[Festival Review] Outside Lands IX : Revisiting the Most Memorable Acts of the Weekend

OSL7In continuing to build on the foundation laid nine years ago, Another Planet Entertainment has once again outdone themselves; the final product being yet another successfully executed Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. The 2016 version – keen on replicating the successes of previous iterations – was calculated in its approach, careful not to break the trends and quirks that have made it such a mainstay to the community.

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Instead, APE kept what has worked and improved upon it; meaning deeper lineups, aesthetically more impressive sound and lighting productions, finally allowing payment via RFID-enabled festival wristbands, and a fair amount of side stages to keep all wandering pseudo-bohemians well occupied. Unfortunately, along with the quality improvements also came a pretty substantial price adjustment – putting on a nationally recognized festival is big business, after all.

Those willing to stomach the uptick were treated to an especially diverse lineup ranging from saxophone playing acts like Kamasi Washington and GRiZ, nostalgia-inducing pop rock outfit Third Eye Blind, platinum (and featureless) hip hop artist J.Cole, EDM prodigy Zedd, the Jack-of-all-trades Garratt, and rags to riches rapper Anderson .Paak.

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[Synth Pop] Grimes – Kill V. Maim

Grimes
Kill V. Maim

Canadian singer, songwriter, producer, music video director, and record producer Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, has been working on her latest release for quite a while. Anyone who follows Grimes knows that she’s been influenced and motivated by quintessential pop for most of her career, citing people like Mariah as her major inspirations. While her previous releases have been primarily infused with her insidiously experimental electronic flare, her latest album release Art Angels finally epitomizes the pop product she’s been working towards, and she absolutely nailed the aesthetic in her track “Kill V. Maim.”

This song packs the kind of punch that belongs in the official soundtrack to a fierce cheerleader’s escapades taking out crime while defying any and all gender stereotypes—a theme that Grimes touches on in many of her interviews and songs. Complete with word-spelling and hi-yahs, “Kill V. Maim” has a powerful beat and lyric structure that’ll make anyone want to take on the world, and has convinced us that that is exactly Grimes’s plan. Seriously, this girl can do anything.

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[Chill] Four Tet & Grimes – Human Once Again

Four Tet x Grimes
Human Once Again

As a way to celebrate 100K followers, experimental producer Four Tet has sneakily let loose a slew of free remixes and original tracks via his Twitter. Among the fifteen previously unreleased tracks, this downright heavenly reimagination of Grimes’s “Skin” may be our favorite. The ethereally haunting vocals of Grimes, the latest addition to Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation, meld perfectly with Four Tet’s production style and make for a trance-enducing feel. Grab a free download here.  Hit the break to get a full list, with download links, of all fifteen recent releases [via In the Mix]. Continue reading

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[HOT] Grimes – Skin (Four Tet Remix) (Unofficial)

Four Tet recently did a set for RinseFM, including this little gem in the mix. It was ripped and once it surfaced on the internet, folks left and right quickly dubbed it a remix of a Grimes track called “Skin,” despite any official confirmation. Four Tet himself posted it on his Facebook, but with a mysterious (?), furthering the speculation. Finally, however, he took to Twitter to announce that, in fact,

“It’s just some track I made the other day using a loop from her record…no remix going on or anything.”

A lot of buzz for nothing, you ask? Well, even if it isn’t a “real, official” remix, it’s still pretty damn fun to listen to. Check it out below:

’Grimes – Skin (Four Tet Remix) (Live Set Rip)’
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