- Earlier this year, the fate of Vancouver's most prestigious electronic music festival, New Forms, seemed up in the air. After a huge 2014 that saw it move into its largest venue yet, the organisers announced a change of format, ending a 15-year tradition by switching from a single festival into a series of year-round events. Only a couple of these ran before the brand seemed to all but disappear. Then, earlier this fall, New Forms announced its return as a two-night festival at Club 560. The venue was smaller than Science World and the more modular Centre For Digital Media. But in the end, the pared-down programming was just what the festival needed, recapturing the intimate and open-ended vibe of earlier editions.
New Forms is a bit of an outlier. Their bookings can be risky and rarely align with artist tours or the rest of the festival circuit. Bringing in a DJ like Untold, who had nothing in particular to promote, or South African gqom producer Menchess, who had never played a date in North America, was proof of this—New Forms books acts based on their music, nothing else. (In the end, Menchess didn't make it because of visa issues.) The lineup was wide-ranging, from the all-out party vibes of Robert Hood to the more cerebral techno of Pye Corner Audio, making for a well-rounded weekend that touched on all aspects of the electronic music experience.
Club 560 is a former super club which, when it opened in 2012, was the biggest undertaking in the Vancouver nightlife scene for years. (It closed in 2015, before quietly reopening this year.) The huge ground floor held the main room, flanked by a smaller lounge, the Home Theatre Department, which featured back-to-back DJ sets from local DJs. Upstairs, New Forms turned the Satellite Gallery into a fantastic side room. Draped in colourful tape and bathed in geometric and patterned visuals, it also boasted its own lounge with a swing set. The size of the venue didn't feel overwhelming, while the various visual installations made wandering around all the more exciting.
The main room held the most intense fare, including Convextion's near-perfect set, which careened from surprisingly hard techno into weightless, dubby breakdowns. There were uptempo hijinks from footwork DJ Swisha, and Untold's heady closing performance, which included selections from Shackleton and Ramadanman. Upstairs on the first day, Lee Bannon played a blistering DJ set that started with Seal's "Kiss From A Rose," while on the second day, the room was reoriented for Pye Corner Audio, who built slowly towards a mind-bending climax. His show featured some of the most arresting visuals of the weekend.
New Forms has long been an incubator of Vancouver talent, giving young producers a platform when the city's tradition of small clubs and DIY venues wouldn't. This year, local artists basically stole the show. Khotin opened the main room on Friday with a mostly ambient live set that highlighted the gentle melodies and lush textures of his usually percussive work. Minimal Violence helped stir up the frantic energy that Robert Hood would later run away with, while Downtown Solutions (formerly Friendly Chemist) dazzled with a techno set wrung from an obscenely tall modular rack.
Upstairs on Saturday was a different story. Slow Riffs, the ambient project of Mood Hut's Local Artist, was a surprise, gently introducing tribal percussion into his otherwise zen-like material. You're Me, the duo of Yu Su and Scott Gailey, delivered what might have been the set of the festival. Sat at their laptops, they churned out intense low frequencies, pretty melodies and sound effects that perfectly captured the lush naturalism of their recorded work, even in a darkened club.
The weekend's loveliest moment happened in the Home Theatre Department on the final night. Once Pye Corner Audio had closed the upstairs room and Untold was on deck downstairs, the party crammed in to see Pacific Rhythm's DJ D.DEE and Victoria crate-digger Koosh go back-to-back. The vibe was easygoing, with D.DEE playing feel-good disco and house before Koosh took it slightly darker for the last hour. Everyone danced with smiles on their faces. It was a counterpoint to the sometimes challenging experiments going on elsewhere at the festival, and a reminder that some of the best moments of New Forms past have come from everyone getting down together and letting loose.
Photo credit /
Vasho Photography
Upstairs on Saturday was a different story. Slow Riffs, the ambient project of Mood Hut's Local Artist, was a surprise, gently introducing tribal percussion into his otherwise zen-like material. You're Me, the duo of Yu Su and Scott Gailey, delivered what might have been the set of the festival. Sat at their laptops, they churned out intense low frequencies, pretty melodies and sound effects that perfectly captured the lush naturalism of their recorded work, even in a darkened club. The weekend's loveliest moment happened in the Home Theatre Department on the final night. Once Pye Corner Audio had closed the upstairs room and Untold was on deck downstairs, the party crammed in to see Pacific Rhythm's DJ D.DEE and Victoria crate-digger Koosh go back-to-back. The vibe was easygoing, with D.DEE playing feel-good disco and house before Koosh took it slightly darker for the last hour. Everyone danced with smiles on their faces. It was a counterpoint to the sometimes challenging experiments going on elsewhere at the festival, and a reminder that some of the best moments of New Forms past have come from everyone getting down together and letting loose. Photo credit / Vasho Photography