DECIBEL POOL PARTY AT WHAT THE FESTIVAL
Sunday, July 28 2013
Decibel Pool Party at What the Festival
July 26th – 28th : Wolf Run Ranch, OR
Decibel is proud to be partnering with What The Festival to present one of this year’s infamous WTF Pool Parties. The Sunday Afternoon Decibel Pool Party lineup will showcase a wide spectrum of sun-drenched underground dance music ranging from Deep House to Nu Disco to Garage. Headlining the event will be the Los Angeles-based House/Nu Disco duo Classixx, whose recent album Hanging Gardens was described by Pitchfork as “bright, warm, and breezy, and as the summertime approaches, its release couldn’t have come at a better time”. Supporting the bill will be three Seattle luminaries, Kid Smpl (Hush Hush Records), J.Alvarez aka 214 (Hypercolour) and Decibel Festival founder, curator and resident DJ, Sean Horton aka Nordic Soul (see below for more info). Tickets available at: http://
July 28th at What The Festival, Decibel proudly presents…
CLASSIXX
Innovative Leisure / Kitsune – Los Angeles
http://classixx.la/
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David spent the first half of the 2000s releasing his own music and touring in a band as a guitar player while Blake attended the Berklee School of Music. In 2005, David left his previous band and Blake dropped out of music school. Soon after, Classixx was formed. In their early twenties, Classixx began to define a new sound for the Los Angeles electronic music scene. A change from the banger-driven Electro that had been dominating dance floors, their smooth blend of disco, new wave, funk, house, and indie rock caught the ears of music aficionados, fans and artists alike. Recent remixes for groundbreaking and diverse artists include Phoenix, Mayer Hawthorne, Holy Ghost, Ladyhawke, Fischerspooner, Kid Cudi, Groove Armada, Yacht, Beni, Drop the Lime and Major Lazer. According to Chicagoist, Classixx “became staples in DJ sets all over the world”.
Pitchfork Media wrote that the duo gave Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” “a gorgeously pillowy synth-disco framework”. The Los Angeles Times called it “pure disco cotton candy”.
Classixx’s first album, Hanging Gardens, dropping May 14 on Innovative Leisure to RAVE reviews–>http://bit.ly/18BPEfH
NORDIC SOUL
Decibel / K Records, Seattle
http://www.dbfestival.com/
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Sean Horton aka Nordic Soul has long been enamored with artistic expression, the creation of music, and the technology that fuses it all together, much to the benefit and evolution of the world of electronic music and the underground culture that surrounds it. His healthy obsession began at the age of 11 with the gift of his first guitar. After attending a Plus 8 party in his hometown Detroit, Sean embraced underground electronic music. Today he is best known as founder, curator and president of the Decibel Festival in Seattle.
Beyond his work with Decibel, Sean is an expert deejay, producer and performer who has been turning out dance floors since the late 90s. His emotionally charged sets are infused with live instrumentation and ripe with the mélange of organic and synthesized tones, all riding on top of heavy bass lines. A lover of many musical styles, Nordic Soul’s interest and roots in techno, house, hip hop, jazz, soul, industrial and dub contribute to his diverse musical palette.
Since Nordic Soul’s inception in 2002, he has shared the stage with an eclectic cross section of international talent, including Moby, Green Velvet, Trentemoller, Four Tet, Moodymann, Boys Noize, Simian Mobile Disco, Modeselektor, Apparat, Bassnectar, Radio Slave, Derrick May, Moderat, Gui Boratto, Monolake, Kevin Saunderson, Thomas Fehlmann, Mount Kimbie, Matthew Dear, Theo Parrish and Motor City Drum Ensemble. Sean has also performed at several major festivals world-wide, including Dimension (Croatia), MUTEK (Montreal), Communikey (Boulder) and Decibel (Seattle).
Nordic Soul has released music on a wide variety of labels including K Records, Buttermilk Records, Peloton and Basic_Sounds.
KID SMPL
Hush Hush Recordings / Decibel, Seattle
http://kidsmpl.com/
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Kid Smpl is the current alias of 23-year-old Seattle producer and 2013 RBMA alumn Joey Butler. A veteran of stage and studio, Butler has been busy developing a style of atmospheric bass music that continues to deepen with each release. His signature sound incorporates lush synths, meditative low-end, muffled vocals samples, and warm textural field recordings, punctuated by drums that straddle every end of the tempo spectrum. The sounds are spread across a canvas made wide with breathing room.
Briefly put, it evokes the introspection of a far-flung space colony colony’s forest terrarium, late into the evening, alone or with close company.
In November 2012, after a string of successful releases showcasing this style, Butler releases his first full-length on Hush Hush music label. The ‘Skylight’ album provides a fully realized picture of Butler as a producer, articulating the hazy future vision he has been praised for on numerous EPs, tracks, and remixes released to date. With an original track on the new Friends Of Friends; ‘Show Me The Future’ compilation (alongside productions from Ryan Hemsworth, Octa Octa, Dreams, Evenings…) and a ‘Skylight’ remix collection album planned for February, 2013 seems to be very promising already.
J. ALVAREZ
Hypercolour / Frustrated Funk
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http://www.xlr8r.com/
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Seattle producer Chris Roman is by no means a new face. Roman debuted in 2002, and has since built a substantial discography under the alias 214, releasing on labels like Harbour City Sorrow, Car Crash Set, and Fortified Audio. Originally from Miami, many of the artist’s tracks are accordingly laced with tinges of the city’s famed Bass sound, but his take on electro is very much his own. His signature has matured into a supple hybrid of dancefloor bounce and dystopian grit, a progression which culminated in his 2012 output, the finest of his career. As 214, Roman put his name to Fuzzy Leash for Yellow Machines, Plastic Spokes for Fortified Audio, and Submanouvers for Frustrated Funk, and all three of these EPs showed him incorporating a fresh dynamism. Plastic Spokes, for example, took in R&B and deep house elements, and he perfected these infusions on Overseas Highway, his first release as J. Alvarez, for Hypercolour’s LTD series. The EP’s pop appeal was a refreshing take on electro’s robotic rigidity, and declared Roman as not just an adept producer, but one capable of pushing the entire genre in new directions. -Steve Kerr XLR8R