NeckFace's exhibit at OHWOW featured coffins piled high to the ceiling, demented drawings that no description could do justice, and a haunted house. But it was Ed Banger boss Busy P's set at Poplife afterward that had everyone buzzing. Ultra appearances aside, it had been a while since Pedro Winter had spun at a local club. Also, the tides have turned on the electro-house genre. Once the soundtrack to everything hip, it has fallen by the wayside, replaced by dubstup and nü disco (at least locally).
Questions lingered: Would Busy P just revive ghosts of electro past? Would he showcase a more updated sound? Would he still prove able to command a dance floor? The answer is yes on all fronts. Winter is a skillful DJ, and he knows what gets people moving. His set included plenty of "bangers" that have come to define the electro-house sound. According to my drunken notes, he started out with Justice's rework of MGMT's "Electric Feel." That would be the only Ed Banger moment of the night, besides when Uffie poured over the speakers as she declared, in a track straight out of 2006, that she was "Ready to Uff."
Yet there were plenty of hints that Winter is still looking forward. Dropping "Audacity of Huge" by Simian Mobile Disco — electro-house icons in their own right — showed that some of the genre's biggest acts have abandoned the signature banger sound. But it was when he played Animal Collective's "My Girls" that everyone seemed to come together for a superior "meaningful" experience. Hands in the air, it reassured us that Ed Banger and Busy P are in it for the long run.
