Gramatik
Gramatik has always been an early adopter. It began at the age of 3, when his mother would catch him glued to the radio in his older sister’s room, checking out the cassette tapes with American funk, jazz, soul and blues. He started making his first beats on an early PC by the time he was 13, and soon the kid from Portoroz, Slovenia figured out how to harvest the power of free file sharing to build a following throughout the US & Europe. Tracks spread, hype grew, tours followed, and before long his digital persona forged the initial inroads into the US market, landing him both a label and an agency.
Gramatik landed on US soil as a fully formed artist who knows how to do things his way. He signed to a label, Pretty Lights Music, that gives all of its music away for free, which went hand in hand with his own philosophy about ”freeing music by making music free”. Soon after, he scooped up his hometown crew and moved to Brooklyn, NY. Alongside Gramatik, the multimedia collective known as Dream Big features guitarist and producer F.A.Q, video director and filmmaker Anze Koron and graphic and web designer Martin Kenjic, with whom he has been friends since they were kids, sitting in a small town on the Adriatic coast, dreaming of breaking out into the wide world beyond. Now’s the time.
Minnesota
Christian Bauhofer, known by his fans as his party crushing alter ego Minnesota, is a producer and DJ heralding from Santa Cruz, CA that has been lighting up venues across the country with his frantic energy and pounding bass. At 23 years old, Minnesota has recently spent his time touring with acts such as Big Gigantic and Paper Diamond while artists like Bassnectar and PANTyRAID have been incorporating his tracks into their sets. “Quickly becoming a staple in my sets,” commented Bassnectar when discussing the use of Minnesota’s track “Push It”. “Perfect for when I need a track that is epic and churning but also melodically hyped.”
ProtoHype
In the fall of 2009, Max Pote and Sean Farrell joined forces to create Protohype, an unstoppable musical force of massive proportions and unlimited potential. Their irrepressible style is defined by a cunning combination of the technical finesse and swagger of a seasoned Hip-Hop veteran fused with the and raw energy and passion of an electronic music icon. Protohype specializes in a signature sound composed of extremely catchy melodic lines culminating in a dark and edgy electronic bombardment boldly accented with robust and meticulously crafted drums. With a combined twelve years of production experience between them, Max and Sean understand the crucial importance of diversity and progress while still maintaining the necessary amount of nostalgic familiarity to keep the crowd dancing; first and foremost Protohype know how to throw a raging party.
DCARLS
Afterparty: March 9 at Monks Bar
Eliot Lipp
Eliot Lipp’s status as an electronic music pioneer is known to scene connoisseurs and weekend warriors alike. Lipp’s omnivorous tastes are apparent, from the obvious funk and myriad manifestations of hip-hop though less explicit reference points as jazz fusion, folk and techno. His well-earned reputation as a producer’s producer stems in part from his craftsmanship. Never content with well-worn breaks and effects, his work incorporates a love of analog gear with sampledelic flourishes, intricate rhythmic patterns and more than a few leftfield surprises. But his melodic instincts and tunefulness are what have earned him such wide appeal, as well as his connection to music’s storytelling possibilities, even without words.
Since his arrival on the scene, Lipp has displayed an intuitive knack for teasing melodies out of rhythmic bangers, and he draws from a remarkably mature sonic palette. These two qualities immediately set the young instrumental producer apart. Since his promising debut, Lipp has played to his strengths while creating an imposing body of work with a style uniquely his own.