Going to Identity Festival? Here's what we suggest you check out:
Skullcandy Mainstage
Modeselektor -- Berlin-based electro, glitch-hop, IDM fusion. Its tracks remain genre-blind. The music is smart, but still refrains from taking itself too seriously. Modeselektor has made lots of music with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, if that gives you any indication as to what these guys are up to.
Booka Shade -- a product of the Frankfurt electronic-music scene, the German house duo offers a planetary version of house music. It rose on the wave of the Berlin minimal takeover in '05, got major airplay from Pete Tong, John Digweed and others.
Rockstar Energy X Dim Mak Stage
DJ Shadow -- His first album, Entroducing…, was a hip-hop masterpiece composed entirely of samples. He's worked with other figureheads of hip hop and rock from Blackalicious to Zack de la Rocha. Check him out for patiently woven hip-hop samples.
The Crystal Method -- A bastion of the electronic sounds of the early '90s, this duo makes breakbeat electronic dance music with influences ranging from disco to heavy metal, from classic rock to '80s electronic music. Check them out for a flashback to the '90s -- or if you're too young to remember the '90s, for a little history lesson.
Advent Stage
White Shadow -- The tour's best-known producer, though you might only recognize him from his work with Lady Gaga. His solo sound is heavy tech-house and draws influences from Detroit and Japan's techno scenes. He tells CP via email: "It's all from my mind, just different corners. It all comes from my disgusting brain."
Darius Syrossian -- Part of Steve Lawler's ViVa family of musicians. He defines his sound as "TRUE.HOUSE.MUSIC." It's music heavily influenced by the U.K. scene from which he hails, particularly that which surrounded the U.K. vinyl record shops Global Beat and Crash Records.
