by @anarchyroll
When you’re in the presence of someone who is a master of their craft, you’ll only know if they want you to know. When they want you to know, you can’t actually prepare yourself for the experience that awaits you. Imitation and generic is pervasively more commonplace than the real thing these days.
Concerts are held all the time all over the place. You can go to your local dive bar on a certain night and see a band play in the corner and tell yourself you went to a concert. You can see a cover band play on a legit stage and say you went to a concert. You can go to an EDM show and say you went to a festival. But when you are in the presence of a master, you don’t go to a concert or a festival, you go sensory experience.
Derick Vincent Smith is not just another electronic music producer. He is not just another dj. He is not another dude with Ableton and a desire to cash in on the rise of electronic dance music to the pop music trend of this decade.
The rise of the EDM festival scene of the past decade is just another turn in the cycle of music audiences wanting a visual aspect to compliment their auditory experience. Just like the shock rockers and hair bands before them, electronic music festivals give their audiences a show rather than just a group doing a karaoke session on a stage in front of a large group of people.
The customization of each song/track played compared to that of a traditional band playing traditional instruments is only comparable to a jazz ensemble. But while jazz bands are essentially limited to what they can do with their instruments, a master dj like Pretty Lights has the visual element to customize and layer on top of the depth of layers that electronic music enables.
But Pretty Lights combines electronic music, instruments, and visuals.
Layering media on top of each other to create art and not just a bunch of random stuff that’s going on. Creating one thing out of layers and layers of media on media.
- Lights
- Lasers
- Smoke
- Screens
- Instruments
- Turn tables
- Song samples
- Original created music material
Layers on layers, racks on racks, experience on experience, all the feels all the way up.
I was obviously expecting to have a good time during the last weekend of summer. What I wasnt expecting was a revelation.
Not about life, nature, humanity, or the universe. But about what it means to be an entertainer, a storyteller, a master of ceremonies, a disc jockey.
To have so many different people, with so many different backgrounds, with so much different things going on individually and collectively, and to put them all on the same frequency is a skill, an art, a science, and a gift.
Pretty Lights is a group of the gifted. And they have chosen to share their gifts with those who choose to join their journey to spread good vibes and be lovers of the light(s).
Anarchy Journal Constitutional 