In an age where corporate funded festivals pop up in a matter of moments, selling out in even less time because they booked Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones et al to headline on all of their seven stages, blasting out Deep House, Tech House, Pool House, or Council House – the preservation of good music and diversity of programming is more essential than ever before.
This isn’t to say that Troxler or Jones don’t knock out some absolute bangers, or that indeed there is anything wrong with House Music. Far from it, we love a bit of House and have some hitters on the Noisily Stage this year to take the helm. What it is meant to highlight is the fact that programming which doesn’t branch out or diversify, is alienating, self absorbing, and ultimately destructive.
The imaginary line in music is something which has been talked about a lot at Noisily, by those artists who come to play, by the revelers on our dance floors, and the team in production as well.
Firstly we should point out that we realise there are many genres which aren’t represented at Noisily, and that for essential purposes we can only reference the spectrum of Electronic Music as for now we don’t have the resources to extend our programming into live. But within the Electronic sphere we do our very best to represent as wide a variety of sounds as we can.
This said, the imaginary extends past the categorisation of genre, and boils the selection process down to a single choice. There are two sides of the line, on one side there is good music, and on the other there is bad, and you don’t have to like the music itself to appreciate its quality. Whether that is in the standard of its production, or in the strength of its composition, is immaterial, you just know that it’s good or bad.
When we look at artists to play at Noisily, the first thing we do is list all those we admire and love to listen to. These may be heavy hitters in the Techno world, or our friend’s younger sister who has just started making awesome tunes. The line up needs to be complete from top to bottom, by which we mean it needs to tell a story from start to finish. Imagine it as though you’re looking at a piano keyboard, that each artist is a different key, and that together they make up a chord which together creates the soundtrack to the weekend. A duff note could throw the whole thing off, so it needs to be good music.
Representing such a diverse selection of music in such an intimate environment is one of the key contributing factors that makes Noisily what it is – an inclusive haven where underground music thrives and self expression flourishes. With around 4,000 people on site being exposed to such variety in such a concentrated space, people from all walks of life are thrust into close proximity with each other. The result is a melting pot of conversation and a cross-pollination of interests which stems into relationships which would otherwise be stifled by the format of the outside world, or indeed other festival environments where the atmosphere is less permissive.
Year on year the challenge of weaving together a line up that is as diverse as it is interesting, is one that we look forward to with great excitement. Our hope is that whilst those of you who are into Psy Trance, Techno or Bass will find all that you are looking for, that you will be introduced to music you haven’t heard before, and that you may appreciate it via the medium of the new relationships that you build in Coney Woods this July.
We are looking forward to sharing our individual artist profiles, stage mixes and ‘Stories in Sound’ with you all in due course. But for now, we encourage you to look through our artist pages on the website and visit the stages that perhaps you wouldn’t visit normally. We’re sure you’ll find some gems in there!
Love,
The Noisily Team x