This past weekend, Asheville, N.C. transformed from a busy mountain town into a hub for everything electronic. Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit took place from Friday, Oct. 25 through Sunday, Oct. 27 and for those three days it was hard to turn your head in downtown Asheville without seeing flashing lights, costumed concert goers or interactive panels. An estimated 8,000 people flocked to the festival each night and found dispersed throughout the five venues that made up this eclectic electronic festival.
Things got started on Friday evening at 7 p.m., but I rolled into town just in time to check out the last minute addition of Purity Ring at 8:45 p.m. This Canadian electronic duo combines pulsating electronic beats that finely straddle the line between house, trap and electronic-pop. Purity Ring’s stage set-up was a mesmerizingly coordinated event that featured light-up orbs that were activated by producer Corin Roddick’s drum sticks, creating syncopated lights and rhythms that left concertgoers in a trance.
The night took a surprising turn shortly after their set as hip-hop supergroup Deltron 3030 took the stage. Producer Dan The Automater, rapper Del The Funky Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala combined forces for a flooring display of musical talents. The three were joined by 13 additional musicians including a swelling string section and soaring horns to make for a completely original hip-hop set from this occasionally absurdist crew.
Another swift transition took place next as I packed into the seemingly endless line to make my way into Neutral Milk Hotel at the gorgeous Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. I made it in just in time to hear fan-favorite “Holland, 1945” and was quickly entrenched in the band’s timeless melodies. Few things are as magical as singing your heart out with thousands of like-minded concert goers as you see one of the most important acts of your life, and that’s exactly what happened at Neutral Milk Hotel. I soaked in as much Neutral Milk Hotel as physically possible before heading back to the ExploreAsheville.com Arena for Bassnectar.
Bassnectar’s freeform blend of all things electronic drove the thousands in attendance to lose themselves to the endless grooves brought forth by Lorin Ashton. Ashton’s encompassing bass was enough to shake your entire body, as drops came and went you could physically feel a blast of air from the speakers which is as discomforting as it is awesome. Many say music makes them feel things intangibly, but it’s rare that you get the chance to physically feel the effects of an artist.
With a buzzing in my ear that I’ll surely regret when I’m older, Saturday was a day dedicated to exploring the wonders of Asheville and Mountain Oasis. Diana Wortham Theater was home to a fantastic interactive exhibit of a whole slew of synthesizers, theremins and other groundbreaking electronic equipment. After viewing a local artists’ 3D art exhibit, I got to check out Mark Mosher’s audiocube exhibit. This Boulder, Colo. Based performance artist/musician brought his collaborative 9Box equipment, cubes that read infrared signals to make music and shape sound with the mere touch of their hands. Exhibits like this were abounding at Mountain Oasis, providing plenty of daytime activities to hold you over before the night wears you out with thumping dance music.
Saturday night’s lineup at ExploreAsheville.com arena was a markedly different environment, hosting an array of industrial and experimental acts like Bosnian Rainbows, Gary Numan Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Nine Inch Nails. The evening opened with Bosnian Rainbows, a psychedelic prog-pop act that features Omar Rodriguez Lopez of Mars Volta and At The Drive-In fame. Lopez’s presence is abundantly clear in this new project as jaunting rhythmic changes defined this raucous outfit’s motif. After taking in the spastic vocal stylings of Teri Gender Bender at Bosnian Rainbows, I headed to Thomas Wolfe for the hauntingly gorgeous set from Zola Jesus and JG Thirlwell. Thrilwell led a string-quartet through breath taking versions of vocalist Nika Danilova’s songs. Danilova and company powered through many of the beautiful stringed arrangements found on her latest release, Versions and I caught a significant amount of the set before making my way to Robert DeLong.
DeLong is the only act I saw at The Orange Peel, one of Asheville’s iconic venues, and it just so happened to be one of the standouts of the weekend. If I could designate an MVP of the festival it would be DeLong because he provided a fully immersive and engaging set that comprised of blistering live drumming and bass-fueled dance sessions that melded perfectly with his infectious vocal melodies. DeLong even pulled out an entirely new take on Filter’s “Take A Picture,” a 90s classic that left the packed Orange Peel shouting and swaying along. Between his use of various MIDI controllers like Wii-motes, joysticks and XBOX controllers along with his equally enveloping stage presence, DeLong had everyone in attendance in awe of his dazzling live show.
After DeLong I wanted to check out some of the extravagance that was sure to come from Godspeed You! but after seeing how devastatingly long the Neutral Milk Hotel line was on Friday I decided to settle into Thomas Wolfe for a nice spot at Animal Collective instead. Evidently, it was an awesome decision because the auditorium was slam packed for the psych-pop mastery of the Baltimore-based collective. After opening with fan favorite “Lion In A Coma” and pulling out their staple “My Girls” after only three songs, things got excitingly weird. Their stage set-up consisted of inflatable teeth that surrounded the top and bottom of the stage, creating a visual effect of the band being swallowed by a mouth. That, combined with a psychedelic blend of shimmering patterns and images, made for a transcendental experience with one of my absolute favorite bands.
Animal Collective was an excellent show to sit down and lose yourself to, but Cashmere Cat served as a final blast of energy to close the evening. The young Norwegian producer showcased his world renowned DJ skills by spinning a variety of original beats combined with contemporary hip-hop and R&B tracks like Kanye West, Drake and Kendrick Lamar. He even pulled out a remix of Ja Rule’s “I’m Real” that drove the crowd bonkers, proving that if you need to get a crew of mid-twenties dancers excited then you should throw in some early 2000’s tunes and let the magic happen.
After two high-energy nights of dance-filled goodness, it was pretty hard to maintain the same level of excitement for night three. However, with a lineup packed with fantastic R&B crooners and DJs it was hard not to get hyped up for the coming attractions. The evening started early at 6 p.m. with the Canadian duo Adventure Club and the two DJs brought a series of heavy bass drops and high pitched female vocals. As the duo churned out remixes of Top 40 hits I felt myself go into automatic dance mode, just biding down the minutes until I’d get to sit down again. Thankfully that was pretty soon, as Jessie Ware took the stage at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium shortly afterward.
Jessie Ware is one of the most swiftly rising R&B artists in the scene and her sultry, soulful take on the genre felt a lot like a Sade. Electronic-based percussion and live bass and guitar backed Ware, which, in a largely electronic environment is oddly comforting. Her sweet sounds proved to be hypnotic, leaving listeners transfixed on her spine-chilling vocals. I left Ware’s set early to catch some of PANTyRAiD, which proved to be a relatively bro’d out affair of bass drops, trap style hip-hop samples and booty shaking dancers with signs that informed the crowd to “turn up” and “get trippy.” However, things got a bit more bearable when English house duo Disclosure took the stage.
Disclosure is another group that combined electronic foundations with live instrumentation, performing vocals, drums and bass on separate instruments. This organic feel made the duo’s tracks stand out amongst the sea of electronic performers, and once it dropped the summer banger “When A Fire Starts To Burn” early into its set, the crowd never slowed down. Jessie Ware joined the duo for a few tracks and then closed out their set with the slow-brooding “Latch.”
While the night easily could have ended there, Pretty Lights brought a full band set-up to what I’d expected to be an absolute bro-step party. It ended up being a strange blend of electronic based jam music and reggae/dub/house. I was pleasantly surprised at the musicianship on display for Pretty Lights, I’d expected it to be your standard electronic fodder backed by a ridiculous light show, but the set was filled with equal amounts of exploratory jams, heavy bass drops and dazzling lights.
All in all it was a weekend filled with bone-rattling bass, heady psychedelic jams, and some of the most iconic performers of our time. Rarely do acts as diverse as Neutral Milk Hotel, Nine Inch Nails, Bassnectar, Animal Collective and Gary Numan join together in the same city for a weekend of music, art and madness, but Asheville served as the perfect musical oasis for these stars to combine forces and provide a mind blowing musical experience.
Robert DeLong sings at Mountain Oasis.
