Boomtown returned to the South Downs National Park for its 11th chapter this year. We found ourselves deep in the mix at DSTRKT 5 as part of the CyberDrØne playing directly into the ongoing Boomtown storyline.
The CyberDrØne contained the remaining relics of past and future ‘Hi-Times’ technology before the Boomtown empire fell.
As part of this site wide immersive story narrative Third Mind, PsychFi and Freek Labs were showing off several SubPac optimised mobile VR experiences throughout, matching Pixl portal 360° dome projections “Freaktal mixed media hazard” and a surround sound system from Sova Audio which came alive for our dj and performance showcases once the sun went down each night.
On Thursday we had Death Ingloria a one woman and A.I progressive rock group performing followed by FreekLabs AV mastermind Marius with an AV dj set pushing the tempo to 175bpm +.
To end the first night we had the pleasure of witnessing Harald Grosskopf (Synthesist, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Shulze) a pioneer in German electronic music perform an amazing set of future sonics. Be sure to check out Krautwerk his collaboration with Eberhard Kranemann (Kraftwerk, Neu, Piss Off).
Our Friday night CyberDrØne offerings started with an earth shaking spatialised live vinyl and effects performance from our own Snooks. A combination of trippy light and dark sonics from Laraaji to Sunn O))) mixed and melded together with some sneaky SUBPAC dubplates from producers Kode9 and Pinch plus some of Snooks’s own forthcoming releases for good measure.
Next our second Live PA of the festival came from Fifi Rong an amazingly talented songwriter and electronic producer we have known since our Black Market Record shop days. Fifi performed alongside Benjamin Dunkerley going to town with visuals and costume as usual, taking the opportunity to test out some wonderful new material. We even heard a mashup performance using Benga and Coki’s ‘Night’!
After Fifi Amy Becker’s Acrylic AV Synthetic Sensasions brought us right back to the old school hardcore vibes of the 90’s.
To end the night Dj Cheeba presented his AV turntablism set Double Vision mashing up genres and visuals as only he does.
The dome was taken over on Saturday by Xtrah and the Cyberfunk crew allowing us to take a break and get down to some futuristic beats and bass.
We followed the Saturday madness with another day of demos in the CyberDrØne alongside the immersive theatre crew and actors.
We would like to thank all involved artists, djs, production teams and festival goers. We hope that the story of Boomtown continues to evolve and we get those SUBPAC low frequency feels in the mix for the next chapter too!