- With eight years under its belt, Seattle's Decibel Festival has now become a massive attraction. It's the only event of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, a region of the United States whose tight knit electronic music community is increasingly being recognized as an important outpost of the international scene. The swell in the festival's size was most marked last year as nearly every venue had a line around the block and dance floors were either completely sold out or uncomfortably packed. After some frustrating experiences last time around, there were rumblings that 2011's expansion (roughly 130 artists, 14 venues, 200 dollars) was going to put Decibel over the edge and ultimately detract from the experience. As it turned out, this year's festival was the most accessible, inclusive and inspiring to date.
The lineup—Amon Tobin, Moby, Martin Buttrich, Kate Simko, dOP, Green Velvet, Mike Huckaby, Mad Professor, Toro Y Moi, Ladytron, DNTL, Chateau Flight, Martyn, Machinedrum, Tycho, Quantic, Bonobo, among many others—definitely attracted throngs of people, but the crowds shook out pretty evenly among the various additional venues. Showcases were generally full, but not bursting at the seams. To accommodate headliners Amon Tobin and Moby, Decibel extended out to the Paramount Theater and Showbox, two huge venues located a short distance from the core of Capitol Hill where the majority of the festival clubs are clustered. This was a smart move, because the headlining showcases effectively drew off some of the numbers that would have otherwise clogged up smaller spots. The widely recognizable names also added prestige to the festival and served as a great starting point for people who wanted to check out of the festival, but may not have been familiar with some of the more boutique names on the lineup.
Amon Tobin's appearance as part of his ISAM tour perfectly encapsulated the Decibel tagline "International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media." No amount of hype or YouTube videos can prepare someone for the grandeur of this performance. Amon Tobin was situated inside of a massive 3D cube structure, playing his patented future world sounds in perfect synchronicity to an endless stream of striking, fantastical images projected onto the structure. The "beyond 3D" imagery ranged from unearthly landscapes to Tron-style neon veins that gave the illusion the cubes were actually collapsing on stage. The sound at Paramount Theater was appropriately vast and enveloping. Bass hits shook everyone in their seats and it almost felt like Amon Tobin's signature steel sharp clangs and abrupt crashes were swirling around and dissipating like a million tiny insects. The crowd was riveted and gave three separate standing ovations throughout the show.
As usual, there was a strong focus on the artists of the Pacific Northwest at Decibel. Seattle's The Sight Below (Rafael Anton Irisarri) and Benoit Pioulard debuted a lovely new collaboration called Orcas at one of the Optical audio/visual showcases. The Loft Revival party highlighted the best of Portland's disco, house and techno scenes with appearances by M. Quiet, The Miracles Club and Northwest transplant and long-standing techno authority Bryan Zentz. The Miracles Club had an ecstatic dance floor moving to their upbeat house sounds, with crowds clearly drawn in by the aesthetic of a full hardware set up and magnetic live vocals sung by the impossibly stylish Honey Owens. I made the mistake of ducking out for air towards the end of The Miracles Club energetic set and wasn't able to get back in to see Bryan Zentz, though this was the only time during the festival I was turned away for lack of space in a venue.
Technically separate from the festival itself, the after hours arrangements showed off the sensibility of some local promoters as well. Seattle's Sweatbox crew had an intimate party featuring Camea and Tim Xavier on Thursday night, setting the perfect tone for the weekend to come. The folks from the Shameless collective handled the weekend afterhours with Max Cooper and a triple headliner Saturday with back-to-back appearances by Green Velvet, Holger Zilske and Mike Huckaby. And it wouldn't be Decibel Festival without a very late night appearance from regular Derek Plaslaiko. He had everyone fully in his grip and despite the onset of Saturday night's exhaustion and the impending Tiger & Woods boat party just a few hours away, he easily held the crowd at his command straight into Sunday morning.
For those under the legal age or just preferring more mild hours, the Decibel program included plenty of early and all ages events. The free daytime conference featured prominent speakers like Mike Huckaby, Christopher Willits and Seattleite Dave Pezzner and explored everything from product demos to legal advice to youth involvement in music to navigating promotions in the digital era to the history of Seattle's electronic music scene. There was also the annual free concert in the park, all ages Optical audio/visual showcases and some evening bookings (like Mt. Eden) clearly intended to appeal to the younger set.
This broad approach to Decibel's programming was another key to alleviating the swarms of people attending the festival this year. Rather than fight the transforming tastes of an ever-growing audience, Decibel essentially kept the core of the festival as it always was (small techno-centric showcases tightly clustered on Capitol Hill) and just expanded into new territory to address ballooning interest. The beauty of this approach is that the festival has reached out and welcomed newcomers by providing some very accessible options while also maintaining the original format that long time devotees have grown to love. Rather than excluding anyone, Decibel has managed to address its growing pains by building new avenues out from the existing structure.
In an area of the country that hasn't typically been known as a bastion for electronic music, Decibel Festival is the pride of the local electronic scene. This year's program delivered a solid jolt of self-confidence and inspiration by proving that the Pacific Northwest is brimming with talented artists and capable of supporting large-scale international touring acts. After last year's persistent overcrowding issues, I was a little concerned about the future of Decibel Festival. This time around, I'm fully confident about whatever is in store for 2012.