- Communikey just finished its fourth year in Boulder, Colorado. The five-day festival attracted attendees from all over the United States and beyond, with names like Monolake, Atom TM, Geoff White, Mike Huckaby and Cheap and Deep heading the bill, and lesser known local talent filling out the rest. Easily accessible from the much larger capital city of Denver by a short drive, Boulder is a quaint college town dominated by the University of Colorado campus and surrounded by the idyllic foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The local people are open-minded and eco-conscious, sentiments incorporated by Communikey's zero waste policy, carbon offsetting and bike rental program. The festival was scattered across ten venues, all within walking distance, with the exception of the after hours spot, which was serviced by a techno bus that shuttled late night partiers back and forth.
Among the many high points of Communikey, the Friday night after hours event particularly stood out. Hosted by the Denver-based Make Mistakes collective, it was a tennis-themed party. After threading through a bunch of empty parking lots, we eventually found the unassuming entrance of a warehouse that is normally used as a parkour training facility by day. Inside, a giant framework of metal bars, trampolines and safety pads outlined a pitch-black dance floor. The Make Mistakes crew, dressed in full tennis outfits complete with short white shorts, tube socks and wristbands embroidered with their logo, played dark and dubby techno that perfectly suited the space. An imposing sound system lorded over the dance floor, doing justice to the music's intricacy and keeping everyone drawn close to the front.
Photo credit: Seze Devres
Attentat's closing set was super weird and interesting—a kind of unearthly techno from some far away evil fantasyland that made for ideal 5 AM listening. With all the elements locked in—low lights, big sound, incredible visuals by Audiopixel, deep music and proper late night atmosphere, the Make Mistakes team kept complete command of an ecstatic crowd all night long. By the polished look and feel of it, you'd never know this was a locals-only showcase.
Communikey really gets it right with the relaxed pacing of the program. The festival incorporates a lot of events spread out among a variety of venues, but there's only one main event happening at a time. This means you don't have to navigate a festival schedule packed full of competing shows, and no coordinating with friends about when and where to meet up later. You're either attending the thing that's currently happening, heading to the next showcase or taking a break to check out the exhibits (this year there were two stellar installations—one spotlighting Communist-era Polish audio postcards, the other a colossal network of MIDI-controlled robotic percussion mechanisms modeled after traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras called GamelaTron).
The early screening of Dark Dark Dark's lovely film Flood Tide Remixed may have been a minor misstep, as people became restless and disinterested before the band played their actual set. The placement of a mellow, mostly acoustic event on Saturday night offered a nice balance to the raging beats, though, and gave everyone a chance to recharge. Opening the low-key affair was local folk musician Laura Goldhamer, who won over the audience with her adorably quirky stage persona, cute time-lapse videos and automated percussion instruments operated by simple electronic switches, which she informed us were purchased from Radio Shack. You could definitely feel the local pride as impressed visitors who had never heard of Goldhamer double-checked, "She's from here?"
Photo credit: Seze Devres
Another highlight came Sunday afternoon in the downtown Boulder Civic Plaza. Communikey traditionally hosts a free outdoor daytime party as part of the festival, and this year's entertainment was provided by some of the guys from ZZK Records (Buenos Aires) and Static Discos (Tijuana). The booking couldn't have been more fitting for one of the first really warm and sunny days of spring. Everybody in attendance was beaming with enthusiasm, and Chancha Via Circuito nailed the cheery mood with his mix of easy going cumbia, electro and dubstep sounds. After a few hours of big, bright energy from CVC and Latinsizer, Fax's dreamy, introspective guitar swells wound down into the perfect soundtrack for the impending sunset and end of the festival. By the time the Sunday night finale came—an intensely upbeat set by Mike Huckaby—people weren't too wiped out for one last celebratory dance party.
Aside from so elegantly rationing the crowd's energy, the structure of the Communikey schedule really did help foster the concept of community. Since people are funneled into all the same events, they inevitably get familiar with each other after repeated run-ins and everybody ends up walking away with a relatively similar shared experience. The programming also had the affect of nudging people into events that they may not have chosen had there been other options. Since there wasn't a mediocre act in the entire festival lineup, people gladly accepted the push to expand their horizons. The music and events were fantastic throughout, but the best part of Communikey was leaving with a memorable sense of togetherness and camaraderie that is impossible to pull off at larger, more hectic electronic music festivals.