Too avant-garde or simply not marketed well enough? Johnathan Cilia attends The Sound You Need Festival to find very few Maltese gracing it, despite the illustrious line-up.
With all these big techno and house events happening in Malta, one does wonder if any of the newer, under the radar music styles will ever be represented locally. The Maltese population’s love of the ‘untz untz untz’ may mean that they’ll dance to sounds ranging from Robin Schulz’s summery pop-house to Gesaffelstein’s dark techno. But, if you remove the constant kick drum, the heart of dance music as many know it, a lot of people suddenly realise they don’t know how to catch the rhythm.
It’s kind of like seeing those young metalheads who circle headbang out of sync with the music. They want to dance, but they just can’t get the rhythm. And Malta’s dance music community, on the whole, cannot dance without a repetitive kick drum.
So when I saw the line up to The Sound You Need Festival (TSYN), heading to Malta for the first time this year, I was both over the moon, and apprehensive. Known as curators of only the newest music, releasing compilation albums with only artists you’ve never heard of, and with popular festivals in London, Los Angeles, and Paris, I wondered if TSYN would prove to be too avant-garde for the Maltese.
The three-day festival’s line up covered a laundry list of new genres, from future bass to modern hip hop to trap music, with nary a techno or house DJ in sight.
While the lineup for Friday and Sunday were dedicated to more experimental musicians, most of whom could barely be defined as ‘dance DJs’ it was the Saturday that had me salivating. Not only would Hudson Mohawke be returning for the second time in a year to Malta, but he would be followed by Aussie tastemaker What So Not, and Hawaiian eccentric Mr Carmack.
Known as curators of only the newest music, releasing compilation albums with only artists you’ve never heard of
What So Not was founded as a duo by Flume and Emoh Instead in their native Sydney, but they blew up so fast that Flume ended up leaving to focus on his own (hugely successful) career, with Emoh Instead taking the reigns of the outfit. Characterised by tribal-ish melodic verses and big funky drops - perfectly captured in their hit song Jaguar - I could not believe What So Not was coming to Malta. I doubted if more than 10 people even knew the name on these isles.
If I was surprised at What So Not’s inclusion, then I was floored by Mr Carmack. Mr Carmack is severely under the radar, not releasing any music videos, and naming his hit EP Drugs, and his music shows it. Typified by extremely wonky and jarring leads, all over the place percussion, and hip hop samples a-plenty, I would have been surprised to see him booked in Berlin, let alone Malta. As his Boiler Room set shows, he clearly isn’t one to care about his live audience, focused instead on pushing any sonic boundaries left in 2016.
His track Solutions, a track I myself love dropping in live sets, is so filthy that it would be immediately quarantined if it were ever to head anywhere near Australia, even quicker than Johnny Depp’s dogs.
If 10 Maltese people knew Who So Not, not more than four knew Mr. Carmack. As the date approached, I had some serious concern. There was no local marketing to the Maltese population and, while a few (like, two) Maltese people had expressed their interest in attending, it did not have anything near the hype and brand recognition events like Creamfields or even local events like Sound Salon or G7 had.
As I did not attend the Friday or Sunday, this review will deal only with the Saturday night.
On the Saturday we entered Uno Village, seemingly the go-to place for any large festival in Malta, to catch the end of Sam Gelliarty’s set. The 19 year-old Scotsman has seen his star rise massively over the last couple of years, with his soothing take on future bass hitting home in the UK, and all over Europe. As we entered he was playing Muru Masa’s Lotus Eater (Vandalized Edit), which is always a great track to enter anywhere into.
However, as we entered the stage area, my fears were confirmed – the whole crowd was foreign. The London style was in, and the festa style was out (literally outside - all the Maltese were lined up just out the entrance, waiting to get into a Ziggy party, hosted in another part of Uno Village).
The hype, however, was real, and the young crowd suited the very contemporary artists, but it was a real shame to see barely any Maltese attendees – with some of the hottest and boundary pushing artists from Australia, America, and the UK right on our doorsteps, one would hope more people would care.
Let them eat Ziggy, if that is what they wish. As Sam Gallierty ended to raucous applause, I noticed Mr Carmack a few metres behind me, chilling with the crowd. One fan ran up to him and gave him a bottle of Jim Beam, which he swigged from heartily. It’s always great to see an international artist that is so down-to-earth, especially when you know what a beast of a producer he is.
Hudson Mohawke took to the stage to probably one of the smallest crowds he’s played in a while. Having changed the face of modern music in the last few years, and the youngest DMC champion ever, being able to see him so unexpectedly close was great. The smaller crowd and the stage being so close gave the event an intimate, even Boiler Room-like vibe, very different than when he had played just on a stage just 500m away to thousands of people at this year’s Lost and Found.
And, clearly, he was allowing the intimacy to effect his set. Whereas his Lost and Found set was what I would have expected from him (hip hop, trap, and future bass), I would not have seen this set coming from a mile away. Jumping between hardstyle, soft synths, and melodic dance, it was like HudMo was trying to see how far he could push his musical boundaries before people stopped dancing.
Luckily, the crowd was young and ready to party, and appropriately kept beat, even when he jumped from 120 BPM to 150 BPM.
He didn’t even play a single song from his own illustrious catalogue, save a sick remix of Higher Ground which switched from the recognisable looped reframe into, out of nowhere, happy hardcore. I couldn’t make this up even if I tried.
After HudMo’s eccentric set, I was wondering whether What So Not would stick to a more traditional set, or mix it up as crazily as HudMo did.
He chose to walk the line, mixing some wild remixes into some assured crowd favourites. I was stoked to hear the What So Not remix of Major Lazer’s Get Free, where the soothing, original vocals get intensified with a sudden fat, fuzzy drop.
Epsom’s remix of Kendrick Lamar’s M.A.A.D City brought the hype, as did his own remix of TNGHT’s Acrylics.
The affable Emoh Instead was having fun on stage, but then he did something which you would never see at a techno event. First, he brought in the recognisable intro to What So Not & RL Grime’s Tell Me. As the melody built up, with the vocals soaring and the keys getting faster and faster, everyone prepared for the drop.
And then, he dropped a heavy metal remix of the same track. The recognisable bassline became a double pedal revved up mosh pit generator, with confused faces flailing all over excited faces. Security had to make their way down because two long-haired fans were going way too ham with the barricades, pushing them metres back.
After the metal remix, he dropped into the original Tell Me, and then followed it up with Baauer’s remix of the same track.
Three different versions of Tell Me in the space of three minutes. Thank you for bringing the thunder from down under, What So Not.
Before Mr Carmack came on, we ran outside for a quick breather. As we re-entered, a drunk Maltese man was trying to make his way into the festival. The security stopped him.
“Where do you think you are going?” asked security.“Ziggy, in here” replied the Maltese man, pointing at TSYN.“No, Ziggy’s the other door, down here...hawnhekk għal-p***i,” he replied, summing up Malta’s attitude to this music.
It was a real shame to see barely any Maltese attendees – with some of the hottest and boundary pushing artists from Australia, America, and the UK right on our doorsteps
As he turned to us, realising we were attendees, he gave us a sheepish smile, possibly aware of his own dullness, and waved us through.
I wondered if Mr Carmack could top What So Not’s energy. He slapped me in the face by opening with Kanye West’s Father Stretch My Hands, then upping the ante on What So Not by dropping Kendrick Lamar’s M.A.A.D City again, but this time playing the original and mixing it with not one, but two tracks. That’s four different overall basslines, from just one Kendrick Lamar song, in less than an hour. Cray.
He showed he had his ear to the hip-hop ground by dropping A$AP Ferg’s A New Level, and kept the hype going with RL Grime’s Scylla, all while swigging further shots from his crowdsourced Jim Beam, which was now half empty. He was clearly having a ball up there and, when he ended his set, grabbed the microphone and spent about five minutes thanking the organisers for “bringing this music to places like Malta”.
Unfortunately, while he may have been playing in Malta, he was not playing to the Maltese. Maybe the Maltese are loyal to their own, maybe it was a marketing fail, maybe the price point was too steep, or maybe the Maltese are just very comfortable with one arm raised up and shuffling to the unz unz, but they were clearly too busy with other events to attend TSYN.
While it’s a great thing that these out-of-the-box artists are finally coming to Malta, it would be a real shame if only foreigners get to enjoy them. Maybe the under the radar names, the sheer eclectic-ness of the sets, or the random heavy metal drops put the Maltese off, but with these artists performing to thousands and thousands all over the world, and more and more underground festivals coming to Malta every year, it would suit the Maltese to learn how to shuffle to a different type of beat.