Dublab celebrates its 12-year Anniversary
dub verb \ˈdəb\ – 1: to alter the soundtrack of (an old recording, film, etc)
2: a. music a style of record production associated with reggae, involving the removal or exaggeration of instrumental parts, extensive use of echo, etc b. (as modifier): a dub mix
3: : to trim or remove the comb and wattles of
noun
4: the new sounds added to a film or tape.
lab noun \ˈlab\ – a place equipped for experimental study in a science or for testing and analysis; broadly: a place providing opportunity for experimentation, observation, or practice in a field of study.
dub·lab – a non profit public music internet radio station and live collective of electronic and analog oratory and ocular artists.
12-year – The ripe age for a great fermentation of qualities and flavors.
Dublab 12-year – A celebration of artists, their live experimental history, and their nonprofit outlet to their fan base. A Culmination of modern history in experimentalism and multidisciplinary arts with emphasis in electronics.
Teebs
The Dublab 12-year anniversary went down this year and was held at ATX: Atwater Crossing Arts & Innovation Complex. The event was spread out between three stages in the complex. After entering the venue, you are greeted by really nice people who are trying to give you free things: stickers, cds, and other jazz. I queried whether or not that table of iphone4 cases is up for grabs and to my surprise they were. Naturally one case per person; after receiving a classy free iphone 4 case from one of the sponsors I was into the thick of one of Dublab’s most impressive events.
Feeling slightly flattered and slightly more elated, became saturated immeidately into the world of the 12yr-anniversary for the prestigious Dublab organization. The first stage, the courtyard, is your introduction to whatever absurdities the night may hold. There is an inexorable rotation of DJ’s throughout the entire night, you can always count on this area to have sounds constantly cycling, waiting to reach those passing or stopping by. The schedule is hard to follow because artists off the formal schedule keep chiming in for a bit and spinning records for what seems to be random amounts of time. This stage seems to be the feel-good stage where artists can step out of their immediate styles and play whatever they damn-well please. As a member of the amoebic like audience, you have the same liberty of staying, going or just passing through on your way to another area offered for this event.
Daedelus
Waltzing through the corridors takes you to the next stage, the AT1. This serves as the main event stage and was site for some of the best sets I have seen in a long time. The room was enormous as was the size of the stage set up. In the far back were tables, chairs and, naturally, a bar. An adjoining wall was adorned with couches for the less vivacious and the more exhausted patrons present that evening. With the amount of stimulation occurring, exhaustion was inevitable by ends night.
Jaunting further down the rabbit hole brought me outdoors where, initially, I was greeted by the Hit+Run t-shirt screen-printing station (for those less familiar with the scene you can choose your logos and print your own shirt.) Jumping off the low ledge upon which Hit+Run was perched brings you to LA’s infamous taco trucks. Five to be general, and no tacos to be precise; these trucks wafted your parched mind and stomach with delicious aromas that either made you full and happy, desirous and empty, or damning yourself for eating before you came.
Again you traverse the electronic circus grounds and jump over an even smaller wall, skip through the parking lot, enter the glass door -making sure to keep quiet, in accordance with the sign, as not to disrupt the angry seeming Shakespearean actors troop- and flow effortlessly into the final effort of the Dublab spectacle. This is where you find yourself in perpetual motion falling down the rabbit hole. This is…The Goldilocks room. There are no words that can do such a place justice, especially with a bias to one trivial opinion or another. The room is a gritty warehouse with large opaque-glass windows –which were hit with pretty and vibrant orange spills of light from outside with visuals encompassing all interior walls. This is of course the visual installment/experiment and a staple of the modern electronic beat scene. The 60′s psychedelic scene isn’t so far away from what was going down here and the visual presentation had a lot to do with this connection. There were projectors on numerous walls, a dj in the front, and a man generating analog visual occurrences on a large projector in the front of the room.
Take and Gaslamp Killer
The performers, dj’s and producers of the evening served the night well, placing an emphasis on the constantly shifting pulse of modern electronic music and particularly th0se who have been associated with Dublab’s rich legacy for these past 12 frutful years of their existence. Teebs, The Gaslamp Killer, Daedelus and Take aka Sweatson Klank brought the crowd to a very comfortable and relaxed mood by the end of the night. All of the main performers blended a very unique type of energy in their sets that was unlike any others from their colleagues. Collectively speaking, the selection of these artists really made this a special evening to be a part of and the presentation of it left many of the people with us speechless at the end. It was easily one of the most cohesive branching of bills I have experienced in the many shows I have seen for the artists who frequent Dublab and Low End Theory.
This evening was all about the state of modern west coast electronics from the last 10 years and everyone displayed this rich culture the entire evening. Teebs has a very relaxed, spiritual and glossy feel to his creations, you become transfixed and hooked to his collage work and sheets of sound. His movements on stage seem so flawless and in control while on the other side of the coin Gaslamp Killer really shows you what it is like to go nuts and love every moment of it. This type of duality occurred in many instances and for all sets. The photography captured from the Sound Colour Vibration at this years 12 year anniversary Dublab event depicts the rich color and vibrancy that this night blossomed into and the overall aesthetic Dublab has been giving the world for 12 years.
- Erick R. Wilczynksi and Erik Otis
Check out our favorite pictures from the hundreds taken by the following members of the California chapter for SCV’s photography team: Oliver Walker, Erick R. Wilczynski and David Acampora.
