Rootwire Music and Arts Festival 2011 Top 5 Performances

For the second year running, Ohio-based rock/electronic fusion group, Papadosio, played host to the Rootwire Music and Arts festival, August 4th-7th, 2011 in Logan, Ohio. Rootwire’s second year saw a massive increase in attendance — the festival ground’s beautiful forest was literally brimming with the campsites of attendees. The festival featured extensive art installations as well as live art creation/collaboration, in addition to two stages and a tent of music that lasted from the afternoon of each day into the wee hours of the morning. Concious music, art, and living are the focus of Rootwire, and the festival’s line-up reflected that; centering on inspirational and cerebral musical styles rather than some of the more hardcore genres that have emerged over the past few years.

 

 

These are my top five performances from Rootwire 2011 — the cream of an incredibly talented crop:

1) Govinda

Despite the fact that the entire Rootwire experience amounted to total immersion in a sonic ocean of incredibly positive and inspirational music, one act in particular grabbed my attention as particularly talented and individual; Govinda (Shane Madden). Madden’s extensive classical training and background are evident as he plays globally-influenced violin solos, melodies, and effect-laden fills atop a pulsating foundation of bass-heavy wobbles and internationally-instrumentalized drum breaks.

Govinda took the stage around 10:30 Thursday night in the Tent Stage as the first major act of the weekend to play in the Art Tent. and proceeded to kick off the celebration of concious music and visual art that would continue there, relatively unabated, for the rest of the weekend. Joined on stage by a rotating cast of stunningly-decorated hoopers and light dancers, the tremendous energy on stage immediately generated an audience, drawing the Rootwire crowd to enjoy the cerebral offerings of the festival’s non-musical artistic talent. In this way, I found Govinda’s set to prove inspirational for festival-goers as his music set the tone in many ways for the remainder of Rootwire 2011, setting the focus on artistic expression over mindless hedonism as the goal for the weekend.

Based out of Austin, TX, Govinda is, unfortunately, not an easy act to catch outside of the West Coast or Austin scenes. Fortunately, these days we have the internet. Check out Govinda online at:

http://govindamusic.com/

 http://soundcloud.com/govindamusic

 http://www.facebook.com/govindamusic

 

Check Out Govinda’s Set From Rootwire

 

2) RoeVy

Columbus, OH based DJ/VJ duo, RoeVy, comes in second for the opposite reason that Govinda takes first; they are perhaps the grittiest, most in-your-face and aggressive act I have ever seen. Uniformed in robot/alien garb that calls to mind a pair of possessed Jawas, RoeVy takes the traditional DJ performance a step further by adding a real-time visual (VJ) performace to compliment the skull-splitting hard electronic sounds ripping through the sound system. Demonic images clash with seizure-inducing visualizers, subliminal messages flash onscreen, urging the crowd to party until they physically expire. A festival-goer was overheard to say (in the best way possible), “RoeVy wants me to die.” Another, “I feel nauseous.”

The sound pressure front and center at RoeVy was incredible, at times unbearable, and yet this sonic intensity was absolutely necessary; RoeVy is about overkill, music so hard that lovers of even the “filthiest” of dubstep need to take a step back, so hard that lovers of death metal would have something to latch onto. Once again, the organizers of Rootwire demonstrated their skill at scheduling acts as RoeVy (Friday) presented the opportunity for fans dirty electronic music to get their rocks off in an hour and fifteen minute period, and then return to the soul-enriching sounds that were the focus of the festival.

RoeVy online:

http://www.facebook.com/officialroevy

 http://soundcloud.com/roevy

 

3) Zoogma

Among up-and-coming live-tronic acts, 5-piece Zoogma is carving out a position as leaders of the pack, particularly in terms of live drum and bass/electro breaks. Based out of Memphis by way of Oxford, Mississippi, Zoogma brings the heat in terms of tempo, warping in and out of ~175-180 bpm full and half-time D n’ B for the majority of their sets. I was blown away by the sustained precision and energy of drummer Matt Harris, whose abilities allow for the DJ-esque (via Ableton Live) nature of their performances, practicing prolonged transitions and sudden tempo shifts that keep the crowd locked to their sound. The group is filled out by Preston Boutot (Keyboards), Brock Bowling (Guitar, Production), Justin Hasting (Guitars, Synth), and Ryan Nall (Bass, Synth, Production). To me, Zoogma represents expert execution in terms of combining live use of DJ/Production software with live instrumentation. It is difficult to distinguish where the live musicianship ends and the software begins. Zoogma is a group with tremendous potential, developing a sound that seems to steep STS9′s flavor in a hot cup of Pendulum.

Despite power issues that delayed the beginning of Zoogma’s Rootwire set on Sunday, little energy was lost, as the remaining revelers draped themselves in glowsticks and did justice to the high-energy party music that was presented to them. While the entire Zoogma set was extremely strong, the band had the entire hill bouncing with some dirty south, bass-heavy drumstep that absolutely CRUSHED. It had been over year since my last experience with Zoogma, and within that time I have seen massive improvement in this already talented group.

All of Zoogma’s music, availiable FREE, as well as fall tour dates can be found at: http://www.zoogma.net/  Or on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/zoogmaband?sk=info

 

4) Invisible Allies

Invisible Allies is the collaboarative project of West Coast psychedelic/ambient downtempo producer Bluetech and Philadelphia-based electronic melody wizard, Jamie Watts (KiloWatts). Both members of Invisible Allies are well-established names in the world of progressive, cerebral electronic music, and their collaboration represents an experimental foray into those realms of the genre. Invisible Allies was unlike anything I had ever heard, setting minimalistic, glitchy percussion against pulsating low-end rythmns, while the two seemed to swap leads, finishing each other’s musical phrases seamlessly and creating a sense of growing tension as the music never seemed to draw to a conculsion, rather, the musical ideas contuned to raise new questions and ideas that would then be toyed with, before evolving into something new entirely.

While both Bluetech and KiloWatts’ respective sets were excellent, I found Invisible Allies’ to be the most ground-breaking and unique sounds that I was exposed to all weekend.

 

Invisible Allies On-line:

http://www.invisibleallies.net

 

 

5) Papadosio Live P.A set

I often have trouble enjoying “jam bands” that seem to exist only to improvise, often noodling off into realms of musical weirdness that seem to have no relevance to the existing framework of a “song” that they have created. For the record, I have never considered Papadosio to be one of these bands, having always admired their dedication to preparation and rehearsal that is evident in the band’s live performances. It may come as a surprise, then, that my favorite set that the festival’s organizing band performed was their obviously most improvised.

Guitarist/Ableton Live orchestrator Anthony Thogmartin took the role of DJ in Papadosio’s P.A set performance, mixing not pre-made tracks, but the actual audio that was being created in real time by his band mates. The performance amounted to essentially a Papadosio “remix” session where some of the band’s songs were re-arranged live, giving the audience an intimate look into how Papadosio’s creative process in terms of compostion may occur. While there were instances where it seemed as if the group was falling out of sync or moving in different directions, the majority of the performance was composed of fresh, high-energy ideas that had a profound impact on the crowd. I hope to see more of this side of Papadosio in the future.

Papadosio On-line: http://papadosio.com

Honorable Mention:

6) Eumatik

 

Muncie, Indiana based electronic power trio Eumatik represented Hoosierland in a big way — throwing down an absolutely relentless set late Sunday afternoon. Many festival-goers had already left the grounds, ruefully stuffing tents into minivans and headed to the nearest Bob Evans, but those who remained were treated to a high energy set from Ashton Kleeman (keyboards, synthesizers), Josh Lockwood (Ableton Live), and Derek Shelton (Drums). Check out Eumatik on-line for free downloads of their unique sound; “creepy electronic funk fusion music”:

http://eumatik.com

 

 

 

Check Out Some More Great Moments at Rootwire Music Festival 2011

 

 

 

Bluetech’s Rootwire Performance

 

Pictures from Rootwire