Cover photo by Chatterz Photo
Written by Guest Contributor, Rachel Dobson
With Decadence Salt Lake City rapidly approaching in all its glory, we HAD to feed into the hype and amp everyone up with a handful of our favorite must-see artists. See for yourself and see you there!
CloZee
All the way from Toulouse France, CloZee started making electronic music at the young age of 16 and released her first trip-hop record at 19 which took off thanks to the internet and more specifically SoundCloud. Matching the flow of her trippy, mysterious beats, CloZee has somewhat eluded the front of my conscious mind until she came to my home state but, I believe she has always been with my soul. Her glitch-hop sounds mixed with a deep, organic, instrumental blackwater vibe, takes you on an enchanting and entraping journey which seems to make us humans just acutely more self-aware. Her imagery-meets-fusion creations and sounds is taking the music world to soaring new heights.
Don’t think you can go without more CloZee in your life past Decadence SLC? With more and more of her shows starting to trickle stateside, be sure to catch her wizardry in 2018 at Okeechobee, New Orleans, and Chicago.
Porter Robinson
It is already a widely known fact that Porter Robinson is a nostalgically talented techno genius. Inspired by video games such as Dance Dance Revolution at age 13, he has since released several albums since 2011, and over 17 singles and remixes that have created an indefinite shift in house music all over the world. He even created his own electronica genre called complextro in his earlier producing years for God’s sakes. Now that you have a picture of musical success, let us experience one of his latest alias’ creations, shall we?
Although I’m embarrassed to admit it, I have been listening to Ghost Voices from Porter Robinson’s latest EP Virtual Self since it came out on November 29, 2017 and I HAD NO IDEA it was Porter until I sat down to write this article. My utter excitement to see if he will play this song at Decadence is beyond compare. With so much variety in the sounds of Virtual Self, it goes to show that Porter wanted to make his shift in focus very clear. If you haven’t heard his latest EP you should give your ears permission to absorb an album so raw and divine with a twist of chaotic happy-hardcore spirituality.
Illenium
From the first couple months I started really getting into electronic music back in 2015, Illenium has been an artist that has always stood out to me because countless of his songs took me on an emotional, immersive experience of highs and lows that simultaneously pulled at my heart-strings, while all the while I was jumping around in whatever environment I was in. Talk about a wide chaotic depth of emotions. Some would argue he is a spin-off of Porter Robinson’s style and although that might have had some truth to it, the leaps and bounds his music has accelerated makes the two uncomparable in my eyes.
In a recent interview with Billboard, Illenium talks about how he feels like his warm, organic sound is somewhat influenced from where he currently resides in Denver, Colorado. The cinematic and dramatic dynamic of his latest album Awake shows the emulating development of Illenium’s increasingly unique sound.
Dabin
How I came to know of Dabin was from my friends status on Facebook which said something along the lines of ‘Like my status and I’ll give you a song that I feel represents you’ Morbidly curious what my musical fortune song was, I of course liked it. She gave me the song She Was by Dabin. I was absolutely intrigued by the bouncy waves of sound he creates while maintaining a consistent flowing melody. It meshed so well with what energy I feel my personality emanates, I had to keep looking into his other work. I was not disappointed.
Blossoming from Toronto Canada, Dabin has only been producing electronic music for about 3 years. He has a longer history in blues, indie, and folk music and playing a variety of instruments since he was young. Originally, Dabin wanted to become a lawyer and is even enrolled at a university still as well. But the grasp that music can hold on one’s’ heart was too intense, he wanted to pursue producing and says he has learned more about music in the last couple years then he ever learned about law. Like our beloved San Holo, Dabin likes to create a song on the guitar sometimes before he produces it and hopes to one day play live at his shows. Not to mention, he has appeared on labels such as Monstercat and Dim Mak Recordings. Get excited to be exposed to his texturized sound.
