Seattle Decibel 2010 - Day 3 @ Pravda Studios, Benaroya Hall, Baltic Roo...

Seattle Decibel 2010 - Night 2 @ Neumos

Best T-Shirt Worn by an Aritst

It's a bit off topic but definitely worth a mention. I think people often overlook the impact an artists outfit can have. Sometimes even making or breaking there image, needless to say that if your music sucks, nothing you can wear can change that and vice versa.





It's been a growing trend during every festival or music conference there is one artist that takes the cake when wardrobe. It's an observational easily missed by most.

Scuba's Bro Step T-shirt, caused a mini sensation at Decibel 2010. Following the likes of Loco Dice's "PEOPLE LIKE US" WMC 2010 shirt and I think it was Derrick May that had an "I don't need Tractor to Pull Chicks" this past DEMF.

It was the "PEOPLE LIKE US" T-shirt that first made me take notice, the amount of people asking around how they could buy one was more than I could count. In fact months later there was still a buzz. What surprised me was how a plain white shirt with black lettering had turned into a marketing master piece.

If your an artist its definitely something to ponder. Congrats to Scuba! people took notice in your acute sense of dubstep fashion.

Ryan Xristopher's best and worst of Decibel 2010

Overall it was a fantastic five days!

Here's a quick list of my favorites and not-so-favorites. The full report and explanations will be up soon.

Much respect to the Decibel crew and all of the artists and performers there - it was a great inspiration!


Best Overall Shows:
Lorn
Mary Anne Hobbs

Best Sound in a Venue during a Show:
Carl Craig
Modeselektor
Optical 1

Best Vibe:
Mary Anne Hobbs – 1st 10 rows of people
Lorn – 1st 15 rows of people
Lusine – The whole dance floor
Ikonica / Starkey – The downstairs dance floor
Truckasaurus – The front of the dance floor

Best Music:
Lusine
The 10 minutes of the FlyLo show where it was just him playing

Best Lights and Visuals during a Show:
Carl Craig
Lorn
Optical 1

Best Dancing Tunes:
Ikonika
Monty Luke
Carl Craig

Best Surprises:
Lorn
Optical 1
Truckasaurus
Fax
Ikonika

Worst Disappointments:
FlyLo’s band
Pepe Bradock instead of Cassy
The sound during Monolake and Luke Hess sets

Worst Show:
Mount Kimbie
- I have to say this one just didn't do it for me at all. The music felt awkward, mistimed, and unconnected with the crowd there. The sound levels were way off - it sounded like bass soup in a tar pit; I was really struggling to find the music in it for the first 10 minutes. Maybe it got better though, because I took off after 15 minutes or so - so maybe it warmed up eventually?

Worst Sound:
Monolake - the quad sound was a great idea in theory, but I can't be the only one know noticed that the back left channel was broken? Like driving in a car with a flat rear tire that was falling off ...
Luke Hess - right when he came on, something went wrong with the sound in the room and it never got any better.
Kyle Hall
Mount Kimbie

Worst Music:
Mount Kimbie
Pepe Bradock - the first track he played was extremely off-putting; literally a good third of the dancefloor left within a minute of him transitioning in. It was a bad replacement for Cassy.

So that's a quick summary of the bests and questionables; but overall it was a brilliant time, and everyone I know was thoroughly happy with almost every show they went to.

-ryan xristopher

Seattle Decibel 2010 - Night 1 @ Baltic Room and Neumos

Decibel 2010 Day 1 - Pravda Studios

Letter from the Editor?

My Whereabouts…

Hi Kids,

Sorry, it’s been a while I’ve been slacking and out of the country, for some non rave related business. I’m in Colombia and I know what your thinking, NO I have NOT started my own drug Cartel or started a narco trafficking.

While in Colombia I did manage to get some partying in, I found out where Hard Techno lives, and got schooled on “power mixing” all in an Airplane hanger near the Bogotá Airport. I also got a chance to go to Club LOV or Lost On Vibes. The venue is awesome, its on a second floor not too big not to small, with an out door patio with a roof that opens up. Oh and the best part is a dance floor surrounded by an LED panel its really cool. Jan Kruger was supposed to play that night, but the story was the famous “he lost his passport”. Hello? Repeat ? I didn't hear you he lost his what? Yes. Passport. We did get to listen to Daze Maxim. Much love to my friend Hardfloor and his crew, for playing such a good host to me while in his neck of the woods.

And in other news…

By now we all know two things are certain:

1. Electric Zoo Was a hit over 50,000 in attendance, Big WIN for Made Events. A well produced event that went off with out a hitch, deflecting recent scandolous occurrence from other Festivals. Cough -- EDC, Love Parade. I still owe you guys some more posts EZ, when I have time to catch up.

2. The day portion of LoveEvolution has been cancelled. boo! if you make it to San FranDisco, be sure to check out the Listed event with Cassy.

Where to next…

So today I leave Bogotá and I start my 18 hour journey to see my friends in Seattle and checkout Decibel Festival. The trek starts now, I leave for the Airport in less than 2 hours, hop on board a 5 hour flight to MIA, then 6 hour layover in which I need to good to my house, do 2 two loads of laundry, repack, go to the drug store, get my hair did (which takes 2 hours) and get back to the airport in time for my next flight, I think is another flying high for 6 or 7 hours, I'm not even counting anymore.

Superduperfragalisticlyexcited for Decibel its defenitely time for some more fun state side. Especially the AlgaRythms Showcase... I love the my all AlgaRythm Organisms, they're a great NW crew have become more than just friends-- family. So if your at Decibel definitely stop in.


FWD THINKING ORGANISMS
presented by alga rhythms / SOLE REPAIR : 1001 E Pike
TANNER ROSS /dj/ 12:00 am – 1:30 am
TIM GREEN /dj/ 10:30 pm – 12:00 am
THE PERFECT CYN /dj/ 9:30 9pm – 10:30 pm
SAPPHO /dj/ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Visuals by VJ EPILEPTIC
Doors open at 8 pm : 21+ : $12 Door / Free with dB pass


Good Bye for now and See you in Seattle!!!

FYF Fest 2010 Photos and Review

Photos by Courtney Rickett

FYF Fest 2010

Review by Shakti Howeth

Date:Sun, 5 Sep 2010

It's Saturday, September 4th and we have arrived at The Los Angeles State Historic Park. After an hour of burning in the long line we make it in to the "FYF Fest". We grab our over-priced water bottles and head to the closest patch of shade. The first band we hear is "Abe Vigoda". I squint through the dust and sunshine at the bobbing head, floppy mop-top-locks and boys in tight jeans and scribble down snippets of what I think I'm hearing; something about a "scorpion", something about "tears"... The levels make it difficult to receive anything they might be offering.

Next we catch "Cults": 5 skinny, pretty boys and 1 skinny, pretty girl, warm up and check sound. Hand-claps and tambourine taps start the show and the pretty girl and boy sing with pretty voices and serious expressions. The guitarist on stage left is bounces around, lipping along with the singers. Watching him makes me giggle, he seems to be having inappropriate fun. The sounds coming from "Cults" are cool like your favorite dive bar. Flavors of sixties rock, dark rooms with red velvet walls, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the song "Poison Ivy" and David Lynch movies. We leave before they finish.

We walk aimlessly until "Vetiver" sparks out interest. This is the first group we have heard, whose sound levels seem to be properly balanced. The vocals ride atop waves of folky-smooth simplicity and the sound seems to come from far away. Song-writer/vocalist Andy Cabic delivers music with soul.

"Warpaint" is the next noteworthy act. Think, "Electrelane's" amped up LA sister. All-girls, all-talented musicians, clearly comfortable in their skin and happy to be home. They move to their own groove and bring the crowd along for the ride. A breath of [unpretentiously cool] air. Refreshing.

"The Oh Sees", here from San Francisco, perform like seasoned rockers and send surfer-punk sounds to the young crowd. People are pumped and soon I am shoved from behind into the what has become a wimpy and tentative mosh-pit. Throngs of thrashing, teenage hipsters are my exit cue.

A few more songs graze our ears as we head toward the gates. The main acts will go up when the sun goes down but we are not compelled to stay.

In terms of music, I might shout "fuck yeah!" in reference to life-changing-earth-moving-soul-rocking-sound that inspires, excites and entertains! No shouts about "FYF" here...

Decibel 2010 Parties Not to be Missed

Wednesday, September 22nd

Ghostly Interntional Label Showcase
Pantha Du Prince, Mux Mool, Gold Panda & Lusine

Thursday, September 23rd

FlyLo and Friends
Flying Lotus, Eskmo, Lorn, Samiyam & Truckasauras

Shameless Showcase
Dan Bell, Deepchild, Ctrl_Alt_Dlt, 214, Recess, Manami, Adlib, Levi Clark

Friday, September 24th

OPTICAL 1 – The Space Between
Murcof, Robert Henke & Mark Van Hoen

Red Bull Music Academy on the Floor
Modeselektor feat. Pfadfinderei, Headhunter aka Addison Groove, Mount Kimbie, Shlohmo, Teebs

dB Afterhours – Mi Casa es su Casa
Dinky, Catz ‘n Dogz & LawnChair Generals

Saturday, September 25th

dB in the Park – Saturday
Bluetech presents Satori Social, NastyNasty, Mat the Alien, Splatnum, PrEssHa, Eric Orr

The Mothership Boat Party
Catz ‘n Dogz, Tanner Ross, Monty Luke, Michael Manahan & more

D25 Showcase
Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson & Monty Luke

Fwd Thinking Organisms
Tim Green, Tanner Ross, The Perfect Cyn & Sappho

dB Afterhours – Late Night Soul Kitchen
Theo Parrish, Soul Clap & Pezzner

Sunday, September 26th

dB in the Park – Sunday
Plastician, Mary Anne Hobbs, 12th Plant, Praveen, Jimmy Hoffa, Just one, Eric Orr

Optical 3 – Resonant Channels
Moritz von Oswald Trio, Vladislav Delay, sanso-xtro

Decibel Finale – Dub My Soul
Monolake, Cassy & Luke Hess

Decibel 2010 Not to be Missed Artists - Vol 1

Modeselektor


Flying Lotus


Dinky
Own of my fav tracks from Dinky, 'Acid in my Fridge', which is also featured on Cocoon Compilation D.


Cassy
Video from the DEMF 10 crowd cheering for Cassy and yelling DETROIT! You can really feel the energy from Detroit.


Dan Bell AKA DBX
Circa 1994 a video that features people getting down to DBX's 'Electric Shock', on a dance show.


Marry Ann Hobbs
Hilarious video of MAH interviewing Bristolian pedestrians on their definition of dubstep.


Moritz Von Oswald Trio
Well, because I'm open to new experiences, see evidence below.