Beach Parties! Sunshine! Vibes! FUCK YEAH OUTLOOK.

10 days to go until Outlook Festival 2015 properly kicks off, and we’re stupid excited. It’s the Mecca of soundsystem culture, and it’s been almost 3 years since we last made the pilgrimage.  But we’ve been plotting our return the whole time. Since we can’t start packing quite yet, here’s what we’re really looking forward to the most.

THE SOUNDSYSTEMS!

One of the mid-sized soundsystems at Outlook. Photo by Void Acoustics.

They’re the heart and soul of Outlook, and what really distinguishes it from other music festivals. Every stage has a world class rig that would blow away nearly anything you’ve heard in NYC (except Tsunami Bass, they could hang). Some of the smaller systems there (not pictured above) are roughly equivalent to the main room at Output. No matter where you go there, you’ll be getting that fully submerged, body/mind/soul bass experience.

Boat Parties

Photo by yours truly

Duh. Definitely the best way to see an artist I love. You’re in a super intimate venue with the Adriatic sun and sea as backdrop. Once you leave dock, there’s no turning back (and definitely no swimming ashore!) so the whole crowd is 100% committed. Oh and the boat soundsystems? They don’t skimp. Here’s the full arsenal this year (to be split between 3 boats):

Photo by Electrikal Sound

Catch us on the 20/20 Boat Thursday (Ivy Lab, Fracture, Jon Phonics), Archetype Boat on Friday with Amy Becker, NYC’s own Doctor Jeep (!!!), The Heatwave and Benton, and of course the Deep Medi Boat on Saturday.

The Moat

photo by Polona Kumelj

There’s a lot to be said for the whole castle setting of Outlook, but that’s another post. This is probably my favorite venue in the world. First, it is in fact a moat; a massive trench dug 30+ feet into the earth, reinforced with sloping stone walls. Here’s a clear picture of it in the daytime. But fill it with ravers, a lethal soundsystem and lights, and it becomes an apocalyptic wind tunnel of bass. It’s like something out of a sci fi fever dream.

The Moat is hosting some of the more hardcore-leaning sounds of the festival – Renegade Hardware, Tectonic, Swamp81 and Critical Sound. Personally, we’ll be in there for the Tectonic takeover most of Saturday night.

Rare UK Artists

photo by Dan Medhurst

One of the biggest draws for us as American citizens – finally getting to see all the amazing artists we’ve been listening to but somehow never get to New York! Even better, it’s with a crowd that knows and loves the music.

Fracture

Chimpo!

Skeptical

dBridge

Egoless

The Bug

Full DMZ voltron (Mala, Coki, Pokes and Loe)

Culture Bomb

photo by Zoe Lower

Finally, the thing that’s the most wonderful, but also the hardest to describe about Outlook is getting immersed in sound system culture. Out there, you can traverse the entire hardcore continuum in one night; going from roots dub to dubstep to 2 step to grime to jungle to halftime to hip hop. Hearing sleng teng 100 different ways and the amen break 1000. Finally seeing artists that you’ve only ever heard sampled – like the last time we were there, hearing Max Romeo actually Chasing the Devil to outer space. 

If you’re passionate about this music, then on some level you recognize that it’s part of a something larger – a fabric of history, culture and struggle that is still being created. That can be a tricky thing to articulate, but at Outlook you feel it. And that is truly a beautiful thing. 

PS go see him melt minds tonight at Deep Space – adv tix are just $10 all day or $20 at the door. Just imagine these tunes on Cielo’s Funktion-1s and tell me that’s not worth $10.

Go check out our feature for more info on tonight’s festivities (ticket contest is over btw). Nuff chat, on with the tunes »

free massive warfare gold
free shelter survival tips
free fishing clash tips
free war robots coins
free marvel strike tips
free apex legend coins
free empires puzzles tips
free netflix gift card
free league legend skins
free raid shadow tips

I got familiar with Lakim’s beats via his appearance this past friday alongside Doctor Jeep, DJ Hoodboi and Arnold at Planet Cognac’s show. Following him on soundcloud was a no-brainer, and my good taste was immediately rewarded when he posted this super-funky, stripped down house remix. That organ riff has been stuck in my head for 2 days so I figure I better post it. Even his dj drop is great. You can also grab a free download of this over at bandcamp. Looking forward to hearing a lot more from this guy, and hopefully he’ll be back in NYC soon.

Holy fuck, these new Om Unit tunes! If Bill Laswell was still doing the Oscillations series in 2013, it would sound like this. Raw, hybrid 160 music. I love the way he uses spaciousness within these tracks to highlight the throwback DnB synths, flange effects and all the little percussive flairs. Nobody does it like Om.

Forthcoming Metalheadz.

Just wanna give a massive shout out to the fine folks at Turrbotax and Discovery for bringing out Andrés aka DJ Dez on Saturday. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a DJ that good. 2 tracks in, I realized I was putty in his hands. FLAWLESS mixing, inspired selections, perfect pacing, some exquisitely tasteful scratching, all in the pursuit of a higher groove. And oh boy did we find it. Walked out of there feeling just ELATED.

Anyway, I’ve had these jams on loop pretty much since I got home that night, reliving the glory. You know it was a good show when yr still basking in the glow 2 days later.

Sub Swara have returned! Not that anyone who knows the work of Dave Sharma and Dhruva Ganeson ever thought they left. They were most likely just off the map finding the finest Balinese cymbals, then recording them in an acoustically perfect Wampa ice-cave with custom-built tube pre-amps reverse engineered from martian sound weaponry, and then doing their final mixdowns it in an Ayahuasca ceremony atop  Mount Kilauea. Shit takes time to do right.

But soon, your patience will be rewarded. They’ve announced that they will be releasing 15 brand new tracks, not as an LP, but as a mixtape titled “The Rudiment”, dropping May 1st. Today they’ve given  us a taste with the Amy Winehouse-sampling track “You Don’t Know”. No easy feat, but they’ve matched the Lioness’s passionate vocals with galloping drums and a ferocious tearout synth-line. Cop the free download on soundcloud so you can really savor all that luscious reverb.

Stagga, of the venerable Chrome Kids, has just dropped some ferocious new tracks on his soundcloud. FITTEST OF THE FITTEST is a surefire combo of reverb-thickened reggae, a brilliant wobble and perfect percussive touches. My boo says it sounds like the beach at Outlook Festival and I concur. GRIMBOH is a drunken jammmm on a super-grindy bass sample, continuously re-spun and re-pitched to sloppy drums and etherial samples. Tearout for stoners. And the final track of his recent stuff (a collab with Monkey), GLASS BONG, is A hard hitting riddim with heady overtones. Tropical yet grimey. As if Ras G, Pixelord and Dusk n Blackdown hotboxed Dr. Dre’s studio. Hopefully some of these get a proper release, I’d buy em.

Breaking with the typical musicality of content here, because

1 –  This song has a really important message and that’s all too rare and
2- It’s a really excellent update of another song with a really important message.

So this video has been absolutely blowing up, all over my feeds the last day or so – and with good reason! Not only does this tune have some SERIOUS bassweight (only watch @ 720p or above, w\ a decent system), but the video is positively transfixing.  Bigups everyone at Exit Records. Available for purchase 12/19.