing, fishing, snowboarding hat, and legitimately compliment Calgary on its ability to produce musicians. Subvert, from Calgary, has been on the scene almost 20 years, a founding member and lead designer of PK sound, as well as the Village stage director is all about “bass that works”.  Synths, bassline, strings, in glitch and drum and bass create a deep, dark, sexy sound that resonates from the toes to the head.

Fractal Forest.  In the age of technology, Shambhala wants a piece of it to remain mysterious and untouched by the ravages of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp.  As a result, photography is banned in the Forest, thought that did not stop wide-eyed, enthusiastic dancers from sneaking a cell phone pic. Skratch Bastid worked the crowd with ease, but was followed by an unfortunately disappointing set by DJ Jazzy Jeff.  It came off as pop laden, top 40, and when the crowd did not react, he did not change.  I was at his performance in Vancouver last year for Quip, and he read the crowd and brought it to a riotous clamour, playing it like a skilled fiddler. Mix Master Mike faired better, but had lost a lot of the crowd from the previous performance. Neon Steve and Vinyl Ritchie had energetic crowds, while the The Funk Hunters drew a huge, effervescent, excited crowd.

Zed’s Dead.  My very first Shambhala, almost a decade ago, put me in a car with a stranger on the 12-hour (we took two days) drive from Victoria to Salmo.  That ride introduced me to Karl, who had a love for electronic music more than anyone I knew.  We became close friends, and after Shambhala, I would receive a phone call whenever Zed’s Dead was in town.  “What are you doing tonight? It doesn’t matter, Zed’s Dead is here, we’re going”. Karl introduced me to them, among many others. He passed away a few years ago, and I have a special place in my heart, and my calendar whenever I see that they are performing.  I really enjoyed this set, but I will be the first to admit I am entirely biased. I saw Zed’s Dead for Karl, and I have no regrets.

Pretty Lights was surprisingly aggressive, and a little too loud. I enjoyed the set but was expecting a little more laid back from their previous performances, as well as being one of the last headliners on Sunday night.

Shambhala is a triathlon for music lovers.  A hugely varied artist list, and music running from noon-11am in some cases, it takes a dedicated and energetic person to fully appreciate the festival as a whole. Bonobo played his set late Sunday night, and I was barely standing by the time I arrived.  Hailing from Brighton, UK, Simon Green has been doing this for over 10 years and it shows.  I moved around the crowd as much as I could, and the most common phrase overheard was “I love this song” throughout the entire set.  It was a bit more relaxed than previous sets, but fit in with the late night last day crowd.  The set ranged his entire discography, and despite the fatigue of almost 4 straight days of dancing, the crowd refused to let this amazing performance be wasted.

Welcome home is a mantra that fits with Shambhala so well that it is almost comical.  There was not a single person I encountered who did not share the family, community, sharing vibe that the festival puts forward.  Walking from the campsite to the stages, you encounter hundreds of people shouting “Happy Shambhala” “Shappy Hambala” “Welcome home” or just an outrageous, coarsing roar that starts on one side of the farm and ends on the other.  Flags, balloons, costumes, stilts, juggling, instruments and any other skill you can think of is prevalent.  This is truly one of the few places where, no matter who you are, what you do, how you dress, you will be accepted and acknowledged.

The post Shambhala Music Festival is a welcome home party appeared first on Quip Magazine.

But What The Festival isn’t just another fest. It’s acres of land, featuring 8 stages, some huge and some intimate. One’s in front of a pair of huge wading pools so hundreds of people can splash, dance and hurl inflatable toys into the air. Another, accessible only by trekking through the Illuminated Forest art exhibit pathway, is shaped like a massive Chinese dragon with a pagoda structure on its back so the DJ stands 10 meters above the dance floor (which is grass), surrounded by trees on all sides.

Other, more intimate, stages are nestled into smaller areas, like the Shinto A Go Go just off the main drag. The Shinto area has a small torii entrance with traditional noren to walk through and features multiple miniature open-air tea houses brewing matcha and herbal blends; Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba fame played a set there Friday night and sounded fantastic. Just down the forest path is the LOL Stage, where decidedly un-techno acts like the LoveBomb Go-Go Marching Band or The Saloon Ensemble might play a half-gypsy, half-flamenco version of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”. It could happen. And after midnight, when the two main stages shut down, the Silent Disco starts up midfield, underneath the massive disco ball. There are few sights as surreal as seeing 200 people swaying in total silence, their wireless headsets glowing blue or red depending on which one of the two DJs they’ve chosen.

As you’d expect the two big stages are where the bigger acts play to crowds of thousands. Visiting the major stages is a breeze, you can pick one and dance nonstop for hours or ping-pong back and forth between the Effin’ Stage and the Main Stage.  Friday night’s duelling stages began to heat up at 8 when StéLouse was on the Effin’ Stage opposite duo Sabota on the Main Stage. Members of Camp Waldo – one of the more visible camp tribes, definitely a thing at WTF – must have been delighted by half of Sabota wearing nautical horizontal stripes and a red woollen beanie, but none could be reached for comment.

Friday night’s Effin’ Stage lineup peaked with twins Kendrick and Sherwin Nicholls’ Two Fresh. StéLouse handed them a good groove and they ran with it, their vocal-heavy, hip-hop-infused, dance music sounding different enough from what had come before to be novel. It helps that both Nicholls are born performers who use every inch of the stage and fire up the crowd, but credit where due: those were some amazing beats. The only quibble with their music might be their frequent use of “bitch” and “ho”, tired tropes that are deeply ingrained into the fabric of old-school hip-hop. But yeah, that’s a quibble. Two Fresh was a top-10 set of the weekend, easy.

When Daktyl played Portland last year, supporting Slow Magic, he was solid, but somehow unremarkable. Perhaps being on tour empowered him? Less than a year later at the WTF Splash Stage his set was unexpectedly bold, featuring an unusual number of tempo changes, as if he was daring the crowd to keep up with him. It worked. He walked a rhythm tightrope, keeping the party going while flirting with less and less traditional beats, giving himself multiple opportunities to drop (and re-drop) the bass. He read the roaring crowd perfectly and delivered one of the most musically memorable sets of the festival, in the sun, at 5 p.m. – no small feat. He had a solid lead-in by Ambassadeurs and made the most of it, upping the ante on the crowd minute by minute.

At a typical rock show there may be a 15 to 30 minute gap between performers to allow breakdown and setup of gear, but at most EDM events these transitions happen organically, as DJs seamlessly blend sets to keep the momentum going. It’s unspoken, but understood that if another DJ or producer is plugging in during the end of your set, it is incumbent upon you to pass it off to them as gracefully as possible. So it was shocking to see a performer pull the musical equivalent of dumping water on a campfire at the end of his set. QUARRY had a challenging time slot; 7 to 8 p.m. is between the poolside Splash Stage closing and the 8 p.m. headliners coming on, when the plurality of attendees get food, rest, and change clothes for the evening festivities. His crowd was not massive, but he had a solid few dozen people dancing when he seemed to have technical difficulties. A hard crackling stop mid-beat, some dialog, then a final track of synth washes, which seemed beatless, capped off by a dead stop, silence, then him saying “That’s it.” Uncool, and enough to dissipate the crowd.

By the time Ellie Herring started her set a moment later, a scant 8 people stood a good way back from the stage. Understand, this isn’t starting from scratch – it’s way harder. This was earning back spurned attention and having to overcome the lure of a very effective Little People set in progress just across the great lawn. You can see both stages, so it’s obvious when one scene is happening and one isn’t. Laurent Clerc a.k.a. Little People had a 15 minute head start and was banging, his trademark electronic sound effects punctuating solid beats that had attracted a large, and growing, crowd.

Some know Ellie Herring from her hooky, minimalist tracks like “Always Just OK,” but her 2015 work has been more muscular and driving – insistent without being aggressive and without the whisper-passive vocals featured on most of Kite Day. It’s a near-complete stylistic reinvention, different and good. Her WTF set picked up where her May tour with Dot left off, lots of percussive beats and short vocal samples that insinuate themselves into your earholes and demand body movement, at times sounding like next generation Jose “Chep” Nuñez or Tuta Aquino’s mid-’80s mixes.  As people poured back onto the festival grounds, heads turned and trajectories were altered as Herring soldiered on. A few minutes in she said “Hi, I’m Ellie, come dance with me.” and they did: 8 became 40 became 120 became 300 and upward, and the music soared. By the end of her hour long set she was handing Sweater Beats a hot crowd in a great mood. It was the biggest turnaround of the weekend and the talk at one of the campfires at 2 a.m. “Did you see Ellie Herring?” “Holy shit, YEAH.”

On paper, the Main Stage has a bit more firepower, lining up artists like GRiZ, Keys N Krates, Machinedrum Vapor City Live, Slow Magic, and Big Gigantic. The latter 3 artists, in particular, benefit from using analog instruments in performance. Watching someone thrash a drum kit or play sax can be a good visual break from the DJ hunched over the controls, not to mention a sonic differentiator. The Main Stage also has LED display screens built in to several vertical surfaces, allowing most of the stage to luminesce.

The first of the headliners to close the stage was GRiZ, who took the opportunity to stretch out his trademark funk; the vocal samples were there as well as slinky Chic-esque guitar snippets and occasional blasts of horns. GRiZ is one of the few artists at WTF whose sound could translate almost identically to a really tight live band, but he did it all himself. Imagine the sound of excellent tracks like “Funk Party” and “Get Down” writ large, with a thousand people stomping along in the dust. His music plays better live than most, he pushed the crowd hard, and might have singlehandedly convinced hundreds of people to consider a move to his hometown of Detroit. His work has always had an earthy, party vibe and that was ideal for the festival setting. Great, great set.

Machinedrum Vapor City Live’s work is less bombastic and more subtle and inspires a more mellow, groovy response. Like the crafting of a good mixtape, WTF organizers were cautious to mix things up from set to set, and Machinedrum’s near-downtempo washes of synth and voice over not-quite-but-almost drum & bass percussion was a kind of hourlong exhalation for the crowd after Hustle and Drone and Little People. Not that the set wasn’t exciting – it was, magnetic even, and an ideal crowd prep lead-in for Big Gigantic’s saxophone driven dance funk.

In scientific terms, people went ape shit for Big Gigantic. The duo – Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken – are veterans of Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lollapalooza, and seemingly every other festival and it shows. Their set started sick and got progressively more insane as it went. Their set also marked the first sighting of one of a pair of massive, luminescent squid puppets, 5 meters high and requiring a minimum of 3 puppeteers. More than most, WTF inspires attendees to want to glow and present their tribes with costumes, signs, and pike-mounted objects that can be seen above the crowd. The massive squids were overkill of the best kind, dancing their way back and forth through the crowd, as Big Gigantic pounded their way through one of the best-received sets of the weekend. Big Gigantic’s set offered strong visuals on the LED screens as well – was that dancing Honda ASIMO robots as well as Apollo astronauts?

As for the other squid, he was undulating his way through the huge mob STWO handed off to TOKiMONSTA. Jennifer Lee’s work can be aurally challenging at times, demanding a careful ear, much like the rest of the Brainfeeder crew. But the set she played at WTF avoided her (at times) dissonant aspects and more experimental time signatures in favor of sleek beats and clever transitions. Fair enough – TOKiMONSTA’s style seems to change up from record to record anyway, and only the most churlish fan would expect her to step on the vibe by breaking out the more avant of her garde. More importantly, TOKi was beside herself, grinning, clearly enjoying the sight of a thousand or so people throbbing up and down to her music.

More than most events of its size, What The Festival places a premium on the variety of experiences offered to the guests. In addition to the stages of various sizes and the silent disco, the Illuminated Forest offers an interactive and beautiful break from the sun and sounds. Take a right at the outdoor hookah lounge and you’ll almost immediately be struck by the otherworldly beauty of the various art installations peppered through the woods.

One retro/futuristic device had hundreds of vintage slides being pulled along several belts which passed backlighting and magnifying glasses. Aside from being visually arresting as an object of curiosity, the feeling of sitting at its base and gazing into those lenses as the images passed by was like a steam-powered View-Master. Directly across the path is a wooden sculpture facing a screen and a Microsoft Kinect: like a giant multitrack theremin, it reads your gestures in conjunction with your selections and allows you to create music by waving your hands in different directions. Further down the path is a queen-bed-sized fiber-optic garden which encouraged tactile interaction.

Turn back toward the main lawn and you’re met with several fantasy forest guardians woven from branches and twigs, each with a luminous heart at its center, as well as a sculpted metal luminous pegasus whose every surface was open for personal messages to be written in the chalk provided. Other installations were less experimental, but just as welcome, such as the huge cushions inside a neon clamshell labeled “We Need New Friends”, the three-animal totem on which line art was projected, and a Mario Kart station. Artists were working on some installations all weekend long, often inviting input or help from attendees.

Cliché as it sounds, the best part of WTF is the people. Tribes representing themselves with costumes, wigs, and standards on 3-meter lengths of PVC; dancers and hoopchicks lighting up the night with luminous hula hoops, whips, and fur collars; yoga practitioners striking precarious poses at the edge of the Splash Stage pool; goths and punks and B-boys and heshers and vape geeks all gearing up and cruising the grounds to see who’s who and what’s what. (That guy with the dreds who flips a stick between two other sticks showed up too, but he goes to every festival – he hasn’t changed his poncho in years.) In most cities they avoid one another, but at WTF they all somehow mesh and become the friendliest crowd imaginable. Maybe the common denominator is loving Big Gigantic.

More photos can be found here.

The post What The Festival 2015: sound and vision appeared first on Quip Magazine.