Livestreaming During the COVID-19 Crisis: Electronic Music Reviews From Isolation #4
Words by Hollie McGowan
Virtual raves ‘r us! It's been so long now that we have been unanimously congregating online to take part in these livestreaming parties, it's hard to recall what real gatherings in person are even like at this point. As platforms online become the regular mode of socialization, the idea of an event that does not follow social distance measures sounds just as strange as a trip to the moon. Below is a review of this past week’s live electronic music events through the screen, where normalcy now resides.
Kicking things off on Wednesday, April 13th at approximately 2:00pm PST in the afternoon, local Vancouver DJ, DJ Soo, began his weekly “Quarantine Sessions” via twitch in place of Vancouver’s bi-weekly bass music event, Nautilus. For this installment he brought on board Socool who opened with classic 90s techno track, Born Slippy by Underworld. The remainder of the set provided regulars of Nautilus a chance to experience that heavy bass much needed while living in quarantine. The torch was then handed over to DJ Soo who turned the bpms up a notch with a smorgasbord of house, garage, breaks and general funkiness for the dancefloor peppered with a little scratching here and there.
Later in the evening over in Calgary, DJs Esette, Deus, and Theo Hanson began their Humpday House party, social distance edition. For over six hours the crew played a hefty sum of house intermittent with necessary shots by the crew to keep the vibes alive.
By Thursday April 14th, Bristol based DJ and producer, Om Unit, popped up on Instagram, playing around with his instruments in his studio to make some acid techno. At around 6:00pm PST, Twenty Twenty Global began their third episode via youtube for the pandemic. Opening the evening was Hyroglifics who played a chill downtempo set amidst green swirling imagery provided by allthesixes666. Next up was Jon Casey who kept things going with some glitchy goodness followed by Great Dane who added more heavy bass to the evening while Savvy Lo provided the visuals.
By about 6:30pm PST, local DJ, Woodhead showed up online for another edition of Livestream From the Quarantine, a pandemic regular event curated by the Keefer Bar. For the next few hours, Woodhead led his listeners on a lively house music dance party session entitled House Plants Vol 3.
Friday April the 15th witnessed a virtual bass music party for the masses from Wake the Town streaming out of Portland. On the line-up for the evening were familiar faces such as Danny Corn, Barisone, and PRSN, each serving up pure booty shakin’ bliss for their listeners’ ears. A zoom party also took place for those joining in on the virtual dance party.
In another virtual parallel universe, North American female d ‘n b/jungle collective, DnB Girls, were enlisted to play via livestream to raise funds for The Legacy Children’s Foundation. Beginning at 9pm PST, DJs Mittz, Remedy, Jams, Iris, and J.F. Killah played straight through till 2am for all the late night junglists and d ‘n b affectionados while Wolfgang Kanvas supplied the futuristic visuals.
By Saturday April the 16th, the global dancefloor was ready and at it again. In the early evening, West Coast based DJ, Rich Nines, showed up online for his weekly radio show hosted out of downtown Vancouver to play a selection of his favorite 90s jungle tracks. Although a regular on the airwaves before the pandemic, this time he included a live video and joined in on the global lockdown.
At approximately 6pm PST, local Vancouver based production company, Leave Us Lost, hosted their second pandemic livestream which also happened to fall on the annual celebration of Derrick Vnuk’s birth, one of the founders of LUL. For two hours, he proceeded to lead the virtual party on a down tempo ambient set before handing the reins over to Abasi who kept things going with some uplifting four to the floor rhythms. Selecting records from a giant wall of vinyl behind him, Abasi led his listeners on a trip through the soulful sounds of deep house for the remainder of the event.
Over at the Red Room in downtown Vancouver at around 8:00pm PST, SUBculture was hosting its now regular pandemic Saturday social distance sessions. For their fifth livestream during the pandemic, the Digital Motions crew called upon TAPPA, Spin Kringle, Tank Gyal, D’cure, and Whisper with a rewind set from Goozebumpz to open. With such a diverse group of DJs, the music for the evening ran the gamut of electronic music genres from glitch to dancehall to grime.
Simultaneously over on the Mad Decent Live twitch channel streaming out of L.A., Diplo was having a little B2B session with Dillon Francis. Sitting in front of a green screen and turntables, the two raved deep into the night, giving shout outs to quarantine compadres around the globe. Over at Truth’s Deep, Dark, and Dangerous: Quarantine Sessions, Truth and friends took listeners for another journey down into the depths of dubstep and beyond.
Broadcasting live from the Sunshine Coast at around 9pm PST, West Coast DJ, Mandai, played her set originally scheduled to be played the previous weekend. Throwing down a plethora of bass music, Mandai held it together within her quarters for those eager to hear what she had in store from last Saturday’s virtual shenanigans.
For those just simply not able to get enough d ‘n b for their quarantine life, Formula Radio of wheel fm was having their own little livestream beginning at 10pm PST and going till the wee hours. On the roster for the evening was Levrige, one half being J.F. Killah who had played the night before as well, Rhythmicon, Kilbourne, and Craylic.
By Sunday April 19th well-known West Coast Canadian Burners, the Boobs & Berries Yacht Cooperative, had set sail with their online Rave-B-Que on twitch. Providing a line-up stacked with DJs, virtual contests, and BBQ fun, attendees of the social distance event were plentiful and ready for action. While local selectors, Boat Daddy, REVI, Ingrid Hakanson, and Instant Love played, people flocked to the zoom party, all dolled up and dancing up a storm.
Monday April 20th, every proud marijiuana smokers favorite day, brought more good tunes and vibes to pass the quarantine time away. From his humble abode, Toronto based DJ and producer, Sergio SP played a little techno for his audience via exfmlive.
Beginning at 3pm and going till 11pm PST, Westwood Recordings, Shambhala Music Festival, and Your EDM gathered forces for their 420 livestream. At a time when folks would typically come together under a massive cloud of pot smoke to wander the streets while promoting the herb, a virtual dance party was just going to have to suffice. Judging by the chat room, it certainly did. The line-up was definitely Shambhala worthy with classic Salmo Ranch characters such as A.Skillz, Skratch Bastid, The Funk Hunters, Stickybuds, Defunk, SkiiTour, and Mat The Alien.
It truly has been an incredible whirlwind of virtual shows and parties over the past month and a half. In addition to all of the frontline workers, we certainly owe much of our sanity to these heroes of the 2020 global pandemic livestream. Eventually, the waters of this virus storm will subside, and we will resume our regular lives that we once shared on the dancefloor. Till then, stay healthy, stay safe, stay strong, and just keep living your best quarantine life.