In this column,
music calendar editor and contributing writer Mitch Lillie helps the discerning club-goer put together their weekly calendar by compiling Portland's best dance-music options for the next seven days. Turn up, tune in, drop the bass.
Friday
(9 pm, $5, 21+)
Though he calls the ATL his hometown, you wonât catch an ounce of Atlanta on Friday at Fez: No crunk, no trap, not even Miami bass. Le Castle Vaniaâs styleâespecially on the freshly-dropped EP Feels Like Fireâis like he pared the chainsaws in Benny Benassiâs âSatisfactionâ into whirring surgical saws. (10 pm, $10-15, 21+)
Please, hurry up and get on TWRKâs big-room trap bandwagon before the whole thing derails into a -step suffixed, female objectifying train wreck. Hey, ladies get in free on Friday at Whiskey Bar! (10 pm, $10, 21+)
I didnât go to the original X Marks the Spotâit was out in the forest sometime last yearâbut Fridayâs edition of mainstream EDM fed through local underground producers is one of the summerâs only chances to rave on the Portland Spirit. (10:45 pm, $20 advance, $30 day of show, 18+)
Back in January, I predicted that Quarryâaka Cory Haynes, founder of Internet label STYLSSâwas an artist to watch. Now STYLSS labelmates Cestladore, Portlandâs Gang$ign$ and transcontinental producer Eastghostâamong many othersâare taking over Verified at Holocene on Saturday. Itâll be a little like hip-hop on opiates and a dope pu-erh. (10 pm, free before 11 pm with RSVP, $5, 21+)
No offense to Massive Attack and Portishead, but the finest trip-hop album comes not from Bristol but from Japan. DJ Krushâs 1996 collaboration with avant-garde trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, Ki-Oku, coolly carves its way through Krushâs moonlit beats and Kondoâs fluttery-eyed solos. Since then heâs maintained a tour schedule apropos of the 51-year-old icon he isâPay your respects on Tuesday at Rotture. (9 pm, $17, 21+)
WWeek 2015