Electric Forest is nearly upon us, only two weeks away. Is it too late for a preview? Nah, brah. It’s the perfect time to share what I’m looking forward to experiencing with this year’s iteration. Top-notch music and presentations upon incredible stage designs. Art displays and artistry guaranteed to impress and inspire my mind. Vendors with unique one-of-a-kind trinkets and gifts to find. Stellar creativity influencing hand made rave totems and signs. Delectable tastes in fashion and food. Incredible encounters with wonderful human beings guaranteed to put me in a good mood. Water slides that this dude abides. Secret sets and secret locations. You’re bound to discover performers of a multitude of vocations. There’s so much more beyond that to explore. Soon the forest will welcome us brimming electric, encouraging forth a community ever so eccentric.
Let’s start with the music I’m most excited for. The lineup consists of over 110 artists, and some are combining talents in special and unique back-to-backs and performances. With the way Electric Forest unfolds, secret sets and renegades (more on that later), that number will likely balloon higher. How many, you ask? Listen pal, I might know a couple of things, but I can’t be busting out a digital to solve for X right now. Besides, I’ll speak on him shortly. I was just outside planting my garden in the darkness of a deluging thunderstorm. Energizing. Good idea or bad idea? Here’s a great one: planks at Dimension.
If there’s one genre I love listening to while I work out, it’s drum and bass, and Dimension is a constant on my playlist. ‘Generator’, ‘Techno’, his ‘Rhyme Dust’ remix, ‘DJ Turn It Up’, and ‘Don’t Sleep’ are a few of my favorites from his stellar catalog. Staying within the DnB genre, there’s Chase and Status, Londoners like Dimension. Nice. Looking forward to also checking them out. Aaaaaaaand that’s it for DnB. We get two. Fine, be that way, EF. I’ll take a walk, a quick lap, if I don’t like it. The Forest is beautiful, it often provides, and I’m pretty sure I’ll find some other acts suiting my tastes along my trek. Word is Chase and Status does some dubstep as well, so let’s talk about some of the other heavy hitters I’m hyped for.
Excision has been prominent in my library since my entrance into the electronic music genre. Back in those days, Pandora is how I found a lot of new music and artists, and I came to love me some X. He’s easily considered an OG dubstep DJ and producer, and his Shambhala mixes are legendary. Though his sound has transformed much between then and now, rest assured I’ll be present for his Sunday performance with as many homies as I can assemble. You’ve probably guessed it, but I’m a Fucking Headbanger. Joyously, I’ve got a Scummy Bears cloak I haven’t worn nearly enough in recent memory. Once I don it, I transform into a planeswalking warlord bear. It’s a sight to see, as if I’m emerging from an alternate dimension with pacifistic intention, completely prepared to stand against waves of defilesome and marauding Oni in defense of my realm and strongholds. My forces shall not waver nor break.
You best believe I’m catching some of String Cheese. It’s respect, brother, to be a part of the incident. Furthermore, Subtronics and LSZEE (LSDream + Clozee) will vie for my attention Saturday night. Friday, it’s Black Tiger Sex Machine. Possibly some Pretty Lights too, but my priority is to head to church, without a doubt. This one’s for the Pleasant tribe, Clint and Connie turned me on to BTSM, and the rest of my Lost Lands fam whom I dearly adore since joining ourselves to each other starting in 2017.
Thursday pre-party, I’m rolling into Everything Always, John Summit and Dom Dolla back-to-back, baby! Give me all of that, son! Additionally, I’d really love to see John Summit and Subtronics perform their JohnTronics project on one of the renegades. Hopefully. Fingers crossed, I’m saying a prayer and trying to manifest some cool stuff for us all to enjoy this Forest. We’ll see what shakes out. Anyway, that’s my list of headliners who have priority. Would love to see Charlotte De Witte and Gigantic Nghtmre on Sunday, as well, so I’m going to have to live vicariously through some fellow planeswalkers and warriors. Decisions, decisions, decisions, and none of them bad.
What else? Let me run off a list of roughly twenty-five other artists I’m keen to see, with a quick explanation of what genres or style of music I think each indicates. LP Giobbi might be the most intriguing from the undercard, as she performs piano house music. Beautiful, and classically trained. Boogie T hails from Louisiana, I love his samples, and he rocks riddim and dubstep. I didn’t get enough of him when he played Chicago’s Sound Bar. Yo, Bartender! I’m gonna need another round, and maybe an ‘Encore’ or two.
Mau P rocks house and techno, while Vini Vici specializes in psytrance. Frisky, you down? Whyte Fang, Allison Wonderland’s creative alter ego, is an audiovisual experience that takes months of hard work and preparation. Some of what I’ve read is pretty wild, and I’d love to see her perform, although if I understand correctly, the only time we will is when her reactive outfit illuminates with blacklight.
I caught Caspa at Solar Tide (he’s friendly), his dubstep is way good, and I’m ready to do it again. Dirtwire plays swamptronica experimental music? You had me at swamp, do you think I’ll see Boogie T, there? Bro, I just like seeing, and saying, Boogie T. Dixon’s Violin is a former symphony violinist who spawned his own genre and playstyle by way of utilizing his classical training alongside an innovative system of looping. Dope.
Dumpstaphunk is a funk and rock music band. Equanimous means possessing or displaying evenness of mind, especially under stress. Yea, it’s an actual word, and he plays downtempo, bass, and house. H&RRY is spelled with an ampersand. Golly gee, kids these days are creative, I became curious at and. Ivy Lab plays dubstep, and I much enjoyed their performance at last year’s Rezz Rocks. Odd Mob + Omnom is fun to say, and together they are presenting Hyperbeam. I bet it’s fun to watch and listen to, too. Ranger Trucco might be the coolest name here, besides Barclay Crenshaw. Ranger’s Truccoing, brah. He’s a producer and vocalist of German descent.
Rayben plays bass house and trap, and my namesake makes up half her performer’s title. Redrum connotates to me horror vibes, she’ll survive a terrible sequence and thrive in the aftermath, and takes her influence from the Shining. REDRUM REDRUM!!! Super Future is a multi-genre artist straight out of Grand Rapids. Support the local community as I’ve largely found Michiganders to be polite and considerate folk. Continuing along, I associate Thought Process with the Tipper school of production, but he’s more than that, so let’s call his influences breakbeats, hip-hop, and high fidelity sounds for this exercise. High Fidelity is a great movie, by the way.
ACRAZE blends rap and hip-hop with house music. Atliens produces extraterrestrial dubstep. Gjones plays whatever he wants, and could at any point in time decide atonal is his next move. Keep e’m guessing. Green Velvet is a legendary house producer whose vibe is cool and collected. Speaking of legends, and there are a lot of them on this lineup, Barclay Crenshaw‘s cool self will be on site. He’s doing a brand-new thing, representing influences and sources he’s long loved and respected. He just confided through his newsletter that he rapped over one of his tracks for the first time, and I’m excited to hear the result. As well, I know many folks are hungry and wishing Claude Von Stroke will also make an appearance alongside Green Velvet forming their legendary duoship, Get Real. Hopes and prayers, homies.
Tripp St. synthesizes dubstep and wears a mask because he’s an anti-movement artist. What a handsome mad lad. Detroit’s Movement should book him, next year. I think he’d be a great fit. VNSSA back-to-back Nala will be frought with house and techno tunes. Will Clarke also produces techno tracks in addition to delicatessant trip-hop. Zen Selekta is on a mission to unify humanity by funneling sacred frequencies through dark dubstep wavelengths intent on healing and inspiring. Mystic and sagely, I support her undertakings.
Besides the music, Electric Forest features a bevy of entertaining attractions to boot. For me, water slides are a necessity. One of my favorite electric forest traditions is riding water slides and hollering pop culture lingo as I hit drops, twists, and turns. “Geronimo, Thundercats, Ho! G-I-JOE, HE’S AN AMERICAN HERO!” You’ll love my hydro saturated vibe, my routine is oftentimes contagious and makes one feel alive. Here’s a video of me riding the Back 40 outdoor water slide as well some footage from the Double JJ Resort waterpark from my YouTube channel.
My homies at Cerebral Concepts will be on location, contributing to a superior atmosphere through their character, personality, and offering up superb arrays of custom shapes and engraved goods. I know you like shapes, they’re super cool, and I’ll be spending some time in and around their booth. Come through if you’re looking for a sweet memento to commemorate this year’s forest besides an official t-shirt or poster. Beyond that, there will be scores of additional artisan and vendor shops selling their wares. Spend some time searching the Forest, and you’ll find exactly what your heart desires.
As a matter of fact, escapades through the Forest have yielded some incredible revelations for myself. In 2017, I happened to cross paths with the yellow umbrella society where they shared with me a message that has stuck with me ever since. When darkness and uncertainty surrounds, I’m reminded of that slip of paper that passed into my hands. Want to know what it said? Find me, mention these passages, and I’ll share with you the yellow umbrella society’s wisdom.
Beyond actors and actresses aplenty who appear as umbrella carrying wisemen, woodland elves, spirits, sprites, fae, friendly creatures and curious insects, and even aliens make an appearance. There are performers and performances for unearthing. A pipe organ awaits amidst the Forest encouraging creative souls to touch its keys. Many of us attendees harbor our own talents, and throughout the forest are platforms and podiums for utilization in creating magical moments symbolic of our own techniques. In many ways, that is what the spirit of Electric Forest represents. A talented community assembled to celebrate through the gifts we’ve all been imbued. No matter what professions and walks of life we endure, delivery drivers through to doctors, we gather to share our love and compassion, and get up to some fun and shenanigans. Dido and victory, mechwarriors.
I haven’t even talked about the fantastic art displays you’ll find throughout Electric Forest, but those are meant to be discovered on your own time. I will contribute this foreshadowing. I’ll be working closely with Swaggy G, a woman of many talents, an excellent photographer and purveyor of fine soaps. She’ll keep you clean and smelling like the Garden of Eden. We’ll be capturing aspects of the artistry prevalent throughout Electric Forest for a spectacular collaboration between hers and my own visions. Locations like the Honeycomb, Chapel, Library, and many more will be detailed through Swaggy G’s photographic lenses and my descriptive lexicon. It’s one of the things about this Electric Forest I’m most excited about. Collaboration between professionals is the highest order of respect, that’s why DJ and producer back-to-backs are so enthralling (more on that in a moment).
Furthermore, it’s recently been confirmed that Chaya Av will feature her talents as a live painter, returning her to Electric Forest after a seven year hiatus, and her first as artist, painter, and performer. She’s joining a provocative roster of other visual visionaries who will be working on their creations in real time. I enjoy witnessing creative manifestation unfold. I’ll be looking for her, and other creatives as well, in hopes of collecting some commentary concerning their passions, approaches, deameanors, and feelings about art, community, creativity, Electric Forest, and the festival scene as a whole.
Now, it’s time for me to talk about renegade sets and some of the musical madness set to unfold. I’m going to share with you some details from a discourse I recently held with Misha Pavelko, possessor of EVOL Collective, the umbrella covering all things EVOL, Chicago and Afters. There are some really cool things set to happen with his camp, and I’m going to first share with you a little backstory about how EVOL Afters has grown along with Electric Forest.
“My brother is a semi-truck driver, he goes by Yummy Trucker, that’s his Instagram tag. So [one year] my brother is like, ‘I’m gonna buy an RV pass and bring in my truck.’ We put a bet on it that he’ll be the only [semi] at the RV. It turned out that he was the only truck there. It was actually really awesome, because we brought the truck, the guys next door essentially brought over some speakers and we just set up a little renegade just until like 7, 8, 9? I think it was almost like 10am, back in, I think it was 2016. And then, in 2017, things got a little bit more official for us. Like, wait, are we doing this again? My brother was like, ‘I’m bringing the semi’, and I called up my friends, Alex Kislov and Arvi Mala, and I’m like, yo boys, I need some speakers, we need some CDJs, we want to throw a renegade party, and they were like, ‘alright, let’s run it!’ So those are the two guys who have been with us since 2016 & 17 helping us run all of this, and they are our resident DJs for EVOL Afters. They always close out Friday night and Saturday night, from 6am to 7am, so we always end on House music as the sunrise is coming up. Arvi Mala, Alex Kislov, massive shoutout to them. They’ve been with us through thick and thin. They’ve been really big parts of this whole operation. Very thankful for all their help and what they’ve done.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I have been sworn to a kind of secrecy, I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but I can tell you that EVOL Afters is going to feature a bevy of back-to-back performances that will blow your mind. Beyond that, Misha and EVOL Chicago got their start by creating pins followed by apparel and merchandise for the community to enjoy. Check out part 2 of my Summer Camp write-up for more on EVOL Chicago’s backstory. Back to the action, I asked for insight into merchandise that he’d be debuting specific to this years Electric Forest.
“This year, for EVOL Afters, we are going to be releasing a whole collection with Elevate 808. We are going to be releasing a jersey, a shirt, and a hoodie, and then we’re going to be also releasing a collection under Erika Lizette for EVOL Chicago. So we’ll have booths at our renegades, and inside the festival this year, so we’re going to be releasing actually two collections at one time, while we’re out there, which is probably one of the biggest releases we’ve ever done. Just being very excited to collaborate with people, putting it out there, having the opportunity to bring EVOL Afters to another step, to evolve it, allow it to kind of grow. This years artists are about to be insanity, so like, you don’t want to miss it.” I know I won’t, and I’m gonna let the homies know that EVOL Afters is the obvious move for afterparty entertainment. Come on JohnTronics, pretty please!!!
If you didn’t already, you now understand that Electric Forest is one of the most complete and premium festival experiences throughout the country, and the world. Insomniac has been designing and creatively expanding what Electric Forest offers for over a decade. This year’s iteration marks Electric Forest’s eleventh edition, and there are those who have attended each of the past ten events. Electric Forest is an incredible compilation of experiences and performances encouraging adventurers and explorers from near and far to contribute and combine their energies in majestic and magnificient ways. Only two weeks before we return to the woods of Rothbury. If you’re anything like myself, our bodies and minds are already humming with anticipation of reuniting with friends, old and new, on the grounds of Electric Forest.
Oh, and one last thing. Jason Leech, and a whole host of others, just got added to the lineup as part of a phase 3 drop. LET’S GOOOOO!!!
Be well, be successful. Bear Swiftly.
–Electro Scribe–
