Bryan and I were invited to Colorado to play and document the Communikey Festival. I had a fabulous time catching up with old friends, visiting a gorgeous part of the country, eating yummy food, and hearing really good music.

Friday night at B-Side
with David Day, Ejival, Spinoza, Nordic Soul

Saturday night after hours Dirtybird Showcase
with Christian Martin and J. Phlip

Saturday Communikids workshop

Sunday in the Park with Communikids

Communikey Festival Site

Interesting article on Ketamine and music in The Guardian.  link

I just listened to this really good mix by Ben Klock.

download and listen to the mix here

Awesome Format B press photos taken from their site, sorry photographer unknown.

I spent the two long weekends at electronic music festivals. The first was the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) and the following week I went to Montreal for Mutek. The line ups at both were excellent and though it was really exhausting I had an amazing time. I can barely sum up the weekends in words or pictures.

Here is a list of my favorite performances, moments, and memories from Detroit in no particular order, even though Alex Smoke was my favorite performer:

• Alex Smoke live
• DBX -live (even though his secret gig at Bunker was better)
• enjoying Derek Plaslaiko’s set with all my friends from NYC
• meeting Egyptian Lover in my hotel elevator
  (their shirts were so totally insane, I am so mad at myself for not taking their photo)
• hearing Heartthrob play live while laying on the grass outside
• feeling like I was at a goth club (age 19) while listening to Kill Memory Crash play live
• being blown away by Par Grindvik live
• melting at the beauty of Scott Pagano’s gorgeous visuals during Speedy J’s live set
• Mathias Kaden live
• John Selway‘s 45 surprise minute fill in DJ set
• The Accelerate After Party with Dan Bell, Zip and Sammy Dee
• Hanging out with Bruno Pronsato making bad jokes
  
• Dethlab’s amazing acid warehouse party:
  Too Far Gone… presented by Dethlab with Adult, Perspects, Dethlab, Cowboy Mark (tagteam DJ set), Motor (DJ set)
  No Way Back presented by Interdimensional Transmissions
  Derek Plaslaiko, Mike Servito, BMG of Ectomorph, Patrick Russell, Carlos Souffront
• meeting G.O.D. at the acid party
• Finally eating at Slow’s BBQ and not bing disappointed.
• And it was a true highlight to finally not stay at a crappy hotel.

My friend Andy wrote an excellent article on his experiences at Detroit based on the music and architecture: http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/detroit_electronic_music_festival

Random photos (not a faithful documentation of the weekend) by Seze

Detroit patches pants dude.

Kate Simko performing an excellent set

We may be getting older but we are still having fun!

My super stylish buddies Bethany & Doyle of Dethlab hosted the best party
of the weekend “Too Far Gone… No Way Back” at their warehouse studio space.

Phases of the moon wall at Slows BBQ outdoor seating area

Last Friday The Bunker presented a Raster-Noton label showcase. Carsten, Frank, and Olaf performed separately, with their own accompanying projected images, and then together as Signal. Their visual and audio work has been a huge influence on me for over a decade and I was super excited to see them live. They exceeded my expectations and did not disappoint. Here are some of my favorite photos I took from the event:

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

photo by Seze Devres

Full gallery at The Bunker Site

Friday May 16 Beyond Booking Presents
Raster-Noton Showcase:
Signal (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Frank Bretschneider aka Komet (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
Olaf Bender aka Byetone (Raster-Noton | Berlin) live pa
with opening a/v set from:
Morgan Packard & Joshue Ott (Anticipate, Microcosm | NYC)

Bryan’s Press Release for his night:
We don’t think it is an understatement to say that Raster-Noton is one of the most important record labels in the world. Formed when Carsten Nikolai’s “noton.archiv für ton und nichtton” record label merged with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender’s Raster Music label in 2000, it quickly gained international acclaim with the ARS Electronica award winning “20′ to 2000” series of 12 cds released monthly in 1999, featuring 20 minute sound pieces from electronic music heavyweights like Wolfgang Voigt, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, and Thomas Brinkmann alongside the core R-N artists. They have gone on to release many dozens of amazing projects since then, building a core group of fans who pretty much buy everything they put out. The sound of the label is decidedly minimal, composed of micro-elements, glitches, bleeps, static, and electronic interference sounds. Their sound is extremely different than most of the music which has been called “minimal techno” (pretty much a completely meaningless term at this point) in the past 5 years or so. It is deep and experimental, but not without humor and funk.

We have been wanting to present a Raster-Noton label night at The Bunker ever since we saw the same line-up we have for this show in Mutek back in 2004, which completely floored us. For various reasons, we were never able to connect with the label and pull it off on their visits to the USA. Then, back in October, we were at a small Raster-Noton show for Bender and Kangding Ray and Bunker photographer Seze found a cell phone on the floor. She got a panicked call on the phone from the German guy who lost the phone and told him to come back to the venue and get it. He was extremely grateful and bought us a few drinks and started talking to us. He was in town for his opening at Pace Wildenstein Gallery (this is a blue chip gallery for those of you not familiar with the visual art world). We were in disbelief when we put 2 and 2 together and realized the cell phone guy was Carsten Nikolai, and quickly invited him and the rest of the crew to the Thomas Fehlmann show at The Bunker that week. Well, he showed up and had a great time, agreed to come back for a Raster-Noton showcase, and everything fell into place.