BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition August 2018
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.
Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120
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MOTION NOTION<br />
ELECTRONIC FESTIVAL RELOCATES IN SEARCH OF A NEW GROOVE<br />
PAUL RODGERS<br />
CLUBLAND<br />
YOUR MONTH MEASURED IN BPMS<br />
ALAN RANTA<br />
BPM<br />
Motion Notion relocates this year to Merritt, <strong>BC</strong>, a tried and tested location for enjoying quality electronic music.<br />
Motion Notion has moved four times<br />
in their 19 years as a festival and this<br />
summer, due to circumstances beyond<br />
their control, they been forced to<br />
relocate for a fifth time. After finding no<br />
suitable locations close to their current<br />
site near Golden, or in Alberta, they<br />
threw a “Hail Mary” to a festival site well<br />
known to them, the site of the Merritt<br />
Mountain Music Festival, likely better<br />
known to readers of this article as the<br />
current home of Bass Coast.<br />
“We really embody the name Motion<br />
Notion quite frequently,” says Kevin<br />
Harper, director at Motion Notion. He<br />
says the first couple of times they moved<br />
it was because they had outgrown their<br />
usual digs. This year the reason is quite a<br />
bit more unfortunate.<br />
“We had been at Beaverfoot for about<br />
six years and had an agreement to do<br />
multi-years and build permanent stages<br />
and kind of the dream scenario,” Harper<br />
explains. “And then all of a sudden the<br />
owner basically fired all of the Canadian<br />
management staff of his company and<br />
put in charge a U.S.-based developer to<br />
manage the property.”<br />
They and all other scheduled<br />
programming, weddings and all, were<br />
given the boot. To Harper and the rest<br />
of his team, this obviously came as a<br />
significant shock, especially coming just<br />
a few months before the show was set<br />
to go off.<br />
“We had to basically make a decision<br />
of cancelling the event, which would be<br />
the first time ever to do so, or to work<br />
our butts off to find a suitable new<br />
location.”<br />
They spoke with everyone they could,<br />
government officials, First Nations<br />
groups, farmers, strangers on the road,<br />
becoming the talk of the town in Golden<br />
along the way, but nothing materialized.<br />
So then they decided to reach out to<br />
their friends at Bass Coast. “[We] said,<br />
‘this is the situation, we’re really sorry<br />
to put this on you — can we have your<br />
blessing to be able to get us by?’ And<br />
they said absolutely.”<br />
News of Motion Notion’s move to the<br />
grounds that Bass Coast attendees have<br />
a profound connection to seemed to<br />
create two different schools of thought<br />
on the matter. The first being that it<br />
makes sense, the land is not owned<br />
by Bass Coast, they are tenants there,<br />
and the Motion Notion, like Fozzy Fest<br />
last year because of the Wildfires, was<br />
put in a situation where they needed a<br />
proper venue fast. The land in Merritt is<br />
designated for that exact purpose.<br />
However, because festivals have such<br />
an intrinsic impact on attendees, some<br />
felt as though it would be weird having<br />
another rave on Bass Coast’s setting.<br />
“That was our utmost number<br />
one concern,” Harper says. “From our<br />
standpoint, because we our one festival<br />
community, we do want to make sure<br />
that we’re not stepping on anyone’s toes,<br />
both on the event organizer side, but<br />
even for the attendees so that it’s not an<br />
overlap in terms of expectations and all<br />
of that stuff.”<br />
Harper says that 95 per cent of<br />
feedback about this move has been<br />
positive, though there has been some<br />
negative comments, but in his 20-plus<br />
years of running events — 11 just with<br />
MoNo — he knows that problems can<br />
always arise, and this one “takes the<br />
cake.”<br />
In terms of creating a distinct vibe<br />
from that which Bass Coast conjure up<br />
every year in the Nicola Valley, Harper is<br />
confident that the overall atmospheres<br />
of the festivals are different enough that<br />
it won’t be an issue. Yes, they are both<br />
electronic music festivals, but that term<br />
is extremely broad.<br />
Though it’s hard to categorize a<br />
festival’s entire programming into a<br />
word, whereas Bass Coast may be known<br />
to be a little more heady, deeper, darker,<br />
MoNo features more of the funky,<br />
heavier sounds like breaks (Marten<br />
Hørger, Freestylers), drum and bass<br />
(Calyx and TeeBee, Original Sin) and<br />
electro house (Slynk), but then of course<br />
the sound that they are originally rooted<br />
in, and that you are unlikely to find at<br />
other West Coast festivals these days:<br />
psytrance.<br />
So worry not, there is plenty of<br />
room in that valley to provide entirely<br />
distinct playgrounds for many different<br />
raving revellers to delight in, as well as a<br />
logistical base of operations for festival<br />
promoters caught between a rock and<br />
a hard place — like Harper, who says he<br />
is now going to be able to sleep a little<br />
better at night.<br />
Motion Notion takes place <strong>August</strong> 23 to<br />
27 in Merritt, <strong>BC</strong>.<br />
Things are rough out there, and getting rougher every day, but you’ve got<br />
to take a little time for yourself every once in a while, just to maintain<br />
sanity. It’s only a selfish act if you don’t tip your servers.<br />
Shipped Waterfront Festival<br />
<strong>August</strong> 11 @ The Shipyards<br />
Many solid acts on this amazingly free bill, including Washington-based<br />
downtempo electronica producer Manatee Commune, wh’s like a less<br />
serious version of Tycho, and Juno-nominated electro-pop duo HUMANS.<br />
It’s low commitment, high reward. Take a chance.<br />
A Tribe Called Red<br />
Aug 11 @ Jonathan Rogers Park<br />
If you can’t get down with this Polaris-nominated powwow-stepping Tribe<br />
from the moment they hit the stage, I don’t know what to tell you, other<br />
than you’re missing out on a very important part of the Canadian national<br />
identity. Their catalogue should be taught in every school across the<br />
country.<br />
Insane Clown Posse<br />
Aug 16 @ Venue<br />
It’ll cost you $45 to take in this spectacle, but even if you’re not much of<br />
a fan of their novel hip-hop stylings, it might be worth the price tag just<br />
to see the kind of people who show up. Few acts have a more dedicated<br />
fanbase than these long-running Detroit underground weirdos, and energy<br />
is contagious.<br />
ohGr<br />
Aug 19 @ the Red Room<br />
If you know Skinny Puppy, you have an idea of what to expect from ohGr,<br />
the electro-pop, hip-hop, and metal-tinged industrial side project of Kevin<br />
Ogilvie (a.k.a. Nivek Ogre) and Mark Walk. These guys just successfully<br />
crowdfunded the creation and release of their fifth studio album, TrickS,<br />
and the Red Room will be lucky to be left standing after they shake the<br />
foundation with it.<br />
JPEGMAFIA<br />
Aug 29 @ Fortune $15.00<br />
Baltimore’s Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks dropped his second album<br />
as JPEGMAFIA early on in <strong>2018</strong>. It’s called Veteran, and the title cannot be<br />
inferred as your typical baseless thug chest-pounding. Hendricks served<br />
his country in Iraq. He’s the real deal, an actual veteran who has seen some<br />
shit, which backs up his aggressive, experimental hip-hop style infinitely<br />
more solidly than all the bulletproof vests 50 Cent can order online from<br />
the safety of his mansion.<br />
JPEGMAFIA<br />
<strong>August</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 15