Last weekend, electronic music talent from around the world all converged on the city of Seattle for the 5th year of the Decibel Festival. Featuring music from all ends of the electronic spectrum; from Ambient to Techno, IDM to Dubstep, Downtempo to House, and everything in between; the city came alive with beats from every which direction. We arrived to Volunteer Park in Seattle early Saturday afternoon for the festival's first ever dB in The Park event, a free outdoor event featuring music from Jacob London, Truckasaurus, and LA's Glitch Mob. We arrived at the end of London's set, and as we settled in, began to hear the chiptune anthems of Seattle's Truckasaurus. Clad with gold-plated Nintendo cartridge bling, the trio played an awesome set incorporating their 8-bit sound into tracks ranging from hip hop to downtempo.



Next up on the stage on an unprecedented sunny afternoon in Seattle was the Glitch Mob. Bringing their brand of glitch-hop and hyphy music, they brought the most energy felt in the park all day with their remix of Matty G's dubstep tune 'West Coast Rocks' complete with classic west coast hip hop vocals overlaying the beats. They also dropped a big albeit shallow remix of Lil Wayne's hit 'Lollipop' which also got the crowd moving their feet.



After their set, it was time to get ready for the evening's festivities which entailed the Ghostly International showcase at the Baltic Room Saturday Night. As the line to get in stretched long around the block, Deru hopped onstage and played some of the more upbeat sounding tracks on the night. After Deru, it was Tycho's turn as he debuted his first Audio/Visual set to the eager crowd. Beautiful blended and layered imagery as well as kaleidoscopic patterns were a perfect backdrop for Tycho's sound. Next up on the bill was another hometown favorite, Lusine; who's set spanned much more territory than strictly downtempo. Complete with analog visuals being manned from the back of the club with film reels and a dual projector, Lusine brought the house down and had the crowd aching for more long after his set was finished.

Sunday night provided the finale showcase for Decibel 2008 at Neumo's. On the bill were Fax (MEX), Flying Lotus (US), The Bug (UK) and Supermayer (DE). We arrived at the start of Flying Lotus' set and immediately you could feel his excitement performing spreading throughout the nearly sold out crowd. Putting his signature glitch stop-start touch and Michael Jordan-esque tongue hanging, FlyLo played one of the best sets I heard all weekend; the highlight being his blend of Rustie's 'Spliff Dub' remix seemlessly into Kode9's epic '9 Samurai.'



Next up was a set from the UK's The Bug. The Bug started his set off solo, dropping familiar dubstep tunes including one of the big single's off of London Zoo 'Skeng', Distance's 'Victim Support', as well as Dizzee Rascal's classic 'I Love You.' After about 20 minutes solo, The Bug was then joined by one of my personal favorite MCs the ineffable Warrior Queen. The energy level noticably kicked up once Warrior Queen hit the stage rapping over her London Zoo cuts including 'Poison Dart' and 'Angry' taking over the vocals of Tippa Irie on the latter. She also treated us to a solo track of hers entitled 'Things Change' released on Soul Jazz and produced by The Heatwave.



There could be no more appropriate a closer to the Finale of decibel than the tag-team set of Kompakt's Michael Mayer and Superpitcher. Playing the most dance-friendly set I witnessed at Decibel, Supermayer tore up the Neumo's floor until the lights were forcibly turned on to end the show. A highlight of their set was their intricate reworking of DJ Mujava's African ghetto-house banger 'Township Funk.'



All around an amazing weekend that made me proud to be a resident of the PacNW. Out to the Decibel crew that made this event happen and here's to next year being even bigger and badder.

rahspect!

for more pictures and video from Decibel 2008 check out the Flickr Group.