Anthony 'Shake' Shakir in Vancouver

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  • Last year was undoubtedly the high-water mark for New Forms Festival. The lineup was on point and all-encompassing, the production values were high and the venue, Science World, was the annual event's most dramatic setting yet. Once you reach your apex, though, there's nowhere to go but down. As if recognizing this, earlier this year New Forms announced its reorganization into a year-round series of events instead of a single festival. The first of these launched this past weekend at FUSE Festival, a semi-regular series that happens at the Vancouver Art Gallery. FUSE's set-up involves installations at the gallery itself as well as a mini dance party, but the presence of New Forms meant that this edition's musical offering was significantly ramped-up. And to give it even more weight, this year FUSE formed part of the larger International Symposium Of Electronic Art, also happening in Vancouver. This confluence of festivals meant that the crowd at the gallery was an odd mix of international delegates, older folk and art school kids, lending the party a stodgy early atmosphere that was broken by the time Anthony "Shake" Shakir came on at the end of the night.   The New Forms Stage was outside the gallery, between a set of stairs (which provided seating) and an ice-skating rink (used, this time, for an extra bar). The night started with the psychedelic sounds of RAMZi, a Montreal artist who recently relocated to Vancouver and sang in brittle, autotuned tones over swampy beats. She had great stage presence in front of a crowd that seemed both impressed and bewildered. Sitting at their modular synth set-up, local duo Attitudes In Error (associated with rising label Acting Press) brewed up a heady mixture of dark ambience and the occasional throbbing rhythm, letting things gel into techno for only moments at a time.  The transition from Attitudes In Error to Shakir was appropriately abrupt, considering how raw and unsteady the Detroit veteran's set was initially (though amid the wobbly beat-matching and spinbacks were funky highlights like Prince's "Dirty Mind"). From there, Shakir quickly caught a groove, and so did the dance floor, with a few younger groups keeping the space busy. To the side, a cast of sedate onlookers stood about, while a massive line for the bar snaked around and behind the stage. Towards the end, the event—now thronged with thousands of people—felt a little over-capacity, but it was hard to complain. It's not everyday you see so many revellers dancing to good music beneath the gleaming towers of downtown Vancouver. That New Forms could occupy such a setting is proof of how far the team has come, and of the strides the city has made in embracing electronic music. The quality of the event, offering New Forms's signature mix of experimental electronics and DJ sets, points to a bright future for New Forms Media Society in its, er, new form.
RA