- MoMA PS1's Warm Up has come a long way since 1998, when their first party took place in one of the museum's modest side galleries. Last weekend, the series closed out another year of weekly summertime shindigs in the building's expansive courtyard. It was a dramatic end to a strong season. And with sets from Doss, SOPHIE, Evian Christ, plus secret guests iLoveMakonnen and Skrillex, the event again proved itself to be an essential anchor in the city's sprawling dance music scene.
The final Saturday session got moving around 4 PM when SOPHIE, known for his hyperactive J-pop aesthetic, stepped up to the CDJs for his first New York appearance since May. He opened with a few surprisingly abstract minutes of sub-bass drones topped by chaotic layers of noise and mosquito synths—though sure enough, his candy-coated melodies and pitched-up anime vocals began to emerge through the mix. He played a short set that showcased his own productions (current hits like "Lemonade" and a VIP remix of "Hard" in addition to forthcoming material), and what was most interesting was the way it combined painstaking sound design and textural depth with cartoonish songwriting. He faded back and forth between beat-less electronics and spastic happy hardcore, visibly alienating almost anyone over thirty.
Lone's set was cheery, starting off with material from his new LP, Reality Testing, and ending with cuts from his last album, Galaxy Garden, but it didn't seem to engage the crowd. It read more like a showcase of his catalogue than a DJ set; at times he would play one song in its entirety, let it finish, and then start a new one rather than mixing a continuous groove.
The later half of the evening was heavy on the lurch of 2014 radio hip-hop. Breakout rapper iLoveMakonnen played a surprise set, performing his two biggest hits, "I Don't Sell Molly No More" and "Club Going Up On A Tuesday." The courtyard's younger contingent responded with screams, as the LA artist sang about selling drugs on Hollywood Boulevard while passing a blunt around in front of the wall of spinning pinwheels the museum commissioned for the event.
Makonnen's distorted 808s transitioned seamlessly into Evian Christ's own rap-inspired set, which opened with a series of sparse, drill-style instrumentals—very likely some of his own, now that he's officially signed as a producer with Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music. He blended belligerent, sing-along tracks with highlights from his 2014 Waterfall EP on Tri Angle, ratcheting up the distortion with each song until the festival synths gave way to fast industrial techno and ferocious hardstyle bangers à la Angerfist. The crowd was clearly bewildered, but they were also penned in with nowhere to go, patiently waiting for Skrillex. It was as if Evian was saying, "What are you gonna do? Leave?"
He ended his set abruptly, and after a few minutes of waiting, the man of the hour, with his iconic hairdo and his permanently stoked demeanor, ran onto the platform, took the mic and screamed: "How you feeling PS1?!" Where the earlier acts showed off what they'd been working on, barely stopping to look up at the crowd in front of them, Skrillex proved he is a born performer. His set, too, was grounded in hip-hop swagger, opening with a long string of tracks inspired by the upbeat rhythms of New Orleans bounce and twerk music. He took a moment to acknowledge the late Nicky Da B (who passed this month) before dropping Da B and Diplo's explosive track "Express Yourself." He then ran through a series of synthy, festival-sized remixes—Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic," House Of Pain's "Jump Around," Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"—that would have been corny if they weren't so expertly mixed.
While standing on top of his DJ table and screaming into the microphone, Skrillex was tweaking filters and effects on his mixer then jumping down just in time to execute a backspin or drop a new track in out of nowhere. He only mixed some songs for eight measures, before slamming the fader to the other channel. It was so tight at points that it almost felt like a practiced routine, something you'd see from a turntablist rather than a traditional DJ. His presence was so magnetic, his energy and skill so palpable, that even the most cynical skeptics couldn't help but grin at the sight of Skrillex yelling "I love you all!!" into a moshpit of shirtless dudes writhing in the courtyard of New York's most prestigious contemporary art museum.