Photo credit: Maegan Eli/88Nine Radio Milwaukee
The knock against summer music festivals is that the lineups are all more or less the same. From the Lollapaloozas and Coachellas down to the Summer Sets, each is drafted from the same pool of artists by promoters guided less by curatorial vision than by an understanding of how to move tickets. It doesn't have to be that way, though. Justin Vernon’s inaugural Eaux Claires festival this month proved it’s possible to leave a personal stamp on the most impersonal of live-music experiences and, on a much smaller scale, Radio Milwaukee’s Tarik Moody demonstrated the same with the station’s MicroFest, a bill marking the 10th anniversary of his program “Rhythm Lab.” The whole night was a celebration of Moody’s eclectic tastes.
Local acts kicked off the evening, first young rappers and breakdancers from the Milwaukee non-profit TRUE Skool, followed by a one-off performance from rapper Klassik and a trio of local jazz and neo-soul players. Next came Milwaukee’s Dream Attics, a band that contemporizes ’80s dream-pop with programmed electronic beats. They’ve only released a handful of songs online and they’re still relatively new to the stage, but they’re onto something special, channeling a distinctly sensual spin on college rock that draws as much from the bedtime soul of Sade as the blissful atmospherics of the Cocteau Twins.
The first of the three touring acts at the top of the bill, Brooklyn electronic-soul producer Taylor McFerrin achieved a lush, full sound by looping himself with a keyboard, drum machine and sampler. Live looping is usually an inexact art, riddled with stumble and false starts, but even with that element of uncertainty, McFerrin’s jazzy compositions were poised and precise. He ended the set on a note of genuine spontaneity, improvising a song with two Milwaukee artists, rapper Da Genius and singer Siren.
|
|
Photo credit: Maegan Eli
Natalie Prass’ self-titled debut is the kind of album that nobody makes anymore: a stereophonic singer-songwriter record crowded with strings and horns—a modern homage of sorts to ’60s and ’70s greats like Carole King and Dusty Springfield. That record is in many ways an exercise in formality, but her live show was decidedly casual, ditching those baroque arrangements in favor of stripped-down rhythm and blues. Donning a dress with flowing long sleeves that Loretta Lynn would appreciate, she kept things loose and playful, even singing a couple bars of the Quad City DJ’s Space Jam theme as she introduced her band. She was by far the least electronic-minded artist on the bill, yet like the rest of the MicroFest’s lineup, she shared a clear interest in contemporary soul. Her cover of Janet Jackson’s “Any Time, Any Place,” was one of the night’s highlights.
Photo credit: Maegan Eli
Headliner Peanut Butter Wolf is an accomplished producer in his own right, but his greatest contribution to music has been releasing other people’s work. His label Stones Throw Records has been behind some of the most interesting outsider hip-hop and soul records of the last two decades, including classics from Madlib and J Dilla, producers whose dizzy aesthetic heavily overlaps with his own. He closed the night with an upbeat DJ set that synced a hodgepodge of old hip-hop, soul and soft rock to a trippy video display, mining funky, danceable loops out of some of the most unlikely source material. Like the rest of MicroFest, it was a testament to the malleability of music.
Photo credit: Maegan Eli
