The Decibel Festival has a history of being ahead of trends. Over its 11-year run, it has featured artists like James Blake, Deadmau5, and Lorde before they achieved mass appeal, sometimes giving them their regional live debut. This year’s lineup, however is a little different; there are no superstar acts like last year’s headliners Moby and Peter Hook & The Light. Settling on what to see and do can be intimidating for those not fully indoctrinated in the burgeoning electronic underground. But that doesn’t make this year’s lineup any less lackluster. Instead of utilizing Decibel as a way to cross off names on your “must see” list, it’s a chance to explore who’s taking electronic music in new directions.
Groups like Baths and Tokimonsta exhibit moody atmospherics with an emphasis on compositional tone that’s been on the rise within the genre: less focus on getting people to dance and more on a core feeling, an effect heightened with low-humming synthesizers, muffled drum loops, and hazy vocals. Baths’ latest record, especially, delves into this abyss; even Ocean Death’s black-and-white cover emphasizes the dreariness. Tokimonsta, in contrast, may sound a bit more vibrant, embracing R&B smoothness in her sound, but the pensiveness is not lost.
Oneohtrix Point Never got a dose of mainstream exposure earlier this year with an opening slot on a leg of the Nine Inch Nails/Soundgarden mega-tour. In many ways, NIN is an ideal pairing for OPN: Just as Trent Reznor shocked and confused audiences with Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, OPN expounds on that weirdness with all the 21st-century tools at his exposure. Fleeting moments of beauty are quickly shot down with glitches and effects that sometimes resemble malfunctioning machinery. It sounds absurd, and it can be. OPN pushes the concept of a structured song to its breaking point, seeing how far away he can push
the music to disorienting heights.
Oneohtrix Point Never at Decibel Festival. Courtesy Decibel Fest.
Other groups like London duo Simian Mobile Disco aren’t new to Decibel, but haven’t seen widespread appeal quite yet—even though the band’s James Ford has produced for acts like Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine. The duo has been experimenting in particular with breaking the barrier between live and studio records with its latest album, Whorl, piecing it together from studio sessions, live sets, even recordings from rehearsals. There’s no audience cheering, just the sounds of two guys experimenting on modular synths and sequencers.
Portland’s Seth Haley, aka Com Truise, pairs throwback vibes with future-minded beats. Listening to Haley’s music is like hearing a remix of the 1980s aesthetic as a whole. Kitschy drum patches and cheesy synthesizers get mixed with modern technique, exploring the downbeat recesses of the music that the decade wasn’t known to touch upon. He’s worked with and remixed acts like Daft Punk and Neon Indian, expanding that music into even more ethereal headspaces.
But Decibel isn’t all experimental electronic music. Chicago’s DJ Spinn levels it out with a helping of tenacious hip-hop beats. Spinn is best known for collaborating with the late DJ Rashad, who passed away earlier this year. In many ways the two complemented one another perfectly, Spinn adding just the right amount of Chi-town flavor to Rashad’s excellent 2013 album Double Cup. Hearing Spinn without Rashad will be bittersweet, but Spinn has proven himself a capable producer in his own right. He employs elements of different regions of hip-hop, throwing in West Coast, G-Funk synth lines alongside chopped and screwed Houston hip-hop hooks. Decibel Festival. Individual tickets $8 and up, festival passes $225. Some age restrictions. Runs Wed., Sept. 24– Sun., Sept. 28 at venues across Seattle; see decibelfest.com for complete details.
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