Buster Ross: Top 5 Artists from What the Fest 2015

Friday, July 03, 2015

Buster Ross, GoLocalPDX Guest Contributor

What The Festival 2015 is an annual three-day interactive music and arts festival held 90 miles east of Portland, taking place during summer solstice. This year’s festival ran from June 18th to June 22nd, bringing together 5,000 people for a “full-sensory experience”. Located on a breathtaking 250-acre Oregon ranch, surrounded by the Mt. Hood National Forest, this year’s lineup of 93 “musical” acts brought out a range of djs, producers, and musicians who set the soundtrack for stunning installations in the Illuminated Forest, huge swimming pool dance parties, an exhaustive list of workshops, and great vendors – it’s hard to imagine what organizers could do bigger in 2016.

It is no wonder that this festival has exploded so quickly, selling out for the first time this year. If you haven’t been, it’s an experience absolutely worth having. Buy tickets early for next year, and bring ear plugs and eye covers if you plan on sleeping.

But you don’t have to wait until 2016 to experience some of it, as WTF headliner Justin Martin returns to Oregon with Claude Von Stroke, J Phlip, Justin Jay, and Christian Martin for the DIRTYBIRD BBQ. This massive event is making its Portland debut on July 4th at the OMSI Bridge Lot. The first two tiers of tickets are sold out, but there still are some tickets left at $40+.

Here are Buster’s top 5 from What The Fest 2015:

1. TWO FRESH

In a sentence: Everything that is good about the convergence of electronic/future/rap.

TWO FRESH surely had some heads turning. Throughout their set it was hard not wondering what edits and remixes were their own, because they came out with so much amazing stuff that was hard to place. They were fun to watch, because they were having fun. They were creative on the mic and in the mix, and they had the right balance of originality and reference-ability that the young folks seem to demand of djs: play the hits but play something I’ve never heard while doing it. They were also just notably good people.

Check out:

Their set truly felt like an hour of this (yes, it’s carmack):

2. Wave Racer

In a sentence: Nintendo’s Wave Race 64 soundtrack meets bass and neon bikinis in a temporarily constructed pool in the forest.

A definitively bright moment of WTF happened on Friday afternoon when Wave Racer performed at the Splash Stage (the stage where two enormous swimming pools were constructed). While there had been some performances for those who arrived early on Thursday, and performances throughout the day Friday, something shifted in the crowd 10 minutes into this set. Some people were having to ask, “Who is this?”, responding to a sound that really stood out, sound that got people seriously dancing. I sat down for an interview with this New Zealand based producer and was thoroughly impressed by his thoughtful perspective on music and sound design. Watch for a new album for him that should stand out amongst a field of “musicians” who have lost the meaning of album.

Known for:

Right now I am digging:

3. UZ

In a sentence: All hail the mighty king of trap music

It is easy to dismiss UZ for having perfected a trap formula to the point of bordering on generic. But it was impossible to deny the crowd’s response at the Effin Stage for UZ’s set. It was ridiculous. UZ shredded any criticism. As UZ stepped off stage, the only thing to do was to bow. UZ doesn’t give interviews, and there has been plenty of speculation about the producer’s secret identity (he wears a mask, all the time). But this photo is about the closest to an interview anyone has gotten to date.

Listen to all of it:

4. Big Gigantic

In a sentence: If the kids want to sing along with Macklemore, at least there are artists who can work within that constraint and make something different, something with its own life.

Denver’s Big Gigantic was noteworthy, if for nothing more than the fact that they provided evidence of musicianship. With so many dj/producers struggling to do much more than press play, it stands out when artists incorporate elements of live instrumentation. But it was pretty obvious which acts were actually musicians, choosing to contribute significantly to the live sounds, and which acts were entirely relying on backtracks and simply visually entertaining the crowd. The guy’s in Big Gigantic were refreshing as human beings, and performers.

Get a feel for Big Gigantic:

Yes, Macklemore:

5. STWO

In a sentence: Even the most lackluster performance can’t cover up the quality of work coming from this Parisian producer.

This was the set that was sure to be a standout, but it just didn’t quite happen. There was talk that some equipment had broken, so to be fair, it’s STWO’s collection of releases over the last few years that kept them on this list.

Check out:

And: