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Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
Can't Miss It: Thanksgiving Eve
[This is part two of a series of posts on Movement, Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, held Memorial Day weekend. Part one introduced the festival using Seattle events as points of reference.]
As with any good music festival, Movement/DEMF draws the crowds by way of compelling musical acts. Despite the festival organization moving to new hands once again this year, the lineup didn't suffer at all, managing to provide a large degree of variety and exploring new partnerships with the local Detroit scene. Along with the music at the festival (which ran from noon to midnight), there is an abundantly healthy afterparty scene willing to keep people going until the wee hours of the morning.
The festival unofficially started with a series of afterparties the night before opening day. Seattlest ventured out to see Rich Medina (coming to the Baltic Room soon), but it turned out he missed his flight, so SunTzu Sound replaced him. They were followed by sets from Kevin Reynolds and John Arnold, who played a surprising mix of techno and broken beat. Another party was playing harder fare, as Traxx and Tim Baker closed out Seattlest's evening.
The festival itself started slowly in terms of attendance, so the stage where SunTzu played filled out as their set went along. During the day that stage kept with broken beat, which fit the blue skies, but moved into hard techno and even drum and bass as the night wore on. Elsewhere, highlights included the soulful house of Ron Trent and Mike Clark on the main stage, the surprisingly cheese-free sounds of James Holden (who played Element last month), and the minimal stylings of Magda. The evening closed with a propulsive set from Robert Hood, who had the main stage swarming with people dancing.
Day two continued the momentum, with Seattle (by way of L.A.) represented by Donald Glaude. Tortured Soul left the most impact, with their live house/funk/soul music pleasing the masses, providing the sense of unity for which the DEMF is known. Decibel veteran Thomas Fehlmann proved why he's a Seattlest favorite, bobbing along to his Orb set on the main stage (he'll be back at Decibel this year for those that missed it). Josh Wink (who played the Last Supper Club not long ago) played to a packed tent at the Beatport Stage before heading over to the Organic afterparty where Stacey Pullen played to an "off" crowd. An even more packed scene was present at the Underground Stage, where both Photek and the Planet of the Drums Tour played drum and bass despite the incredibly poor acoustics.
The last day started with a great set and kept its momentum despite the record-tying heat. Carl Craig smoothly hurdled genres, pulling the not just the bulk, but initially the entirety of the festival's early arrivals. That stage never lost momentum, with beautiful house sets continuing the rest of the day and into the evening. Derrick Carter played a harder, techno-friendly, yet still accessible house set at the Underground Stage, managing to overcome the sound like others couldn't. Nitzer Ebb came out of hibernation to show why they're so widely revered with an admirable set that brought out the "spooky kids," who spent the earlier parts of the day having their eardrums pummeled with the crazy sounds of Richard Devine, Otto von Shirach, Kill Memory Crash, and Chemlab. Richie Hawtin, who played a Decibel teaser show last year, closed out the festival to a packed Hart Plaza, who left wanting more, but only getting it if they knew the right people to get into the festival closing party where Hawtin played to an intimate crowd in a space no bigger than the Baltic Room.
As with every other year, this year's festival provided a stream of highlights. With the stages as close as they were, there was no reason to miss anything in its entirety, and less reason to stay at something underwhelming. The variety of electronic music on display at the DEMF is something for local festivals to model, showing that providing pleasant surprises is as much a key to success as the more well-known.
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