[walshed out] A last-ditch 2012 Movement Electronic Music Festival preview

Previewing a niche festival like MOVEMENT -- some six states and 832 miles away -- only two days before it gets underway is always a rather moot effort. Either it's been on your radar for months and you're chomping at the bit to hit the road. Or you haven't got a clue what the fuck I'm talking about and you'll dutifully ignore everything that's forthcoming.

So for the sake of validating my efforts, I'm going to pose this preview as a pitch. To those of you still on the fence, unsure if a Memorial Day weekend spent toiling in Detroit is for you, I have a bit of advice: Just do it.

Get in a car. Drive 12 hours -- shit, I'm sure most of you will sleep that much between Friday night and Saturday morning anyways. And before you know it, you're there. Last year, my first attending Movement, was about as flimsy as a trip I've ever undertaken. Knowing nothing of the Detroit area prior to my venture, I booked a motel that was not only in Dearborn -- 20 minutes outside the city --  but nestled squarely between a skrip club and a porn outlet. Yet, after weighing the probability that we would likely wind up the victims of some heinously violent crime and acting accordingly, we managed to make our way downtown and find a nice, commercially-sanctioned hotel without much struggle.

Point being, THIS COULD BE YOU! Tickets to the fest are a paltry $80, hotels are on-demand, and there's still time! Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!

While I admit that none of the above sounds remotely attractive upon reading back, it'll all make sense once you touch down on Hart Plaza. It's difficult to describe the synergy as it would translate to Boston, because there's not a shot in hell that anything remotely relatable could come to fruition thanks to hoops, red tape, and curfews. For a place like Boston, wherein much of the music taking place at Movement is typically confined to 100ish-person capacity nightspots, the feeling of moving along to a cracking sound system in a city park, surrounded by 80,000ish persons, isn't imaginable. But in Detroit, the feeling is real and it's otherworldly.

And it's liable to make your head spin, as was the case last year. I ended up with an after-the-fact wrap-up, but this year I hope to maintain a more consistent stream of coverage/consciousness. So keep tuned to this blog space throughout the weekend and feel free to follow me on twitter @michael_c_walsh for up to the minute updates (some more maniacal than others, I'm sure, depending on where my mind's at).

Because I've rambled enough and because there's nothing more I can say to convince you to come along, here's a quick overview of where the fruit of my efforts will lie this weekend: Five acts you should see if you're traveling to the D, but even if you're not, it's OK to listen to them anyways.

5) Actress


Make no mistakes regarding his placement on this list, Darren Cunningham is my most anticipated act of this festival. His album, R.I.P, released last month on Honest Jon's defies genre labeling and is the coolest thing I've heard in many a year. Virulent techno, constructed to shun dancefloors. Which is why booking him for the picturesque Red Bull Music Academy Stage during daylight hours (Saturday at 4:30 PM) is really inexcusable. His productions and DJ selections make no plays for hands in the air jubilation. Rather they're intended to soundtrack eyes-closed, head-clouded bouts of disorientation. Of course I still intend to pretend that I'm trapped in the bowels of a dusty club and not alongside the sunny Detroit waterfront, but it won't be the same. At the very least, I'm anticipating some confused looking audience members.

4) Lindstrom


The Norwegian songster got straight derailed by the critical powers that be for his early year effort to graduate from space disco to Genesis-inspired prog. Wrongfully so, in my opinion. I mean, there's only so many combinations of astral wooshes and slo-mo laser sounds one can slap together before it's time to try something new. Regardless of what genre he brings forth Sunday, I expect lots of weird and not a single sourpuss in the crowd (at 7 PM).

3) Benoit & Sergio


Something to be said about never releasing a bad track, as is the case with this D.C. based duo. And the labels backing those singles speak to that accomplishment -- with choice imprints such as DFA and Visionquest amongst the handful that have pushed B&S's tunes. Unlike Actress, their flirtatious brand of house is suited for fancily swinging your arms around as if you were skipping on top of a cloud, or something. Unfortunately, their festival set nearly overlaps Actress's (Saturday at 5 PM), but I'm certain that I'll have the opportunity to catch them at an afterparty, a very sexy afterparty.

2) Seth Troxler


Last year, I hearalded Troxler at the top of this very same list, proclaiming the fest to be his homecoming after launching his own label and conquering Europe on some bizarro Columbus type shit. Turns out it was more a springboard than victory lap, as he moved forth unto bigger and better things, namely a king-making summer run in Ibiza and a number two slot on RAs year-end DJ poll. No longer an underdog, the bubbly bro is hoping a plane from opening night on the Spanish Isle to Movement where he's playing a two hour back-to-back set alongside Diddy's newest bffl (Saturday at 10 PM) and headlining two of the higher profile non-festival affairs.

1) Kevin Saunderson


A living legend playing alongside his legendary friends in celebration of his legendary label in his legendary hometown. Not much more to say on this one. He'll be mashing alongside contemporaries like Derrick May and Juan Atikins during Sunday night's KMS Records silver anniversary and doing the same to close down shop Monday in the Plaza (at 9 PM).

Catch you on the weird side.