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6 Essential Electronic Acts at FYF Fest

The line-up is easy on the neon, but classily on beat.

FYF Fest is this weekend in Los Angeles. The little-festival-that-could has grown over the past ten years from out of an Echo Park basement and into a major musical destination, one that presents a distinctly LA perspective on cool. And although many attendees will still be clinging to the tried-and-true hipster clichés of standing around looking bored while skinny white dudes fumble away at power chords in front of them, us dance-o-philes have a lot to look forward to in terms of the beats and untz of dance, or at least dance-adjacent styles. Here are our essential selections for the weekend:

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Hold up, though. If you're reading this and need us to tell you that Flying Lotus or Jamie XX are good, you're basic. They are disqualified from this list based on the pre-existing condition of being very famous and/or awesome already.

John Talabot

The mysterious Spanish disco warrior John Talabot floored critics with his 2012 debut Fin. It's difficult to pin down his sound - It's definitively house-based, but constantly wanders down experimental tangents and into dark, artsy, and poppy corners. His DJ sets are slightly more traditional than his productions, but it'll be one of the rare opportunities all weekend to actually straight up groove to a beat for a whole set.

Daniel Avery

Daniel Avery makes dystopian house jams and has a flair for atmosphere that may just pull you in and never release you. His album Drone Logic toes the lines between house and techno - He's prone to the occasional warm melody and groove, but sooner rather than later, you'll be back in some staccato techno machination. When a guy with a fresh Essential Mix and Fabric residency shows up the Coliseum looking to play, it's probably best to take a listen.

Les Sins

Well, this should be interesting. Toro y Moi's Chaz Bundick has cemented his swirly, sadboy pop sound since he triumphantly emerged from his bedroom a few years ago. He's always seemed a scotch discontent with being pigeonholed, though, and his freshly announced project Les Sins will make an appearance at FYF, ostensibly as a release for dancier and/or weirder tuneage. There's an air of mystery to the performance, ang tracks like "Bother" only add to the intrigue.

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Marcel Everett is another one of those child genius beatmakers with an equal love for anime and Jersey Club. On one hand, his tunes all feature some form of abstraction, but his love for pop samples and a general cheekiness bring his tunes out of the shroudy mist of beat music.

Todd Terje

Let's be real here, it wouldn't be a hipster dance party without disco and mustaches, and Todd Terje brings both in spades. The vaguely reclusive Norwegian's aptly titled It's Album Time is an unabashed leisure-suited disco opus with all the sincere pop earnesty you'd expect from our Scandinavian friends, and he's known to spend half his live show bashing away at a synth.

DARKSIDE

If Nicolas Jaar wasn't in DARKSIDE, people probably wouldn't even equate them with dance music. Their dark, moody meditations on beat quite often end up closer to post-rock or some lounge-act from future hell than they do to house music, but they've nestled into a space that has found them one of the hotly tipped acts all year. Except they're breaking up. For now, at least, and this might be one of your last chances to catch them.

And there you have it. Check out FYF on FB.

More Festival swag:
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Jessy Lanza Might Call Her Next Album 'Hipster Ratcunt'

Jemayel still loves you, Interpol, don't worry - @JemayelK