First and foremost, thank you Red Rocks staff for all your polite professionalism. Every time I am at this venue, the staff always stand out as helpful, kind, and super chill even in dicey situations.

The Colorado edition of the No Redemption tour was one to remember with its funky, electro-house sets, a seasoned party-crowd, and picturesque ambience: an amphitheater cut into the side of a mountain. The lights were powerful and amplified by the drizzly mist that seemed to grow thicker and smokier as the headliners approached. Unlike some of the previous events held at Red Rocks that FUXWITHIT has been able to attend, the stage was stripped down with openers playing at a front and center set up, and the epic, dueling cubes for Tchami and Malaa loomed over, waiting to be climbed.

Opening up the party was Mercer, a French producer, creating Neo House music, and is part of the four DJ’s that make up the collective Pardon My French including DJ Snake, Tchami, and Malaa. If you were lucky enough to make it through the Denver traffic to this opening set, Mercer warmed up the rocky venue with plenty of bass, billowing house synths, and quirky dance beats to get you on your feet.

Justin Martin

Up next was Justin Martin. Hailing from San Francisco, chill vibes eminated off Martin’s drum and bass set. If you have not had the pleasure of checking this interesting artist out, his style is super crisp, futuristic, but bold and bouncy with the bass.

At this point in the show, I was sure that this was going to stay a steady good time. It felt like being at a warehouse party in the mountains. The bass was throbbing, the crowd was on their feet, grooving, and Martin’s melodic remixes where warm, spunky, and fresh. Towards the second half of the set he cooled things off, playing with emotions, sampling saxophones, pianos, and slower rhythms. He picked up it back up at the end, bringing in trance-like dirty treble, crunchy synths, and supple guitar samples.

Just before our headliners, Tchami and Malaa took over their dueling cubes, the crowd was treated to a buffet of genre-bending by K?D. Starting out with heavy, hardcore bass lines, K?D pushed extremes and seemed to jolt the crowd out of Martin’s dream-state. The scattered darkness was tossed aside with a break away pop ballad duet with R&B feels, chased by a dirty drop and sharp synths- like touching your teeth to terracotta.

K?D

This set had something for everyone with plenty of crowd pleasing remixes, and a powerful style of mixing. It was intense, hard but still made room for moments that were simple and sweet, like when he beautifully sampled Björk. No one saw that coming K?D seems to have just skipped down an aisle that has all the best music catalogued from the the last fifty years, and he just skipped down it, touching all the genres that have branched and reconvened in electronic form.

After much funk, Tchami and Malaa finally took the stage, atop their cubes, and rained down fiery, future, French, house music. There was so much drama in there set, from the epic drops, the run through of their fan favorites, and plenty of their edgy, Euro-underground aesthetics.

Malaa

There were times when it was clear that they were taking turns and playing up on each other’s style, but when they transitioned to a solo stint, their individual flavor oozed from the stage, and engulfed the crowd.

Tchami

Tchami was lighter, more agile with his transitions and sampled plush sounds that were dashed against machine, cold synths. Malaa was methodical, unfurling prowling rhythms and swirling in steel drum clips. The duo ran through their No Redepmtion EP, and the hits including Malaa’s break out ‘Notorious’, plus my favorite ‘PREGNANT’, and Tchami’s ‘Shot Caller’.

Malaa

It may seem far-fetched, but this was honestly one of the dankest shows I have seem at Red Rocks thus far. The energy of the event was amazing, the night was perfect for a get down of the sort, and every artist surprised, and wowed with their unique style and sound.

Red Rocks

Tchami and Malaa will wrap up the No Redemption tour with a sold out show in San Francisco, but there are some murmurs that they may make an appearance at EDC Las Vegas. Here’s hoping.

Tchami and Malaa

Check out the No Redemption EP below.

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Photo credit: Mary Poffenbarger

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One half of the French DJ collective Pardon My French-the two have been sharing their latest creation via live performances around North America, including a killer set at Ultra in Miami. The EP, NO REDEMPTION, is ripe with bouncy house effects, aggressive bass lines and plenty of hip hop samples and style.

The intro is like an auditory cleanse, washing away the mundane sounds of the world, preparing your ears for an experience of pure house. This followed up by ‘Summer 99’ with seamless transitions through a techno-trance bounce house. The phrenetic tempo craves to be bumped at a rave full of candy and neon hoops, but is not out done by the shadowier track ‘Kurupt’ that follows it. ‘Kurupt’ has a much sharper edge with its throbbing bass lines, trappy sound effects, and solid drops. Without departing from its future house ways, this track stands out a bit from the rest.

‘The Sermon’ is an interesting track that experiments with more up-right bass samples teased with building snares, and bellowing bass drops. This steady, smooth track shows off the talent and dexterities of the Confession label mates. Progressing through break downs, build ups, and swells of sounds, the transitions are silky, and seem to only paw at the elements of the song to get them to behave.

The last track to be included on NO REDEMPTION is  ‘Deus’, a massive display of their signature house prowess. ‘Deus’ builds up to it with flute samples and excited vocals just to come crashing down through the drop to a scrumptious mess of bass. The bass lines are textured by the tempo, like cream getting whipped, and are frothed up with punctuating vocals, and reverberating flute.

Check all of these out below, and keep an ear to the ground and eyes pealed for potential shows near you- it’s been known to happen suddenly.

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