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Music

HARD Summer 2014 Recap: Madness in El Monte

HARD goes hip-hop, garage takes over, Mary J. was there and Carnage gets all hot and bothered on stage.

HARD Summer went on vacation this past weekend to beautiful(ish) El Monte, CA – twenty minutes east of downtown Los Angeles and on the grounds of the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. This event was probably the most exciting thing to ever happen in El Monte, a town whose only prior claim to fame was being the birthplace of Scatman John.

We've been buzzing about the line-up for months. From headliners Jack Ü and Nero to strong showings from Dirtybird and Black Butter to hometown acts Bixel Boys and members of Team Supreme – HARD's programming is always on point, but they outdid themselves this time around.

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A new venue always brings new challenges. Our plans for parking lot pre-gaming were thwarted by a number of mounted policemen looking very serious and rifling through the trunks of nervous looking revelers. We figured it was best to shuffle our way through the emerging plumes of dust and get inside.

I've spent the past year nattering non-stop about Tchami—the priestly Frenchman has a perspective on house music that is at once poppy, deep, and progressive, and he's been churning out fire since he sprouted onto the scene around this time last year. The Pink Tent was packed for this one. People are catching on.

It had been a muggy and moist day from the onset, but during Rustie's set at the HARDer Stage, a few drops of rain fell from the sky…in August…in Los Angeles. Maybe he brought that Glaswegian precipitation swag with him. It was a treat to see such wonky beats on a large stage, but, although Rustie's a top notch producer and his selections are good, there's not a lot of mixing going on in his sets.

It's taken me a while to figure out what's going on here, but Baauer's made a conscious decision to reject the mainstream. After "Harlem Shake," he could have gone full pop star, but every set I've seen of his in the past year has been some abstract and very dark experimental trap. In an industry where selling out isn't even looked down upon anymore, you gotta respect that.

Jack Beats might be the only act in the world that can get away with playing both deep house and Melbourne bounce in the same set, Dusky played to a surprisingly small crowd as they left the shuffling garage hi-hats at home and played some relentlessly dark Ibiza-influenced house.

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Carnage continued his worldwide charm offensive by interrupting his set to mumble a tirade that included the phrases "Fuck Gary Richards" and "Fuck HARD." Is there anything about this dude that isn't just balls-stompingly awful? Makes me want to boycott Chipotle.

This year, HARD made a stronger attempt than ever to incorporate divergent styles. In particular, hip-hop was well represented, with A$AP Mob and DJ Mustard both on the bill. As I stood and watched the Mob chant "Suck my dick, n***a" ad nauseum, I realized how far from PLUR we've come. That's the thing, though, HARD isn't and hasn't ever been a rave. It's an electronically-centric music festival. My photographer put it best: "I love HARD because, even after all these years, it still just seems like some guy named Gary's party"

Jack Ü trainwrecked their opening. Both Skrillex and Diplo pressed play on two different tracks at once. After a few seconds, they both rewound and went forth with a set that was fun, if not a little disjointed and lacking in artistry. Just bangers. I closed the night with The Martinez Brothers b2b Seth Troxler. As the bros from NYC dropped some very tense house beats, it finally started to pour down with rain.

Afterwards, kids descended into any number of afterparties around downtown L.A. Future bass provocateurs EPROM and Alix Perez played so early in the day that I didn't have a chance to see them, so their afterhours sets at Lot 613 were a necessity. Worth it.

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Day two started strongly, with one of Hannah Wants' first US appearances. The Green Tent was near-full and the crowd was on her side as she wavered between deep and bassline house. It was rad to see this garage-esque revival enjoy a good showing. In a few years, we'll look back on this year as the final stop before this sound started to get rinsed. Wants was followed by the absolutely impeccable Kill Frenzy. The thing with all these Dirtybird cats (Justin Martin, Justin Jay, J. Phlip) is that they all seem as if they wriggled out of the womb and climbed onto a set of decks and will be doing so until they're withered and old.

Dirtybird's Kill Frenzy // Photo credit: Maxfield Frieser

Even though it's only been a few years since 2manydj's were a fixture on HARD lineups (or anywhere in the US), their electro-based main stage set came off as very retro. Still, The Flying Diwaele Brothers still have class for days. Elsewhere, Gorgon City played to a sea of people, while Sub Focus and Chase and Status brought UK vibes to the HARDer stage during a long dusk. HARDfather Destructo introduced his G-house sound while his family, wife, and small children watched from the stage and a rowdy posse of pineapple-obsessed (Holy) Shipfam worked the crowd.

Disclosure are still perfect. I could watch them all day long. It's rare that an act that crosses over to the mainstream manages to maintain artistic credibility, but there's no questioning these two. Not to mention that, Griz (and Rudimental*) aside, they were the only act all weekend to play instruments. Some of the basslines that Howard Lawrence plays are nothing to sneeze at. The duo brought out Mary J. Blige for "F For You," but, despite their assertions, it wasn't really much of a surprise.

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To cap things off, a much anticipated set from dystopian soundclash veterans Nero closed the weekend. Their new material is solid and their set was epic, but after a while they lapsed into dropping hits. I don't really need to hear the Skrillex remix of "Promises" anymore. Kind of got my fill of that one in 2011. Some of their other material from Welcome Reality is absolutely timeless, though.

Then I heard Tiësto drop trap. I didn't know that happened. Wide eyed kids were petting police horses as we wandered our creaky legs out of the park. Driving towards the freeway, I noted that El Monte had probably never been so poppin' at midnight on a Sunday. There were loopy kids spilling out of the 7-11 and Subway and straight up just wandering the streets. Maybe that's when the majority of the 100+ arrests were made. Most were misdemeanors, maybe kids getting rowdy with five dollar footlongs, but nothing to call the LA Times about.

All in all, the larger space and expansive programming poises HARD to grow into a next-level festival. The stage designs were not extravagant at all, but tasteful, and the programming was second to none. All they gotta do is extend that 11PM closing time and El Monte could be a regular HARD Summer destination.

Recent recaps:
Electric Forest 2014: Anything is Possible
EDC 2014 Recap
Lightning in a Bottle Recap: A Whole Different World

Jemayel is still in El Monte and doesn't know how to get home - @JemayelK