The first electronic dance music CD I purchased was Orbital’s “2″ back in 1993. Unlike the industrial music I was listening to at the time, what struck me immediately with Orbital was there were no vocals. The emphasis was entirely on the sound design and composition, which were unlike anything I had ever heard prior. Orbital has always held a special place in my heart both as producers and performers. They were one of the first purely electronic live acts to headline major festivals and tours globally, which pushed the idea of live electronic music performance into the forefront of early rave culture. As Decibel curator, I have taken the stance that live electronic music performance is crucial to the Decibel brand and no performance duo in history is more relevant to me personally than Orbital. It’s worth noting that 2012 celebrates the 20th anniversary of my discovery of Orbital and it is with great pleasure that I announce they will be one of the headliners for the 2012 Decibel Festival.
Neo Soul is a term that has been thrown around since the early 90s. It was used to describe a shift away from the often corny, commercial world of Top 40 R&B and gave dozens of disenchanted songwriters and performers a chance to pay homage the music they grew up listening to. The subject matter was honest and heartfelt and the music possessed an organic quality that was rare in contemporary urban music at the time. Jump ahead 20 years and Neo Soul artists like Adele and John Legend have brought back traditional soul music to young and old alike. However, there’s no other artist in Neo Soul that has had more influence and longevity than Erykah Badu. Not only did she take her cues from some of hip hop’s most important figures, she broke the mold with what it meant to be female African American artist in the United States. Known as The Queen of Neo Soul, she made her own rules, created her own fashion, spoke her mind politically and did so with complete confidence. Constantly re-inventing herself, Erykah has now embraced a technologically-driven musical collective that can only be described as “the sensational reaction created when the synthetic combines with the organic”. Her work with The Cannabinoids marks the next phase of her development both as a composer and performer. Consisting of 9 laptops, 3 turntables, 6 keyboards, 4 drum machines, a Theremin, live projections and over a dozen performers, The Cannabinoids are quite simply the ambitious performance we’ve ever hosted at The Decibel Festival. Like Parliament-Funkadelic for the digital age, The Cannabinoids have given Erykah Badu a new digital platform on which to transform her classic Neo Soul material into a full audio/visual experience.
Orbital will be performing Thursday September 27th at the Paramount Theatre. The Cannabioids feat. Erykah Badu will be performing Friday September 28th at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets for both events go on sale Friday, July 13th at 11AM PST. For more information on these and other 2012 Decibel Festival events, stay tuned to dBFestival.com, Facebook.com/DecibelFestival and Twitter.com/dBFestival (full program coming July 25th).
Below new Artists added in bold. So many great artists!
Orbital UK
The Cannabinoids feat. Erykah Badu US
Kimbra NZ/AU
Carl Craig 69 Live US
Shpongle UK
Fennesz + Jon Wozencroft AT/UK
John Talabot ES
Ariel Pink US
Matthew Dear US
Nina Kraviz RU
Actress UK
Monolake + Tarik Barri DE/NL
Baths US
Dixon DE
Dragonette CA
Robag Wrumhe DE
MartyParty US
Byetone DE
Oxia FR
Starkey US
Emancipator US
Max Cooper UK
Balam Acab US
Roman Flugel DE
Yppah US
Matt Tolfrey UK
Julianna Barwick US
Axel Boman SE
Teengirl Fantasy US
Appleblim UK
Kangding Ray DE
Demdike Stare UK
Kuedo UK
Ripperton CH
The Knocks US
Biosphere NO
k.flay US
Octave One US
xxxy UK
Houses US
Shlohmo US
Deetron CH
Orcas US
bvdub US/CN (wrong country codes on original images)
Nils Frahm DE
Paul Chambers UK
Christina Vantzou BE
DVS1 US
Robert Henke DE
Windy and Carl US
MANIK US
Sylvain Chauveau FR
Cut Hands US
dalot US
Salva US
Baauer US
Devonwho US
Kids & Explosions CA (spelled wrong on original images)
Lusine US
Scott Pagano US
Dave Aju US
lissom US
longwalkshortdock CA
Loscil CA
Dabrye US
EmptySet UK
Maria Minerva EE
The Stepkids US
CFCF CA
Pezzner US
Lulacruza AR / CO
Houses US
MLZ UK
Anenon US
port-royal IT
Terrence Parker US
Anomie Belle US
The Sight Below US
Basic Soul Unit CA
The Great Mundane US
Kiesuke Shingu US
Norman Chung SG
Adam Hummell CA
Natasha Kmeto US
Cyanwave US
Katie Kate US
Gulls US
Brandy Gray US
TracerVisuals US
DJAO US
Zachariah Walker UK
BODYGUARD US
Scott Sunn US
T.J. Davis US
A-Rock CA
Leo Mayberry US
+ MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
About Decibel
In year nine, The Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media is quickly becoming the SXSW of the swelling cultural phenomena that is electronic music. The Seattle based festival expects to hit 30k attendees this year with over 170 artists from 19 different countries, plus 72 educational speakers, making Decibel Festival an oracle for the growth of the entire international electronic music scene. The entire festival takes place over a five day period at over 14 venues in Seattle, Washington.
NOTE FROM THE DECIBEL FESTIVAL CURATOR, SEAN HORTON
As I reflect on the 2012 Decibel Festival line-up, it’s clear to me that our creative scope is continuing to expand along with our audience. I can honestly say that I’ve never been more excited to unveil what I believe to be our most adventurous line-up to date. Before I do so, I’d like to highlight a couple key cultural developments that have brought us to where we are today.
In recent years, electronic dance music or “EDM” has been riding an unprecedented wave of success in North America. Though Decibel has benefited from some of this commercial appeal, the majority of our audience has been supporting electronic music long before it was accepted into mainstream culture. In many ways, it was the lack of acceptance that provided impetus for me to found Decibel in 2003. Though it would’ve been easy for Decibel to jump on the EDM bandwagon, we are once again plunging into the vast well of emerging and underrepresented talent just as we have with hundreds of artists over the years. This was a calculated decision on my part and one that I feel will lead to lasting relationships with both our audience and the artists we support.
Another North American trend I was conscious of this year was that of excessively loud, overproduced sound design. In many ways this sound has bridged the gap between teen-angst and music technology. Though I find it to be a fascinating cultural development, creatively I simply can’t relate to the music and experience as I once did. What I can relate to is the evolution of soul, hip hop, pop, disco and world via contemporary electronic music. The beauty and raw emotion conveyed in so much of the music I’ve been listening to over the past year signals a change. Electronic music is sexy again, much of which I attribute to women playing an even stronger role as electronic music producers, deejays, performers and fans. As I mentioned in my previous correspondence, this is our most diverse line-up both in terms of the amount of countries represented and the amount of female performers (22 countries represented and more than 20% feature female performers). With that, it is my pleasure to announce the 2012 Decibel Festival line-up!
