News: Counterpoint Releases Diverse 2015 Lineup
–Written by Kevin Madert
Summer festival lineup announcement season (SFLAS?) is in full swing, and today MCP Presents-run Counterpoint jumped into the conversation with a big ol’ splash. The festival – now in its third year and slated to take place May 22-24 in Kingston Downs, Georgia – has always managed to strike a decent balance between a DJ-driven lineup and a band-based one. This year, they may have concocted the perfect storm.
The lineup is populated from top to bottom by live acts like Widespread Panic, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and Papadosio, with DJs big (Zedd, Dillon Francis) and slightly less big (Cherub, Gorgon City) filling out the bill. As if to highlight the festival’s marriage of the two, there are a smattering of live electronic acts like the trip-hoppy Emancipator Ensemble and South African swing-house duo Goldfish. Bonus points: the “Summer Vibes Stage,” – Tipper and Ott alone are enough to get me on board and headed to the South come Memorial Day. Check out the full lineup below, and head to the Counterpoint website for tickets and all other pertinent information.
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Frequencies of 2014: Chill
–Words and list by Kevin Madert
End of year “best-of” lists are a funny thing. First off, they’re entirely subjective – unless you rank based upon sales, which we all know is often the least relevant factor when considering a work’s merits. Second, they’re often far too ambitious and broad in scope. “The 50 Best Songs of The Year” looks good on the top of Rolling Stone‘s website, but what the fuck does that actually mean? The editors and content compilers didn’t listen to every single release from January 1 to December 31, and even if they had there’s no way they could sort through the sheer volume of material and pick the definitive top 50. (Side note: Rolling Stone‘s #2 song of the year was “Turn Down For What,” so their grasp on the definition of the word “best” is questionable.)
In my mind, a “best-of” list should mutually benefit the writer and the reader. Rather than futilely attempt to decide which songs or albums or artists were the indisputable winners, these lists should be cross-sections of the year in their respective musical spheres. I’m not here to be the pompous judge over some imagined contest that you signed yourself into appearing in solely by releasing music in the last calendar year. I’m just here – as always – to share the music I enjoyed too much to not talk about with anyone who’d like to hear it.
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Quick Six: The Best of Glitch-Hop 2014
–Written by Kevin Madert
I know we’re only a little over halfway through 2014, but the amount of quality music that’s already been released is – to quote a close friend – “fucking bonkers.” It’d be a hell of a task to catalog it all for you at once, so I’ll break it down into loose genre categories, starting here today with music under the broken beat umbrella.
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