New Forms Festival 2014

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  • Over the five years I've been going, New Forms Festival has moved around Vancouver to repurpose spaces for its own experimental, audiovisual ends. Even in light of that, 2014's venue seemed unusual. Science World, the unmissable geodesic dome in Vancouver's skyline, was originally built for Expo '86 and later became the family-oriented science centre it is now. It's a staple for school field trips, and anyone who grew up in the greater Vancouver area likely has childhood memories there, which made it all the stranger as the home for a weekend-long rave. As surreal as it could be walking through the cordoned-off exhibitions and brightly coloured hallways in the early hours of the morning, New Forms did a typically excellent job of turning the place into one gigantic multi-level rave cave. More than just a sprawling playground, the biggest attraction at Science World was undoubtedly the gigantic five-storey OMNIMAX theatre. Opening early each night, it hosted one of the best audiovisual sets I've ever seen, where Murcof teamed up with Antivj's Simon Geilfus for an hour-long tour-de-force of live techno synced with intricate visuals. It was an experience so immersive they didn't even need to give out those plastic 3D glasses. The dome also saw solid turns from local keyboardist Sinoia Caves and synth head Morton Subotnick, who coaxed otherworldly sounds out of his machines in spite of some crackly sound problems. The less said about Arca and Jesse Kanda, however, the better. A not-entirely-convincing DJ set matched up with offensive, sexist and exploitative visuals with all the fidelity of a YouTube video, it felt like a massive waste of an incredible space. Once the theatre closed at 9 each night, the rest of Science World opened up. It was divided into two rooms. The first was a pitch-black hangar-like space that changed configuration each night, sometimes with just the dim throb of overhead lights or, on Saturday, armed with a stunning video wall. This room saw a blistering Friday night run with Helena Hauff, Jared Wilson and Hieroglyphic Being, who played a brutal live set assisted only by a flashing strobe. On Saturday, the room became a comprehensive showcase for mutations in UK dance music, featuring Visionist, Wen and Scratcha DVA. Of those three, Wen's powerful dubstep-inspired undulations were probably the most exciting, though Visionist played a seamless blend of grime, trap and R&B (much more consistent than when I saw him the week before). They were followed by a closing turn from Chicago's DJ Earl, whose blend of lively uptempo sounds kept the dwindling crowd going until 4 AM. The second room sat at the bottom of Science World's central staircase, offering a rather trippy view of the whole building, some neat wraparound video walls and the ability to look down at the dance floor from the railings above. It was the more house-oriented of the two rooms, and less revelatory overall, though Adam Marshall, Dresvn and locals Mirage Inc. all played well. The room offered a bit of a breather during the more intense moments upstairs, especially during Finn Johannsen's three-hour set on Saturday, which spanned italo, disco and funky house sounds (at least from the bits that I saw). There was always that feeling of balance at New Forms, part of the festival's approach in getting some of the city's brightest musical minds to help program the lineups—so we also had a beautiful performance of crystal-clear synth washes and crashing beats from rising local artist Lnrdcroy, and Madlib's last-minute cancellation was soothed by Dâm-Funk, who proved a clever replacement (and riled up the usually conservative crowd). Both rooms had some of the best sound I've ever heard in Vancouver, which helped to lend the festival an especially professional feel this time around. A relatively small and underground endeavour typically, in 2014 New Forms suddenly felt like it was accepted into the city's wider art culture, primarily by the magnitude and visibility of the venue. Of course, that kind of mainstream move comes with a price—literally, with higher ticket prices—and also with more comprehensive security. Trying to get in through the doors could be an invasive experience (bouncers searching through prescription pill bottles and everything) but once you were in it was relatively smooth sailing. The liquor license ran out at 2 AM and the bars promptly shut down, meaning you couldn't even buy water during the festival's last two hours on Friday and Saturday nights. As usual, the last day of the festival was devoted to a free open air party, this time on the banks of False Creek (next to Science World), with a seven-hour set from DJ Sotofett and Fett Burger. The two played a near-perfect mélange of disco, dub and house to soothe everyone's frayed and hungover nerves. With the sun setting over the skyline, and the park flanked by the ubiquitous condo towers that make Vancouver so allergic to any kind of noise in the first place, it was hard not to reflect on how the festival has grown so much over the years, and wonder if this year was a fluke, or a peak—where could they possibly go from here? As New Forms showed this year, however, they can fulfill and subvert expectations at the same time, existing in a city famously hostile to nightlife, throwing a big rave in one of its most prominent buildings and doing it with the scrappy, experimentally-minded spirit that it started off with in the first place. Photo credits: Kirk Chantraine
RA