This past weekend, The Sherp was blown away by the incredibly futuristic design and music that was showcased at one of the new stages at Ultra Music Festival, Miami this year. Here’s an account of how this platform was such a game changer.
(Image Courtesy: Miami New Times/ George Martinez)
Miami’s prime electronic music extravaganza, Ultra Music Festival, launched a new stage called Resistance to push the sounds of underground dance music harder. The stage was presented by the likes of Space Ibiza and Link Miami Rebels. The production company Arcadia Spectacular designed the alien-looking, fire-spewing stage that looked like it had been created from recycled metal. The elevated DJ booth is at the center of the stage and people gather around it concentrically with massive speakers and flame throwing pillars forming the outer circumference of the dance floor. Futuristic tribes will probably have dance circles at stages that are very similar to this.
(Image Courtesy: Miami New Times/ George Martinez)
After watching the movie 300 and spending a generous amount of time at the Resistance stage, it is easy to draw an analogy between the two. Think of cookie cutter Big Room house, ratchet trap and cheesy Pseudo-Trance as the evil army of Xerxes that is trying to dominate and conquer the realm of Electronic music. Dance Music has been undergoing a strange identity crisis recently with the advent of mindless productions asking you to put your F#^&*ing hands in the air more frequently than the number of times a wasted teenager tells you Martin Garrix is the best DJ ever at the main stage. The Spartans, of course, are the underground heavy hitters who are the guardians of more cerebral electronic music.
(Image Courtesy: Miami New Times/ George Martinez)
During the afternoons at the Resistance stage artists like Kolsch, and Joris Voorn mixed sultry House music. One ecstatic moment was when Guy Gerber started his set with a classical piano piece by German pianist Nils Frahm to celebrate World Piano Day. Artists like Guy J and Sasha kept the warm fires of Progressive House burning. After sundown the music gets harder and faster with relentless, pounding Techno unleashed by the likes of Tale of Us, Dixon, and tINI.
For every cookie-cutter big room banger played at the Mainstage there was a dark, dystopian techno monster unleashed at the Resistance Stage. For every cheesy build up that had fans waving their hands in the air at the EDM dominant stages there was a delicately arranged progressive house track played at Resistance. Ironically, the closest stage on the map to the Resistance stage was the Mainstage and it seemed as though people who decided to wander away from the Mainstage would find themselves glued to the Resistance stage for hours when they stumbled upon it.
(Image Courtesy: Greg Bowser)
The line-up for the Resistance stage was very impressive and had fans of underground dance music drooling. However, not everything on the Resistance stage went smoothly and there were some technical and production issues during sets. Italian maestro, Joseph Capriati was rather vocal about his disappointment with the production issues that occurred during his set and took to social media to vent his frustration. However, launching the Resistance stage and putting more resources to advance a style of music that is more sustainable and less saturated is a step in the right direction. It seems to be start of a new revolution at Ultra and more fans will be seen at the Resistance stage in the years to come.
(Cover Image Courtesy: Greg Bowser)