You can also find out more about her latest adventures here.

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I can tell you, I FUXWITHIT. I plan to road trip down from Toronto and “bass bathe” to the incredible lineup.

Some acts that stand out this year are Flying Lotus, Ritchie Hawtin, Chris Lake, ANNA, Claude Vonstroke, GriZ, Maceo Plex, Gorgon City, Dom Dolla, and Joe Kay. 2 Chainz is headlining, which speaks to the hip hop culture of Detroit; I wonder what ‘most expensivest’ shenanigans he’ll get up to. There’s also a buffet of local underground Detroit DJs that are worth a deep dive.

Curious about the music that will be bumping the soundsystems of this year’s cream of the crop? Check out our Movement 2022 FUXWITHIT playlist to catch the vibe.

The post Bump These Beats: Our Movement 2022 Playlist appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

At the Hoxton last Saturday, the in-house PK bins got a flex when the German techno/house/bass/bounce/everything producer came through and blew away the crowd.
It was packed for a reason, and it’s definitely worth checking out his work on Soundcloud, Spotify, or wherever else you stream.

Check out our Facebook picture gallery here, and peep his Resident Advisor mix while you’re at it:

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The post [PICS] Boys Noize is a genre-spanning, speaker-flexing king appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

Aldous Huxley famously described the brain’s function as that of a reducing valve, and on entering the massive space one’s mind had to do an awful lot of reducing to process what it was seeing. Lavish, splashy lasers illuminating the building’s vertigo-inducing size. Light sculptures and live art lending a festival vibe to the mix. And freaking mini-pong. Cmon. All this centered around a heat-generating dance floor with booming vibes provided by Dirty Decibels and Desert Hearts.  [PICS BELOW]

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It’s hard to fathom the immense scale of planning that goes into an event like this – everything from accessible washrooms to city permits have to be arranged and negotiated. Extra-big ups are due here to Summerdaze and their incontrovertible commitment to pushing the boundaries of a good party; they have the good habit of teaming up with other promoters to make sure the scale of their events reaches beyond expectations (we’ve been to a few of their events before and each time it’s a new sensory experience). It’s likely that this was a once-in-a-decade event; the building is slated to become Bellwoods Brewery’s second brew spot in the spring.

That’s sad news for the 500+ people, present company included, who had a freaking good time whooping it up late into the chilly night at 950 Dupont St.

Keep in touch with other dope events from these fine party purveyors at the links below.

SummerDaze | Dirty Decibels | Desert Hearts

Photos below taken by the talented Neil Austen for FUXWITHIT.

*Statistically likely data inferred from Toronto’s Neighbourhood Profile data

Dirty Decibels

Dirty D's

We <3 light sculptures

mini PONG

Deep Jesus

Warm enough..

Live painting by Chris TQT

There's always room

big big big

Photo by Neil Austen for FUXWITHIT

Photo by Neil Austen for FUXWITHIT

Photo by Neil Austen for FUXWITHIT

The post Cool Space, Warm Vibes: City Hearts Warehouse Party a Nice Surprise appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

Five organizing groups collaborated on the Amazon-themed event, and the result was an eclectic fusion of white collar club and underground bohemian. Feel like eating gourmet dishes on padded white couches under fancy coloured lighting? Go right ahead. Want to clear your mind and breathe deep for a bit? Show up for the guided sound therapy session. Is reclining in a reserved booth something you want to do? Do it. Feeling tight in the muscles or the spirit? Pop into a massage or reiki healing booth. Wanna lose yourself in the ritual of dance under a jungle canopy surrounded by pseudo-nude simians? That’s there for you. Feel like pissing in a porta-potty? Knock yourself out. (Warehouse logistics: The mind reels..)

The two huge rooms in the ex-furniture warehouse space were bumping a wicked mash of tunes until sunrise. The back room had house and techno and tribal rhythms in steady rotation, and the main room provided a much-needed break from four-to-the-floor styles with funky bass house, future bass, hip hop and even live rap.

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LOVE IS A PLACE YOU GO TOGETHER

The organizers seemed to have a grander theme in mind than cut-loose solipsistic debauchery. When you get the right people together and headed in the same direction, you go somewhere. The ‘Place’ I’m talking about was most clear during and immediately after what was billed as ‘sound therapy’; a combination of group meditation and free-association sound wall.

Hundreds of people participated under the jungle canopy, seated at first as soaring voices, trilling chants, drums and fire all wove together in unison. The thing swelled into a fierce drum-driven dance, and the audio transmorphed into a swilling, ethereal electronic soundscape that lasted the better part of half an hour.

Just listen to ^this^ recording right here. I mean, jesus… this chord progression was going on for at least eight minutes on end, just pouring and pouring out of a dozen speakers at a volume that disabled cogent thought and left you with no other feasible option but to hug someone – anyone – while you daisy-skip in a psychedelic place of peace and serenity.

And that’s the crux of it: This party was not meant to be taken at face value. It was designed from the ground-up to bridge regular and open-minded people to inspiration, uplift, catharsis through experience; not just indulgent distraction. The jungle theme, the sounds, the voices, the art… it all pointed towards something, and not just to the music or dancing; those things pointed, too.

In the wild, love is free. The nature of real love is self-generating surplus: you give it out and it comes right back to you. It’s in the air, and it comes in through the ears then out through the body – I think that’s what Michael from Lovelution meant about dance being a pure expression of love. It makes you feel good on a macro level – about who you’ve been, who you are, who you want to be.

LOVELUTION: ROLE MODELS FOR LOVE

In a time where music and the rituals around it are muddled by metaphor and doublespeak and presumption, Lovelution cuts to the chase. They strike right at the heart of it (pun intended). There’s no insinuation or bullshittery, just straight up love.

Lovelution seems to be made up of people with fewer layers between their selves and the cosmic. Unburnished by mundanity, these people are leading a growing tribe of like-hearted people to better and more peaceful places. They are, frankly, much-needed role models for love.

A funny thing happens when good role models are around: people pick up on it. They shape up. Mirror neurons are activated and they learn by watching. Monkey see, monkey love. This changes the vibe of things in a foundational way: There’s still dancing and smiling and catching people’s eye, but the interactions that spring from there are more authentic and open and, dare I say it, human.

Ego dismantles and shame dissolves and you find yourself speaking sentences that begin with “I feel” and “I learned” and “I love”.

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THE COMPLICATED DICHOTOMY BETWEEN CLUB TYPES AND HIPPIES

Ultimately, not everybody can feel liberated by demonstrations of love. Some brief words need to be said about the barometric pressure change from between 11pm-1am with the influx and subsequent outflow of what one could oversimplify as Club Types.

As the rooms became diluted with newcomers who hadn’t yet absorbed the themes of the night, there were more than a few funny faces.

Don’t get me wrong – this wasn’t some Warriors-style rivalry or anything, but the tension was palpable and one cringes at the idea of the vitriolic self-protective judgment that comes from across the dividing line of lifestyle choices between these two camps (from one side maybe more than the other).

What FIVE+ was getting up to there, in the warehouse’s back space, was a clearly-advertised attempt at united celebration, which makes the disdain even more unfounded. Berating peoples’ honest effort at loving togetherness with no further claim to superiority than the fact that you tied your own wingtips and used your pinkie to swipe yourself a surge-price Uber is adolescent in an unsettling way. Self-respect is a fickle thing…

LOVE IS A SMALL SPACE BETWEEN SURRENDER AND FEAR

In all, FIVE+ NYE was a peacock-feathered success, and introduced a lot of people to the awesome vibery combo of Lovelution, Summerdaze, Provoke, Bespoke.Experience, and Way of Acting.

It also set the tone for an inspired leap across calendar years, even if it culminated in the sad but entertaining scene of seething clubbers bitching about Hippies through gritted teeth while paying for armloads of Lays and Gatorade by credit card at one of the few convenience stores still open late into the night.

Here’s to 2016, and a new normal.

The post FIVE+ NYE: The Party So Fun It Didn’t Feel Like New Year’s appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

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What follows here is a photographic journey through the City Hearts Toronto, hosted by the gregarious Desert Hearts collective.

There was loads of lounging and chattering outside when I arrived at 28 Logan Ave just before midnight. The building was not obvious to navigate – I waited in a non-line for 10 minutes next to the smoker’s door before finding a real entrance. The Cop Game across the street looked more like a skater posse than a mob of authority; they eyed partygoers the way Coyote would eye Roadrunner. Meep.

Entering the funky space, there were funky people and funky things to do. You could feel and hear the vibrant thumping of the AlienInFlux sound system in the main room next door.

The Main Room: Space to dance and swing and lounge and chat and connect and contemplate art. The walls themselves seemed to say, ‘This is a place where it’s Free to Be, to open your minds and get absolutely freaked.’

Most people weren’t in costume so much as wearing ‘expressive clothing’… except for Wonder Woman, who doubled as a masseuse for the night.

“We gotta spread the message – Love. It’s all about that.” Desert Hearts co-founder Mikey Lion said on the dance floor after he carooned some fluttery four-to-the-floor on the decks.
“True. So do you like dubstep?” I ventured.
“Not really. We’re pretty strict – militant – house and techno heads. We throw a festival in the desert every year and it’s 100 hours of house and techno. It’s all one stage, one crowd, one vibe.”

Thank god for coppers. It’s my publicly stated opinion that whoever’s taking a dip, dap or dab to ratchet themselves into consciousness-expanding bliss is a sordid, guilty fuck and should be tackled immediately and incarcerated to the maximum. (My private opinion is the opposite.)

Shortly after Italian tech-house duo Nice7 took the reins, the crowd was a growing frenzy of whoops and cheers. “What are we cheering for?” my brother Rob shouted. “Life!” was the reply. The sound swelled over a buildup and by the time it dropped we were all already off our heads.

“When beautiful girls are dancing, everything changes for a DJ. We try to make the girls a-happy, because when the girls is happy the mans is happy, and everyone’s happy!” – Cesare Marocco, Nice7

LEFT – Mikey Lion: “That’s my little brother up there – Pork Chop”.
Me: “Oh really?” (fumbling to get my phone out and correct the Instagram post in which I declared that it was Deep Jesus ‘keeping things noisy’.) “He’s nailing it. Must be nice to roll with family.”
ML: “Yeah man.”
RIGHT – The only known photo of Marbs, due to the fact that anybody holding a camera is faced with the affliction of being tacked to the dance floor by dirty techno beats.

The crowd was a tangled blur of limb and shadow, moving in ecstatic syncopated rhythm.

Music and love inspires art and movement. (You can see the result of this live painting here)

As Lee Reynolds closed out the night, I realized that what makes the Desert Hearts message of Love so convincing is that they actually live it – it’s a rare moment when somebody’s not hugging, high fiving, sharing ecstatic conversations, amping each other up, chatting with guests and asking peoples’ names… in short, they are using their friendship, music, and charming personalities as a platform to demonstrate – literally teach – people how to be loving.

This was the last stop for the Desert Hearts crew before they flew out to Burning Man the next day. The collective feedback on the city reads like an eBay review: Toronto was fucking awesome. A++. Will come again.   

City Hearts on Facebook
Desert Hearts on Soundcloud
SummerDaze on Facebook

All photos by Kevin G for FUXWITHIT

The post Toronto Loves City Hearts (And Vice Versa) appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

However familiar you are with the first two terms, no doubt you are very much so with the third: It’s this universal theme that is the backbone of California-grown collective Desert Hearts’ growth and evolution over the last three years, and it’s certainly what’s taking them to District 28 in Toronto on Saturday Aug 29th as the last leg – and only Canadian stop – on their City Hearts tour. The vibes go till 5am – late enough to be called Sunday morning, no? Music will be handcrafted by the Desert Hearts crew as well as Italian headliners Nice7.

Desert Hearts was born to fulfill the desire of founder Mikey Lion to spread love and positive energy through music after being inspired by an innocent trip to the renowned and notorious Burning Man … and thusly was a three-day desert festival born in the burgeoning San Diego music scene, and subsequently grown up to tour the love vibe in between bigger events: Toronto is their last stop before, fittingly, venturing on to Burning Man.

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What is Love, you ask? And how do I Bring it? It’s simple: Show up and be your best and most wildest self, fly your freak flag proudly (costuming is encouraged), and smile a lot. And hug people. Basically feel free to have a good fucking time and be up for helping others do the same. Is that too much to ask? Don’t come if it is. 

And this is the point of curating vibes: Attracting the right people is key, community is key. Gag all you want at House and Techno – some music’s not for everybody, so don’t show up… But if you like the music and bristle at the word ‘Love’, then stay home too — lest you show up and be met with Radical Acceptance and get smothered with hugs and enchanting smiles. Could there be a worse thing? (For a love-hating miser, yeah, but we won’t get into that here…)

The signs are obvious, people – There’s a wild thing happening on Saturday and if you’re at all inclined to the festival world or feel a bit freaky at all, then turn your shit up to a peacock feathered 11 and cop a ticket. If you’ve read this far, you know you want to.

Get a sampling of the vibes by checking out the short recap video from the City Hearts SF event.

The Facebook event is here, with tons of positivity and links to buy tickets.

FYI, The outdoor SummerDaze portion starts at 2pm, for you marathoners of the sun-soaked soundwaves.

See you there, freaky people.

The post Curated Vibes at City Hearts this Saturday appeared first on FUXWITHIT.