If you not only like to listen to relentless non-stop soulful dance beats, work up a sweat actually dancing, and then at the same time, get in a discussion about ‘What’s the Greatest Remix of All Time?’ this is probably where you want to be next weekend. West Coast Weekender(WCW) is a mix of night club performances, discussions and workshops over four days in San Diego. It might be easier to simply call it “HeadNod Con or Baby Powder Fest” (dedicated house music heads will know what I mean by the latter).
DJ Rich Medina coming to San Diego for WCW
The simple fact that known underground house music and drum n bass DJs like Philly’s Rich Medina, London’s LTJ Bukem, San Francisco’s Mark Farina, and LA’s Marques Wyatt (DEEP) are on the bill, is enough to take notice. All of them are worthy of in-depth blogs and any of them on their own command giant audiences late into the wee hours of a given morning all over the globe. Put with them Purple Disco Machine, San Diego’s own Mark Quark and about 20 others and you’ve got quite the eclectic, underground, soulful, atmospheric buffet.
West Coast Weekender Partner and DJ Oscar Poche, who has his own brand of Afro-Latino deep house sonics by way of Washington Heights, had this to say about the format: “Our main platform is about education. We are trying to break out of the mold of just being another dance fest. This scene is one that innovates and evolves quickly. So many people want to learn about djing and producing music. We are offering business-oriented panels and workshops by day and then we’ll party at the Festival grounds into the night. So, you’ll get a little of all that with WCW.”
Indeed, workshops and discussions allow for sharing information, or getting hands-on exposure to the world of remixing and producing and even social issues like ‘Give a Beat! Save the World!’ which will focus on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform.
Another topic is ‘The Art of the Remix’ which is ripe for these times, not so much as a review but for what lies ahead. The digitized music scape and scattered domiciles around the world making beats and sounds with little more than a drum machine, a keyboard and some other key gadgets, are democratizing dance music. These days of course, sometimes we hear remixes before the original song, depending on what Beats Radio or Spotify’s algorithms think is your vibe or what KCRW DJ may have nabbed a ‘digital white label’ copy of a track.
And yes, a section of that discussion is actually called “What’s the Greatest Remix of All Time?” But we can start that debate now. And have a lot of fun dancing our asses off trying to sort it out.
West Coast Weekender runs May 4-7, 2017 in San Diego. For more info or tickets, go to http://www.westcoastweekender.net/