Altitude Music Festival at CU Boulder, 4/28/12

Britt Chester

It's hard to say what is about hip-hop and EDM, but the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. Zion I was certainly the helping of jelly last night, adding a sweet live performance to a relatively knob-twisting heavy evening. AmpLive and Zumbi had incessant energy, moving the crowd with each lyrical impression, especially on the closing track "Coastin," which was given special dedication to "all the dreamers in the crowd." The most impressive part of the evening was how AmpLive's production was executed on the spot. He worked two pads and a mixer like a set of drums, playing by ear and memory and not missing a beat. Truly an impressive sight.

Britt Chester

GRiZ, who played the previous night at the Sonic Bloom pre-party, held the second spot on the line-up. Whereas his show seemed slightly out of place the night before (what with all the unified field theory, painting, fire dancing, etc), last night, it was just what Boulder needed to wake the fuck up.

Slide show: Altitude Music Festival

This new generation of producers seem to always remind the crowd that they are playing "all original music," when it's really just remixes. Not original. An original remix, maybe, but not original. A sample is not an instrument, it's a color on the palette used to create a masterpiece. It would basically be the equivalent of taking thirty magazines to create a collage and not crediting any of the original publications which provided the content. But we digress...

Britt Chester

GRiZ really stepped up to the plate last night. "Where is the love," his take on a track that samples Bobby Blue Bands' "Ain't No Love," always seems to take the crowd by storm. What really stood out in his whole set was his remade "Gold Dust" tribute to Flux Pavilion's epic ballad from 2010. GRiZ's track might even be better than the original -- maybe it's just because it's new and not nearly as played out -- but it certainly takes the song to another level. Cheers to GRiZ, who gets the MVP for the night.