Tag: toro y moi
Austin Psych Fest 2023: Authenticity in a Far Out Place
Grace Dunn
May 29, 2023
As a Black Angels fan, I followed Levitation (Austin Psych Fest)for years from afar, watching snippets of the festival on social media, because traveling to Austin from Los Angeles is a TREK that’s difficult for any overworked and underpaid artist, including myself. Through those glimpses, I recognized Levitation as a home to what I live for: diverse jams and trippy visuals. I could feel that I belonged there, but I had no idea how strong that connection was until the stars aligned and I finally made it out to The Far Out, the venue where the fest was held for the first time this year. related: My First SXSW- Confessions of a Fanboy Posing as Music Critic I’ve been to a fuck ton of gigs and festivals, but this one hit different. The people. All of them. Musicians, Organizers, and Festival Goers alike (groups that generally stay in their respective lanes during live show experiences) all blended into a vibrational tapestry, a collective, sewn together by their love of music. The connectivity and the community made this experience special. I will cherish it forever; “It’s All Happening”. Grace and I arrive in Austin, Texas: Ground zero for psychedelia, past, present,
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The Golden Coast: Portola Festival 2022
Danny Ryan
October 6, 2022
Electronic dance music festivals have been controversial amongst live music enthusiasts for quite some time. It’s clear to see why due to the emphasis on drug use, tendency to attract rowdy youth that are more focused on partying than the love for the music, massive and potentially dangerous crowds, and lack of genre diversity in the lineups. The Portola Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco was Goldenvoice and Non Plus Ultra’s answer to these criticisms, returning the pure love for different forms of electronic music and visual art to the raving experience. Portola hosted a massive lineup of DJs and artists ranging from the 90’s rave roots of Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers, to modern DJ legends Jamie XX and Flume, and even to electronic-influenced pop stars with Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek. No matter what your flavor of raving is, Portola Festival had you covered with all forms of non-stop dancing the entire weekend. Portola Festival’s setting was incredibly industrial to match the energy of the warehouse shows that electronic dance music is rooted in, with the Pier 80 location being in a parking lot surrounded by enormous ships on the dock and a tranquil view of
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Desert Daze 2021: Music, Magick and Medicine
Danny Baraz
December 17, 2021
The road to Desert Daze 2021 was a long and winding way that spanned greater than the material distances of the 10, 60 and 215 highways between Lake Perris and Los Angeles. Everyone’s road was different, from festival organizers, Moonblock and co. and those in attendance. Not everyone’s road was paved with isolation and misery since the last installment of Desert Daze in 2019 but certainly everyone can agree that there has been a paradigm shift in the dynamic of living, or the collective consciousness, or whatever you want to call it, on Planet Earth. related content: Desert Daze 2016- Quantifying the Physics of a Good Time Music, Magick and Medicine beckoned far and wide but intimate attendance (low ticket sales) and a revamped vibe in the typical Desert Daze lineup brought only the most loyal and adventurous of past attendees and in my own conversations in the camp site, many first timers. It shrunk the festival grounds to a one stage operation on the banks of lovely lake Perris, in one of the most beautiful weekends to grace this Fall season in Southern California. Nevertheless, vibrations reverberated like signature sitar tones, like a butterflies wings, causing ripples across space
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