Outlook Festival 2012 | Fort Punta Christo, Croatia
The minds behind Croatia’s Outlook gathering have self-confidently dubbed their brainchild to be “Europe’s leading bass music and sound system culture festival.” Now this may read as just another self-serving and over-zealous sale’s pitch, but I am happy to inform you that most every bit of zeal in this statement is justified. In fact, through a breif calculation of logic, this proclamation may prove even modest;
If Outlook is indeed the leading bass music and sound-system culture fetsival in Europe, which, from my experience, appears to be quite true, and if Europe is the world’s leading continent in that same category, which, again, I can attest to, then Outlook festival may in fact be the leading bass music and sound system culture festival in the world.
Now, this is a bold statement, so let me begin to tell you why I think so:
First off, the event takes place in, on, and around, an abandoned fortress, which, by my degree of knowledge of 18th Century Mediterranean Architecture, is essentially a castle, and not only is a castle one of the most exciting and appropriate settings that I’ve had the opportunity to indulge in a variety of deep sounds and styles, but acoustically speaking, its almost as if those determined Croates of yesteryear built it expressly for the ideal presentation of contemporary bass music.
Speaking of which, the music was thrilling, utterly so, and I know that I stand risk of sounding like a jittering fan-boy, but today that’s something I may very well be.
So, who was good? Jackmaster , playing his typically eclectic mix of dance music – from Usher to Joy O ; Scuba , proving he that he was worth his steep price-tag; Sepalcure , Plastician , XXXY , Eliphino , Disclosure , and, of course, Skream with Sgt. Pokes , were all a bonafied pleasure to catch. Also making it into this congratulatory category is Kode9 , Loefah , Oneman , Black Acre newcomer, Alby Daniels , Silkie , and Ben UFO ; A tip of the hat to all of them.
Some favorites heard from this category:
Now, who was fantastic?
[Addison Groove]
If I had a crown to give, it’d have to go to Addison Groove . He threw down the most exciting set of the weekend; at the end, mixing from his trade-mark grit-house jams, to a combination of Hudmo ‘s “CBat” and Earl Sweatshirt ‘s “Drop,” and finally into a booty shaking version of The Chordette’s barbershop classic, “ Mr. Sandman ,” of which I have yet to track down. A round of applause is more than in order for Mr. Groove. If he’s coming to a club near you, do not miss out, just go.
Dark Sky rounded off the Black Acre party on Saturday night, and even from outside the fort, one could tell it was the place to be, with a line-up extending easily over 50 meters out the gate. The beats from their Black Rainbows EP sounded ripe and juicy on the Courtyard system.
[Boddika]
The Swamp 81 party was yet another stand-out, with Boddika standing as the personal highlight of the exhibtion, though only just ahead of his more than worthy label mates, Oneman and imprint-boss, Loefah . And since we’re on the topic of dubstep, big ups to Joker for up-staging the DMZ showcase in a big way. Sorry, Mala and Coki , we still love you.
Friday Night at Mungo’s Arena was a breath of fresh for anyone feeling a bit claustrophobic from the prominence of D&B at Outlook. Girl Unit was the highlight of this party. His work on the Club Rez Ep dazzled between the stone walls of the military fort.
Some respect is to be given to trap stalwarts, Baauer and Hudmo , because their numbers, “Harlem Shake,” and “ CBat ,” were springing up dj’s sets of every genre. Same goes to Julio Bashmore for his summer anthem’s of 2011 and 2012; “ Battle For Middle You ,” and “ Au Seve ,” respectively.
So, we’ve run through the good and the grand, but was it a perfect experience? No, of course not. All things are flawed, even the most wonderful.
The major bone I have to pick is with the audience, who whilst being, for the most part, avid fans of these genres, neglected some of the bare necessities of festival etiquette. Muscling belligerently to the front of the bar line was a common activity. Now that I think of it, muscling any where at any time without an excuse me or a patient moment’s wait was standard practice at Outlook. Friends assured me that this was simply the English way of doing things, but I don’t take that as a valid excuse. Thumbs down. Love thy neighbour next time, boys.
The second pickable bone is not necessarily the fault of anyone in particular. It was the simple fact that Mala, Coki, Loefah, and Disclosure, were far from being loud enough at the Harbour stage on Saturday night. The open ocean is no natural amphitheatre. Fortunately, this is where Dimensions Festival comes in.
Opening tonight, Dimensions festival promises an equal if not more impressive line-up of underground artists, an audience of presumably more committed listeners, and lastly, exclusive use of the Fort stages, which means, better sound and smaller venues for bigger artists. Let’s hope it lives up to these other-worldly expectations.
Outlook , thank you. It was a blessing to be a part of. Considering the legend of setting and sound that your team has etched into bass-music’s youthful history, the title of world’s leading bass music and sound system culture festival is yours to loose. Now, to see what your little brother is packing…
See you next year,
sam.i.am
Low-Life Does Tomorrowland | Boom, Belgium 2012
I know what your thinking; “what is Low-Life doing at a place noted for their unparallelled line-up of “the world’s biggest EDM artists,” (shudder); at what Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike (don’t ask) so eloquently predicted to be “one hell of a crazy weekend;” a place where names like Avicii and David Guetta are spoken with either a religious solemnity or with the volume and duration of one of those travel-sized air horns? Why, Low-Life? Why?”
[case in point...]
Why not? It may be all of those things, but it is also one the world’s largest dance music events, seeing more than 180,000 bodies over the course of the weekend, and besides the main-streamlined artists mentioned above, Tomorrowland is also host to a slew of artists whose names have graced this very URL amidst words of appraisal; Jamie Jones , Clockwork , The Others , Martyn , Jackmaster , Locked Groove , Ben Klock , Terence Fixmer , Green Velvet , Fake Blood , Surkin , Eats Everything , Dubfire , Hatcha , Emalkay , Plastician , and Sgt. Pokes , specifically. Between this, the purported millions of dollars flooded in to the aesthetic experience, and, lastly, the rumour that TL is something of an annual congregation of the most beautiful girls in Europe, why not, I ask you; why the hell not?
So we did.
You know when you’re faced with prospect of eating a bag of Doritos and your like, “nah, I’m not into that,” but you go for it anyway because “what the hell, everyone else is eating them,” and they’re fantastic, and cheesy, and you go for a few more, and your enjoying it even though your constantly making snide remarks about people who eat Doritos on the regular just to divert any possible notion that you do, in fact, love Doritos?… So there you are with the empty bag tilted over your palm to get those last few crumbs and you lick that radiating orange off your pinky finger and, just for a moment or two, you cringe because you know you liked it. Yeah, Tomorrowland was kind of like that bag of Doritos.
For instance, imagine 60,000 people belligerently spouting that incessant “Levels” melody (“da-da-dah-dah-duh-duh du-du-du-du-duh-duh-duh-dah-dah”) while a giant bookcase is breathing fire and tribes of goat-men are doing back flips through waterfalls. Now, this is a spectacle that is hard not to, at the very least, be impressed by. And yes, if you’re putting two and two together, I did see Avicii, and it wasn’t completely insufferable. Well, beer helped.
But aside from the musical lollipop that was the main stage, there was a number of truly phenomenal and accordingly innovative, albeit under-attended performances over the course of the weekend:
Jamie Jones ‘ very funky set was laced with nuances of new-wave, which was surprising to most but received with joviality nonetheless.
Carl Cox earned his title of legend, not that he needed to in any respect, as he hit the 1′s and 2′s with care into the wee-hours of his 50th birthday.
Eats Everything played Prodigy ‘s “Smack Your Bitch Up” under a giant mushroom. Enough said.
The whole experience was truly a dance-music feast. With 16 stages and over 400 Dj’s booked over the weekend, there was a style for every taste. If you don’t like David Guetta, which, if you’re reading this, I can assume that you do not, then you didn’t have to have anything to do with him because on the other side of the Tomorrowland playground, Martyn was mixing a subtle exhibition of We Play House Recordings ‘ releases along with his own; two very different worlds co-existing in one fantasy. This label, in fact, has an appropriate and thoughtful contemplation on this subject of taste:
“There is no such thing as tech house, there is no such thing as deep house, there is simply house music, good or bad. And even that depends on the ear of the beholder.”
[via WPH ]
It just so happened, though, that the majority of the ‘beholder[s]‘ at Tomorrowland preferred the music of Swedish House Mafia . But that’s okay, because I like the occasional bag of Doritos too.
sam.i.am
