- The story of FYF Festival, the 11-year strong LA event that has gone from a scrappy, punk-oriented gathering in Echo Park to a huge two-day event boasting headliners like Kanye West, reflects the arc of US underground music in general. In its early days, serious organizational failings were forgiven due to the chutzpah of 30-year-old founder Sean Carlson. Now Carlson and a small team look after the bookings while Goldenvoice, the promotional giant behind Coachella, makes sure the trains run on time.
Carlson and company have also grown seriously interested in club culture over the past few years. In the past, the dance bookings focused mainly on crossover-friendly fare—Nicolas Jaar, John Talabot etc—but this year, the festival attempted to create a dedicated dance music space at a stage called The Woods, with underground favorites like Gerd Janson, Bicep and Andy Stott taking charge. Though last year saw Horse Meat Disco and DJ Harvey take over a similar stage, the breadth of programming in 2016, coupled with the expectation that some attendees would be willing to dance through the weekend, was entirely new. For two days, a fenced-in, 500-capacity area became the best club in America, while larger-than-life acts like Kendrick Lamar and LCD Soundsystem played to tens of thousands on FYF's main stages across the way.
Rising local DJ and promoter Cooper Saver played first at The Woods on Saturday, lugging along an E&S DJR 400 that would end up being one of the stars of the day, with Floating Points and later Gerd Janson working its buttery isolators. Saver warmed up well, dropping sunny tracks like MLiR's "People" and Don Carlos's "Alone," before Floating Points delivered a masterclass in unquantized mixing. The Eglo chief had also been booked to play live the following day, so he'd left his valuable vinyl at home, which turned out to be a good thing—the stage, which otherwise sounded great, couldn't handle wax without serious feedback issues. Gerd Janson, in his typical self-effacing manner, reportedly fretted about Floating Points' mellow vibes, saying he felt like Len Faki following him on the decks. His fears, though, were unfounded as he worked through popular garage house tunes like Whitney Houston's "Love Will Save The Day" (Morales/Jellybean Classic House Mix), and ended with an edit of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams."
Though this review focuses on The Woods and its DJs, FYF booked electronic acts across the festival. In an area called The Club, which was somewhat confusingly placed out of view of the main thoroughfares, Junior Boys proved their yacht rock-infused synthpop is solid festival fodder, especially the Balearic-leaning "Under The Sun." Next up, Oneohtrix Point Never was an audiovisual onslaught, with visual artist Nate Boyce filling HD monitors and a rear projection screen with chaotic, HD images while a tech-metal guitarist filled out tracks from Garden Of Delete. Dan Lopatin lorded over synths and sang heavily effected vocals for a crowd half in awe and half confused.
Red Axes, the rising Tel Aviv duo, weren't ready for the big stage. Booked against Kendrick Lamar, the large tent was nearly empty when they started. Todd Terje, on the other hand, went over well on the even larger Lawn Stage, which sits on a grassy area and feels closest to a typical festival setup. The Norwegian wonder ran through tunes like "Inspector Norse," a classic to those who know it and happy, head-nodding fare for casual passersby.
The next day, The Woods stage felt considerably gayer. A cluster of bears filled the upper right portion of the makeshift plywood dancefloor as Honey Soundsystem—in this instance, Jason Kendig and Jacob Sperber—traded records. Sperber fanned himself while Kendig pulled off an insane three-minute mix out of Hugh Masekela's "Don't Go Lose It Baby." The Black Madonna mostly dipped into her festival-ready folder, though she threw down an ace by bringing out Robyn to sing on her remix of the Swede's "Indestructible." Bicep were the first act to fill the fenced-in area all the way to back, and they had the area feeling like a proper sweatbox when they dropped their remix of Blaze's "Lovelee Dae," a tune that, impressively, matches the original in quality.
By this point, attendees were fully aware of The Club's whereabouts, and Floating Points' live proggy fantasias went down a treat. Over on the sprawling Main Stage (which takes over a parking lot that feels like 50 square miles), Grace Jones crawled around the place, running through hits like "Nightclubbing" and "My Jamaican Guy." LCD Soundsystem, who played to a massive crowd on a studio's worth of analogue gear, paid tribute to Jones during their closing set on Sunday, telling the audience they had fucked up if they hadn't seen her play. As soon as the band finished, college kids and hipsters hopped on the nearby Metro for an easy ride back into downtown. FYF, like LA, has become a sprawling expanse with divergent pockets of vitality. Just as LA feels like hundreds of neighborhoods masquerading as a city, FYF feels like five very different festivals crammed into one—it's an exhilarating, if at times confusing, balancing act, and something LA should be proud of.
Photo credit /
Monika Piadad Harris
The next day, The Woods stage felt considerably gayer. A cluster of bears filled the upper right portion of the makeshift plywood dancefloor as Honey Soundsystem—in this instance, Jason Kendig and Jacob Sperber—traded records. Sperber fanned himself while Kendig pulled off an insane three-minute mix out of Hugh Masekela's "Don't Go Lose It Baby." The Black Madonna mostly dipped into her festival-ready folder, though she threw down an ace by bringing out Robyn to sing on her remix of the Swede's "Indestructible." Bicep were the first act to fill the fenced-in area all the way to back, and they had the area feeling like a proper sweatbox when they dropped their remix of Blaze's "Lovelee Dae," a tune that, impressively, matches the original in quality. By this point, attendees were fully aware of The Club's whereabouts, and Floating Points' live proggy fantasias went down a treat. Over on the sprawling Main Stage (which takes over a parking lot that feels like 50 square miles), Grace Jones crawled around the place, running through hits like "Nightclubbing" and "My Jamaican Guy." LCD Soundsystem, who played to a massive crowd on a studio's worth of analogue gear, paid tribute to Jones during their closing set on Sunday, telling the audience they had fucked up if they hadn't seen her play. As soon as the band finished, college kids and hipsters hopped on the nearby Metro for an easy ride back into downtown. FYF, like LA, has become a sprawling expanse with divergent pockets of vitality. Just as LA feels like hundreds of neighborhoods masquerading as a city, FYF feels like five very different festivals crammed into one—it's an exhilarating, if at times confusing, balancing act, and something LA should be proud of. Photo credit / Monika Piadad Harris