Decibel Weekend is Upon Us!
We're a little burned out. Between the music festivals, block parties, and other great shows that have come through town, it's hard to sustain the usual level of enthusiasm. It'd take something big to get us excited, and thankfully the Decibel Festival is here to stoke our musical fires.
After months of planning, and a series of teaser/benefit shows, the Decibel Festival will be bringing its multimedia extravaganza to various venues around Capitol Hill. In addition to DJs galore, there will also be panel discussions, art installations, and technical clinics. The primary focus however is still on the music.
This year's Decibel, as with last year's inaugural event, is bursting at the seams with good music, both from local and international talent. While not (yet) on the scale of the Mutek, DEMF, and Sonar festivals that it resembles, Decibel has managed to pull together a bill to rival any of those events.
Things kick off Thursday with the pre-opening party at Barca, featuring the eclectic sounds of Rama and Ario, before the chilled sounds of Jeremy Nail, Ramiro, and Suntzu Sound take over for the rest of the night. The Seattle showcase at the new Bad Juju will feature the sounds of various locals, the highlights being local rising stars Porceline and Paul Edwards, who more than held his own last week with Monolake with his live set. The Merck Showcase at Chop Suey is the official festival kickoff, with Portland's Deceptikon rounding out a bill of programmer-meets-crunk styled hip-hop and funk (Seattlest refrains from using the overly pretentious IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) tag.
Friday picks things up a notch, bringing techno with a bit of a harder edge at the Shitkatapult vs. Detroit Underground showcase. The great record collections of Jerry Abstract and Greg Skidmore will get things going along with Detroit's Derek Michael and Kero, with a closing set from Apparat, coming all the way from the current techno capitol of Berlin. LincolnUp will be bringing the same sort of accelerated funk to Barca that Disco D will be bringing to Element (with the Barca show being both part of Decibel and free).
Saturday will require a bit more planning, as the day is filled with clinics and panels at the Broadway Performance hall before the music starts. The Experimental Showcase will feature locals Hakea, who will be dropping some of their new material, along with the fuzzy, static-y sounds of Fennesz and Tim Hecker. Locals will once again rule at Barca and the Bad Juju, with Fourthcity curating the latter along with Portland talent. The Electropop Showcase will be a bit more accessible, with the pretty sounds of Morr Music's Styrofoam and Her Space Holiday (kinda like the Postal Service, minus the market saturation). Neumos will be the primary attraction though, with Akufen quirky techno leanings sure to rock Seattle just as it did Detroit earlier this year.
Sunday closes out the festival with style, with more clinics through the day. The Ambient Showcase will feature the abstract sounds of local Lusine, fresh from the PopKomm Festival in Berlin. The most anticipation at this show goes to Pan American, whose ambient textures will mark the calm before the rest of the evening's storm. Isolee and Tipper will do their part to damage eardrums in the most pleasant way possible at Neumos, and while the em.t/Basskamp Showcase will share that goal at the Bad Juju. The festival will close out with a live installment of KEXP's Expansions at the Baltic Room.
After this festival, Seattlest is going to take a nice long break from shows (a whole day at least). We're sure our feet and ears will thank us for it.
More Info: Decibel Festival Website - Printable Schedule (pdf)
