Unable to attend the full weekend of music, I made sure to catch the final night of the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival. After last year’s performances, which included the likes of Nicolas Jaar and Baths, I knew this event was not to be missed. Let it be known that to this day, Nicolas Jaar was one of the best live DJ performances I’ve ever seen.
That said, I was expecting a lot from the festival this year.
BEMF is structured in what I like to call a “new school” festival sort of way — you’ve got a concentrated area of Brooklyn with multiple venues and multiple nights of shows. At any given point, five different artists can be performing all over Williamsburg, at the same time. It’s exciting and hectic, jumping from place to place. But it’s mostly exciting. I was thrilled to know that both Kastle and Star Slinger would be performing on the same night, but I was disappointed to learn that Star Slinger wouldn’t be performing until 2am. Unfortunately, on a Sunday, I was unable to swing it. But I stayed for the entirety of Kastle’s performance, and was thoroughly impressed by his energy and excitement. I observed the crowd, which was more of a club scene for a Sunday night than a show, and immediately noticed how humbled Kastle was to be playing at such a venue (Output, in Williamsburg for those who haven’t heard/said it already, has a phenomenal soundsystem.)
He played an eclectic collection of his housier tracks, which was fitting for the time of night and the sort of crowd, but he closed out his performance with this track — a chopped up remix of Drake’s, “Hold On, We’re Going Home” which got everyone feeling sexy and amped up for the acts to follow. I’ve kind of loved this song for a while now, having heard it a couple of months ago when it was still summery in my head and outside. It’s sexy like the original but with that added element of trap mystery. It’s a little dirtier, a little sexier, a little less safe. Add it to your Friday playlists immediately, because you’ll be playing it all weekend. You might even accidentally find yourself mouthing the words, to the beat of the remix itself, on the street.
Not like that’s ever happened to me while accidentally making eye contact with strangers. Nope. Not me.
Enjoy!
