Emancipator Ensemble Tour Electrifies the Theater of Living Arts

by Donte Kirby

To the uninitiated, electronic music or electronic dance music (better known as EDM) conjures the same images and sounds, repetitive to those whose ears don’t resonate with the beats. The DJ is on stage twisting dials and pressing buttons on beat machines, there’s laser and strobe lights shining on the mass of human bodies moving to the rhythm waiting for the drop to really let loose.

Outside of the connoisseurs of the genre the scene is what most are familiar with, and miss out on the range of sound and depth the genre possess. Real Magic, Odesza, and Emancipator Ensemble each brought their brand of electronic music to South Street’s Theater of Living Arts displaying the melting pot of electronic music.

Real Magic topped off the night. A one man band, he worked the mixer, sung and played the guitar. He had the sparse opening act crowd swaying along with his trance melodies. One of the highlights of Real Magic’s set is a slow tempo cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on my Own” while bathed in a purplish light.

The duo Odesza followed Real Magic. Odesza’s sound was a balance between trance and hard step that kept the crowd that, by this point, had grown to fill a little over half of the TLA’s main floor. That balance is a product of the checks and balances system that Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills use when they create.

Knight would describe Odesza’s sound as “a cross between a bunch of weird genres. We try to find that soul, music that makes you feel good. Music we like to hear.”

You can tell how good a DJ is by how the crowd moves. The TLA crowd was a steady wave of mellow movement that crashed into dancing frenzy when the beat dropped.

Odesza’s seamless transition from song to song made getting lost in their music as easy as closing your eyes and doing what comes naturally. Odesza ended their set with “My Friends Never Die” off their EP of the same name. Odesza, in the near future, is coming out with some new material where they work with a vocalist. “Something new, pushed us a little more in a new direction,” says Knight.

Headlining and rounding out the show was Emancipator Emsemble, an ethereal four-piece that includes a violin. The use of a live band in combination with the mixer, beats and DJ highlight the advantages of each, creating something better than the sum of their parts.

The TLA was packed by the time Emancipator Ensemble got into full swing. Behind Emancipator was wildlife scenes synced with their music. Music that included a song that mixed in Butsta Rhymes “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See.”

That night at the TLA all those in attendance got a taste from the mix of the eclectic stew of electronic music that has something to satiate all pallets.