The fourth annual Treasure Island Music Festival again avoided triggering a 9.0 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, though not for lack of effort.
In keeping with Saturday's tradition, musicians from the world over unleashed a variety of electronic music upon a square mile of terrain that didn't exist 80 years ago and, most likely, will be engulfed by rising seas 80 years hence.
Add the postcard San Francisco skyline views to a geological local as ephemeral as smoke rings and you have a setting perfectly matched for the urgency of this music.
Impressions and reflections on from Treasure Island, 2010 -- and don't forget to click on the slideshow (left): (Go HERE to see TI 2011 slideshow)
Best sound sculptures: Holy F***
Because HF doesn’t rely on computer-assisted hardware to generate sound, some refer to their approach as organic. "Way old school electronic" might be more accurate – think Henk Badings, one of its founders.
Most relentless bass: Deadmau5
Backed by lighting effects that ranged from flaming Medusa-head snakes to a red flaming inferno, Deadmau5 (alias Joel Thomas Zimmerman) sat atop a giant, half Rubik’s Cube control center wearing an over-the-head, stylized mouse helmet. Minimalist house stylings punctuated by a bass line that sounded (and felt) like sonic cannonballs shot out of a Gatling gun.
Most entertaing stage show: Die Antwoord
Like Pomplamoose (their Jungian shadow), Die Antwoord built a buzz via post-MTV Youtube video. Self described red-neck rappers Ninja and Yo-Lani Vi$$er bring oodles of charisma and explicatives to the stage, somehow desipherable even when they're singing in Afrikaans, a West Germanic language officially spoken in their native South Africa.
Best funk-punk: !!!
!!! derived their computer search-unfriendly name from the click language-speaking character portrayed by N!xau in The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980). Lead Singer Nic Offer completed his Jagger preening performance with a leap into the audience.
Best pop-fusion: Little Dragon
Various strains of electronic anchored in humongous bass, fronted by lead singer Yukimi Nagano.
Best music to move by: Miike Snow and LCD Soundsystem
The headliners ended the foggy, evening with high-energy dance sets.
See TIMF 2010 photos and impressions from Day 2.
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