With every Syndicate Sound Session, we seek to elevate our offerings to even greater heights. It’s a testament to our passionate approach as a community. When we find something worth pursuing, like a dream to be attained through a set of goals achieved, we invest our energies fully. That’s largely what made Syndicate Sound Session 007 an episode unlike any other. Commitment. On February 22, members of our community gathered to demonstrate this philosophy in earnest continuing our mission to provide some of the best darn entertainment and production you’ll find anywhere throughout the country.

First things first, I’d like to give a big shoutout to Wub Life X Ether Presents for their assistance in helping to ensure this event went off without a hitch. They say, “It takes a village…”, and they’re certainly on board with what we’re doing. Preparations started near 1pm at Bass Station in Waukegan, IL for this shindig. Two separate rooms were fashioned with all the technological assets required for DJs and producers to throw down throughout the evening. Though this was slated as a largely downtempo event, that didn’t stop many artists from injecting plenty of energy and fierceness into their performances. However, I’ll get to the performers a little later. There were exceptional efforts in preparation that shall be celebrated, and I’m going to take a few moments to do just that.

I’ve talked about Josh Melfi’s Mushroom Forests in the past, and he certainly outdid himself on this occasion. Josh spent over five hours on a scissor lift aligning multi-colored strings across ceilings and distributing his 3D printed shapes throughout the arena. It was an impressive feat, but what awaited patrons in the second room was a further impressive spectacle of his arrangement. In addition to his remarkable effort in spreading his installation between two separate chambers, he also constructed two unique modular consoles. When my eyes touched upon these fabrications, I immediately thought about the bulky computer units you see from eras gone in old science fiction films from the 1960’s, or those appearing within the digital universe of the Fallout gaming franchise. They even had working screens displaying wavetable patterns. It was one of the highlights of my discoveries from this night, and I saw many patrons admiring and interacting with these makeshift machines as they appreciated the atmosphere of the Fungus Light Stage.

The rest of the sights and sounds from the night were exceptional, too. Once again, the forces of Sub Valley Sound did an excellent job ensuring their Funktion-One rig sounded superb within the main room. A PK Sound System had the Fungus Light Stage bumping as well. LED and TV Walls supplied by Birdsigh and Nuvotion, respectively, looked delicious in entertaining ocular orifices. Additionally, Deep Frequency Corp did an exemplary job providing laser tech as they always do. You can always count on these professional entities to bring their best tech to support the performances on stage. Furthermore, visuals sequences in the main chamber were outstanding due to the likes of Alpha Outsourced, Oogz, and Psyonaura Visions. Thanks to the efforts of these entities, and more, the sights and sound presented throughout the evening were stellar and on point.

Now, let’s talk about some of the night’s entertainers, which was a gorgeous demonstration of mastery from start to finish. It started off with a Harmonic Waves healing session courtesy of Jay Simon and his collective. If you haven’t yet experienced one of these unique sessions, I highly recommend you make it out to one in the future. That was followed by Sopphire, pronounced so-fire, who pretty much played an all-unique set of originals to delight the crowd. Darkstar, aka Andy Pletch, came next with a genre spanning set ranging from lo-fi hip-hop infused bass through DnB and garage. Hoopla followed suit with a delectable downtempo presentation featuring many originals, and Dillard proceeded in a similar fashion. To end the night Rhizomorphic and Random Rab agreed to exchange time slots between themselves. Rhandomorphic Rab (shoutout Jenna from Indiana), say what? However, any confusion ended there as there isn’t much Random about Rab when it comes his offerings. Rhizomorphic finished strong with a bristling tempo and energy that has become trademark to his performances. The night may have started with downtempo energy on the mainstage, but it certainly didn’t finish that way.

The Fungus Light Stage offered its own selection of outstanding entertainment too with many representatives from our local scene. Had Matter kicked things off, Skeduleone followed with a surprise b2b with Jerry Snackman, Meta Essence displayed his own strong performance, before SimonSays upped the ante with BassDrx driving home for the win to finish the night. Local vendors were exceptional too. Shoutouts towards EVOL Collective, D & A Wellness, All Things Wook, Ocean Wolf Creations, and Galactic Roots Eclectic. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be a Syndicate Sound Session without live painters. Also, we want to thank Dakota Rogers, Tom Loranz, The Whimsical Libra, Camille’s Dreamland, Pharoah Kemet, and Dabblerz Art for lending their talents to this episode. You can look forward to seeing these vibrant visionaries at future events.

Katlyn Fritch and her mavens within Celestial Ember Collective finally had the chance to show off their fire spinning mastery at one of this year’s event. It was presented along the lines of a dark fusion theme, and their capacity for body manipulation was on full display. Their movements were practiced and graceful, and watching Kataya literally consume flame was a breathtaking scene to witness. It added another beautiful dynamic to an already outstanding event.

Once the night’s entertainment concluded, teardown began almost immediately. Josh Melfi was back on top of the scissor lift taking down his art installation while the rest of the technological assets were efficiently packed away. It takes less time to tear down than build-out, but many were still in the building until around 5AM cleaning up afterwards the event. As a community, we do our best to leave whatever location we inhabit better than we find it. That’s how we get invited back to venues, by respecting the people and grounds that host our celebrations. Thank you for your help!

Syndicate Sound Session 007 was a phenomenal time to be sure, and we had a blast with our growing community. The turnout was stellar, the building was packed, and the vibes were immaculate. If this is any indication of what’s oncoming, good things are in all our futures. Thank you to all our patrons and supporters for coming out and celebrating with us. If you haven’t already, sign up for our newsletter to stay in the know about what’s coming next.

On to the next one, and we hope to see you there. Spend time in spaces where you’re treasured, and your efforts are valued. That’s a great way to live, and communities that practice this thinking continue rising and pushing forward, so come out to grow and glow with us.

Be well, be successful. Bear Swiftly.

--Electro Scribe--