- Beats Antique

Words by: Tk Kayembe | Images by: Dave Vann

Symbiosis Gathering 2009 :: 09.18.09 – 09.20.09 :: Camp Mather :: Groveland, CA

Symbiosis 2009

Yosemite, CA hosted the fourth annual Symbiosis Gathering. This year’s event was nestled in Camp Mather bordering the breathtaking Yosemite National Park. The lineup was overwhelming, the site was heavenly and the art installations were unbelievably imaginative; most seeming to be peculiar hallucinations. It was a celestial experience, and like most festivals, to fully comprehend its beauty you would have had to be there; to properly do it justice would take multiple pages and numerous pictures. So, that being said, here are a few highlights from the weekend.

Friday Top 3

1. Flying Lotus – Steve Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, along with his Brainfeeder label mates, seems to be running laps around the hip-hoptronic side of the scene. Fly-Lo’s beats are ingeniously crafted, emphasizing luring offbeat drum samples often tied together with foreign percussion atop jazzy tear-jerking piano, el-p, synth and bass sections. Over the course of his set, genuine bliss was plastered upon his face as he passionately pushed through “Melt” and “Roberta Flack,” dropping plenty of other beat junkie favorites from his collection. Watching the raw emotion he exudes while delicately mixing tracks in and out, fervently tugging at your heartstrings, you realize his music is truly a special gift to this world.

Bassnectar :: Symbiosis 2009

2. Mimosa – Friday night was unadulterated crunk-hop mayhem. Per usual, Tigran Mimosa‘s set was a multicolored mob scene of freely flowing bodies. Onstage, he had a hoard of dancers, a ring of supporters, who ensured the intensity onstage matched the insanity of the crowd. He seamlessly cycled through originals and appeased the crowd’s hip-hop guilty pleasures with hyphy remixes of “I’m In Love With A Stripper,” amongst others. With queasy, throbbing bass dressed down with 909 claps, Mimosa’s soul penetrating sub-kick hits deep enough to shake your clothes off.

3. Anahata Sound – Anahata Pace rocked her Friday mid-afternoon Forest Stage set, coaxing the audience closer and closer towards the front of the stage as her performance took flight. Singing, dancing and sequencing throughout the set, the adorably quirky Anahata proudly maintained the attention of all while progressing through original arrangements. Her voice harbors a whispery calm as peaceful and gentle as a resting infant on a warm afternoon. When addressing her assemblage, she legitimately connects, offering humorous small talk as if we were all old friends catching up. Adorned in a fur cap, lens-less glasses and rose blush dotted cheeks, Anahata’s sound was like a big loving bear hug, squeezing us all.

Saturday Top 3

1. CocoRosie – The dreadfully curious, bizarrely eccentric CocoRosie unambiguously stole the spotlight Saturday afternoon. During the twosome’s set, the stage was a diverse mess of various instruments. An assortment of children’s toys, memorable from my early childhood – bells, shakers, etc. – were efficiently laid out upon a table for a face-painted Bianca (Coco) to meddle with. A few yards away, her sister and musical counterpart, Sierra (Rosie) was stationed beside her harp. Joining them onstage was bassist Josh Werner, human beatbox extraordinaire Spleen, along with a pianist who kept one hand on the keys and the other on a MIDI-keyboard. The quirkiness of “Japan” and haunting melodies of “K-Hole,” “Beautiful Boyz” and Kevin Lyttle cover “Turn Me On” sent chills down my spine, remaining with me for hours after the show was over.

ANA SIA Sunrise Set :: Symbiosis 2009

2. Beats Antique – David Satori and Tommy Cappel of Beats Antique pulled out all the stops on their original handcrafted tilt-a-whirl sound at Symbiosis. Their stellar set stood out amongst others, the stage a busily moving spectacle as Tommy bustled back and forth between live drums and his laptop while David juggled guitar and fiddle lines standing in front of his Mac. Zoe Jakes, an improvisational belly dancer (also part of the Beats Antique troop) contributed her visual magic from the side of the stage. Other highlights included the boys dropping brand new tracks off their latest album, an impromptu duet with LYNX, and the masked dance troops bursting out onstage at the end of the set.

3. !Armageddon Prevention Team – A fun Symbiosis discovery I fell upon, the !Armageddon Prevention Team is a squad of top-notch DJ/producers/performers including (but not limited to) iLL Gates and Chris Sia. During their SG set, the artist collective completely filled up the main stage. The perfect nighttime music, !APT dropped dubby originals and smart remixes, ending their set with a clever mashup featuring an instrumental version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” pasted atop The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.”

Sunday Top 3

1. Crying Over Porcelain For No Reason

This may have been my favorite set of the entire weekend. OOAH and edIT of The Glitch Mob combined both of their solo downtempo projects for an exceptionally rare, intimate ante meridiem set. In addition to running the usual Ableton/laptop/MIDI-controller setup, the boys alternated between a heaping Rhodes keyboard as well as Gibson and PRS guitars. OOAH’s of Porcelain, a lot like edIT’s COPFNR, is dominated by tranquil piano chords, smooth harmonizing guitar licks, glitch-y backing drums, and minimal but sexy accompanying vocal samples. Both projects faultlessly capture the true feel of downtempo and are so emotional it can bring a tear to your eye. For nearly two hours the boys went back and forth, trading tracks. The hypnotized crowd fluttered about like untied balloons released into the air as the pair performed “Ants,” “Ashtray,” “You Are the Sun” and other heart-wrenching selections from Crying Over Pros For No Reason, essentially draining the entire album before walking off stage.

The Glitch Mob :: Symbiosis 2009

2. Random Rab – The perfect way to start the day, Rab’s lulling tunes pushed the sun up higher into the sky faster than the words out of a coked-out auctioneer’s mouth. His set was deep and intensely seductive, and the enraptured crowd resembled a hulking pendulum swinging back and forth. I’ve never felt such a strong connection with Rab’s music as I had that morning. It was enchanting and drew me in as I enjoyed it thoroughly while fighting off the morning cold with a piping hot mocha.

3. Mala – From packed clubs in Brixton, England to the forests of Yosemite, Mala, one half of the Digital Mystikz, brought originally produced dubstep to the ears of many on Sunday morn. The veteran vinylist, needing nothing more than two Technics turntables, a mixer, and an armful of records, quickly had the air thick with dub breaks. His infectious bass had the early morning crowd twirling about like post-apocalyptic zombies feeding solely on the sound being choked out of the speakers. Quite a sight to see.

Conclusion

All things considered, Symbiosis Gathering was a monumental weekend – an all-inclusive sensory overload freakfest. I still can’t get over the astonishing lineup, plump with the best electronic artists currently touring. It sincerely made catching every set feel like an impossible feat. The Naked Lake will serve as a fond memory: every morning and afternoon the docks were packed with lovely, birthday suited people. A fascinatingly quaint Tea Temple in the vendor’s village sold assorted aged teas and had an adjoined walkthrough shrine with artifacts ranging from Nepalese monkey skulls to Virgin Mary statuettes. On the opposite side of the road lay a Zen Garden. A bit further down the way rested the bust of an enormous unicorn, made from metal scraps, marking the fork in the road between the stages. The people, the atmosphere, the music were all magnificent. The Symbiosis experience is something to be treasured. My only hope is that next year’s festivities will be at the same spot or another place as peaceful and inspiring as Yosemite was.

So i was looking out the window of the airplane on the way to St Louis today and i was staring at the plane engine with this uncontrolable desire to brake the window and just fully bust out some seriouse dance moves on the engine. But suddenly before I went to brake open the window I noticed a no human allowed sticker on the engine. That’s right folks a full on red circle with a big old line through it and a litle human standing behind the red iconic symbol of NO!!! There i sat paralized with fear as my dreams shattered across the blue sky……Anyways …

So were in St Louis, being treated real nice playing a wild Pre Halloween bash… We’ll see how it goes looks like it’s going to be alittle crazy …. !!!

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10/30/2009 – 08:00 PM

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We thought we would release this work in progress. We’re happy with it but know it will be evolving into something different in the future. We are offering this up for a DONATION. Pay what you can… We were inspired to share for our 3 year anniversary… Thanks for your support…

http://www.beatsantique.com

Monolith Coverage: Interview with Beats Antique.

Monolith Coverage: Interview

with Beats Antique

September 14, 5:10 PMPop Music ExaminerMarian Tuin

The afternoon sun warmed the crowd buzzing around the MadeLoud stage on Sunday at the Monolith Festival as the urban hip sound of Zoe Jakes, David Satori and Sidecar Tommy otherwise known as Beats Antique ignited the stage with exotic sounds and dancing.

Curious as to what that may have sounded like?  Click here and then continue reading… BEATS ANTIQUE – contraption EP vol. 1 …Beats Antique was a hidden gem and a favorite discovery at the Monolith Festival, mixing funky modern electronic beats with horns, strings, percussion or in Tommy’s own words, “Anything from the old world.” Thus the name Beats (modern electronic sounds) Antique (mixed with more traditional instrumentation). And the members of the band itself are not only refreshing and authentic but every bit as intriguing as their sound.

The group which originally began to make music two years ago for the eastern tradition of Belly Dancing has grown into much more in a short span of time. In fact, the formation of this striking bay area band wasn’t like the traditional joining forces of friends who decided to make music one day. Zoe told me that all three of the members had been friends for a long time and that they had also been in various other bands individually and together. But Beats Antique was birthed out of an emboldened momentary whim. Zoe’s boss, Miles Copeland (formerly an executive at I.R.S. Records) was looking for new, young, modern band to produce. He told her about this one evening and she replied to him, “If you’re serious about this I have some friends and we will do it. I knew I had a lot of talented musician friends but I hadn’t talked to any of them about it at that point.” So the next day when Miles called her back to ask if she was serious about making an album with him she jumped in with both feet asking David and Tommy to join forces with her.

Flash forward two years, two EP’s and numerous festivals and tours later the group is gaining momentum and a formidable following. David told me that a fan approached him after the set at Monolith yesterday saying, “She had traveled for 15 hours to see us.” adding, “It has all kind of happened so fast.” They are currently working on their third self released album as their music continues to evolve. Tommy elaborated saying, “The firs album was primarily music for Belly Dancers and was more acoustic and organic. And with the second album we began adding more electronic beats. It was a lot more collaborative and that is why we entitled it Collide.” Both David and Tommy continued by describing how on the first EP they worked more as individuals on the tracks but with Collide it was literally a collision of each others styles meshing together on each track.

This lively trio is all about putting on the show from mixing their own sound live and balancing the acoustic instrumentation with the electronic sounds to Zoe’s exotic belly dancing and hope to add in more theatrics such as videos choreographed to their music during live sets soon. As it is now they already have a pretty infectious package because there wasn’t really a person standing still during their performance on Sunday afternoon. Even the bigger critiques in the back couldn’t keep from bustin’ it just a little bit to the smooth layers of music mixed in with the booming bass lines.

colorado sunset

Beats Antique with Lynx & Janover in ft collins last night was the 1st time that the 2 groups decided to combine our sets – tommy played live drums, david played violin, guitar and kaos pad, while lynx looped us and jamie janover on hammer dulcimer.  the opening song was epic, with zoe belly dancing, lynx on vocals, and the rest of us on live instruments – it was an amazing auditory experience!

Tonight we play at the B-side lounge in boulder, come out to hear some brand new unreleased tracks!!!

stay tuned for more beats antique news!!!!!!!!!