New York-based producer/beatmaker Denis Jašarević, best known to the world as Gramatik, has been quite busy since the advent of his latest EP, Re:Coil Part I. Shortly after its release, he went on a European tour throughout the fall to commemorate it; he then followed through by bringing the EP home to North America, travelling to multiple stops across the US & Canada. He recently touched down in Toronto for an unforgettable spectacle at The Danforth Music Hall, near the tour’s end.
The venue was nice and spacious, especially as it became flooded with people throughout the night. The bass was really heavy, as was to be expected for a beat/dubstep-centric artist such as Gramatik. On the one hand, feeling it reverberate throughout your entire body all night was very nice, like a sort of musical massage. However, it felt like it overtook the melodies of some songs at various times.
The opener, Balkan Bump, didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with this though, since his signature trumpet cut right through the bass, as he played it live over his tracks. He also made a shoutout to Gramatik at one point, thanking him for discovering/bringing him on such a musical journey, approx. 6 months ago. French sensation Møme, who performed after Balkan, whipped out an electric guitar and started jamming out a few times throughout his set, between dropping some heavy & funky tunes – a prime example being when he had the room shaking to ‘Let’s Go‘. 
Although the Facebook event page billed Gramatik from 9:00pm-11:00pm, giving us an anticipatory 2 hour-set to look forward to, it didn’t start until 9:18 (after some necessary set-up between his and Møme’s sets). He had a guitarist, Adam, performing alongside him for his set, and had some drop-ins from Balkan, at one point donning a Guy Fawkes mask as he played the trumpet. The whole set ran until 10:40, likely to stay ahead of the venue’s strict 11:00 curfew. The EP/tour was inspired by Nikola Tesla (who Gramatik is a strong advocate of), and throughout his set, there were projections of Nikola’s head rotating on the LED screens behind him.
Gramatik played every song from Re:Coil, except for ‘Recovery‘ featuring Eric Krasno. He opened with the first two songs from the EP – ‘Future Crypto‘, going right into ‘Goldilocks Enigma‘, which helped solidify the tone of what was to be heard throughout the night. He even played a few other tunes from his label, Lowtemp Music, including Branx‘s hit, ‘Sauce‘, which felt like a glorious explosion of low frequencies in every measure.
The long-time diehards didn’t get to hear any of his ol’ school material as we were hoping for (I’m talking Street Bangerz era, circa late 2000’s/early 10’s). He did deliver all 3 Grizmatik tunes though – ‘Digital Liberation is Mad Freedom‘, ‘My People’, & ‘As We Proceed‘ – and each one caused a heavy uproar throughout the venue.
There were a couple of tracks throughout the night which had a Gramatik-like vibe to them (imagine hip-hop beats mixed with a glitch-hop/dubstep-influenced bassline, and mid-range synths). This could end up being an outlandish speculation, yet these (potentially) never-before-heard songs may be tracks off his upcoming Re:Coil Part II, which hasn’t been announced as of yet.
Around 10:25, he played ‘Aymo‘, the EP’s collaborative track with Talib Kweli and Balkan. The latter returned to the stage, and dropped a fire trumpet solo to close out the tune, before Gramatik made the announcement that he was going to enter his encore from that point on. The encore took the vibe to a much harder level, bringing in some pure dubstep to start a mosh pit and get people to throw some elbows. Following the heavy hype, Gramatik carried right into his collab with Galactic Marvl, ‘Voyager Twins’, to close out the night.
The evening was filled with such a wide variety of dance-ready tunes, that time itself seemed to have slowed down throughout the set’s duration, as we all danced, grooved and blasted off to the music. It’s not all too often that Gramatik touches down in the city, yet when he does, it’s always guaranteed to be a hell of a time for all those involved.
All images courtesy of Melissa Sorokolit – check out her website, as well as her Facebook & Insta plugs!
