Pygmalion Music Festival 2009 has made an effort to embrace DJ culture, and that’s most apparent in tonight’s bill at the Highdive. The show starts at 9 p.m., and cover is just $7 for at least four hours of world-class dubstep spinning.
The evening begins with sets from Geist, DJ Belly, and DJ Mertz. You can read an interview with Mertz here. That trio are all capable local DJs in their own right, but what’s really got folks around the Midwest (and beyond) talking is the headliner, DJ Skream, who’s scheduled to hit the decks as the clock strikes midnight.
Skream, an unimposing fellow from Croydon, Great Britain, is considered one of the world’s foremost dubstep DJ’s, even being credited with developing the subgenre’s signature sound. He’s played pretty much any European festival worth mentioning, but this is his first US festival appearance, and his first performance of any kind in the Midwest.
According to Skream’s Wikipedia page:
The 2005 Skream track “Midnight Request Line” has been described as “dubstep’s most recognizable crossover hit”, and has been praised by producers as diverse as grime producer Wiley, and minimal techno producer Ricardo Villalobos. The key change in the chorus, which Wire has described as “an epic change of key and tempo that recall(s) the classicist mannerisms of Derrick May“, has been credited as being a key factor in the evolution of a more melodic sound in the dubstep genre.
He’s recently complained of writer’s block, but he’s still been quite prolific. His latest album, Skreamizm Volume 5, was released in December 2008.
If you’re interested in hearing more about Skream in his own words, here’s an interview with him from the heady days of 2005.
And on that note, we’d like to offer the following to the members of the local electronic-music community:
Peace!