RE:CREATION @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side (Review) [6-7-14]

Review by: Justin D'Amico

Saturday night was one of the funnest times I've ever had at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side in Denver, CO. Euphonic Conceptions and Cervantes' put on a dual venue event dubbed Re:Creation with a huge line up. Marty Party headlined in the Masterpiece Ballroom with support from Snublock, Unlimited Gravity, and Ana Sia. The Other Side featured Late Night Radio with a special set to celebrate his new album release. The openers on The Other Side were Reed MT, Mikey Thunder, JK Soul, Artifakts, and Mux Mool. Cervantes' was bumping the whole night.

The Other Side opened up a bit early with a patio set directed by Mikey Thunder and JK Soul from 7:00-9:30. For Re:Creation the back patio area was used for a BBQ pit as well as a third stage to start the show. The patio area was busy with most of the crowd hanging out there early on in the night. The awesome wooden stage structure is now covered with a beautiful canopy. The patio is a great spot to go and converse with friends without having to scream over the music.

First up in the Masterpiece Ballroom was Snublock, a Denver dude representing an original Nintendo controller cap - my kind of guy. He got things started with what he calls his left field hip-hop and future beat music. Snublock is someone to keep an eye on, he is making some really cool new music a bunch of which is up on his official soundcloud page here.

Over on The Other Side there was another Denver native and turntable mix master, Reed MT. He makes all of his music by sampling vinyl records and he also preforms with two turntables and a mixer, the old school and highly respected way of doing things. His finished mix comes out to be a smooth hip-hop beat and with carefully timed interesting samples placed within accordingly. Following Reed MT was Artifakts a young producer hailing from Wisconsin with a chill down tempo glitch hop style. Artifakts was a perfect fit with all of the acts on The Other Side.

For the most part the majority of people were hanging out on The Other Side until one specific turning point, Unlimited Gravity taking the stage in the Masterpiece Ballroom. Unlimited Gravity completely filled the room within ten minutes, it was pretty remarkable. He was in rare form going extra hard on stage and the people couldn't help but join in and dance. The most notable part for me about Unlimited Gravity's set was how he was able to transition from glitch hop into drum and bass, two genres which are typically not mixed back to back. All of his transitions were seamless, and it was an insane set to watch and dance along to. You can stay up to date by liking and following Unlimited Gravity on his official facebook page there you can find links to his other social media outlets as well.

Ana Sia followed Unlimited Gravity switching up styles to house music, but she does it differently than many other DJs. For her set Ana Sia uses only two CDJ machines and a mixer, no laptop. She then loads music onto flash drives to create her live mix with. Ana Sia was completely killing the room with a fresh set, but for whatever reason about half way through her time she watched one of the CDJs short out and go blank! She could no longer transition between songs! This was detrimental having no back-up CDJ in the booth, and Ana Sia was forced to quit her set early. It was a bummer because Ana Sia was on point.

This led to a boost in the population of The Other Side, but not for long as Marty Party came out early. Some of the people stayed and jammed out with Mux Mool the last act before Late Night Radio. Mux Mool does mostly hip-hop and glitch-hop with a bit of funk mixed in, he was really good live. Mux Mool is not only a musician he also creates some awesome artworks, check out Mux Mool's official website to have a look at his galleries.

Late Night Radio with A.C. Lao

Late Night Radio had an exclusive set planned for Re:Creation because it was also a record release party for his new album Soap Box. Late Night Radio headlined with nearly a two hour set on The Other Side. He makes music that is full of soul with many deep layers and complex melodies blended. For the second half of Late Night Radio's set he was accompanied by live drums. The drummer was the same guy who played with Michal Menert at the Winter Warmer Festival a few months back, his name is A.C. Lao. Definitely go check out the new Late Night Radio album Soap Box if you haven't already. You can stream Soap Box on Late Night Radio's official soundcloud and you can download it here on bandcamp for whatever you would like to spend, it's a name your price download.

Marty Party took the Masterpiece Ballroom stage around 11:45 about a half hour early from what was scheduled, and he was expected to close out Cervantes'. It was going to be an extra long set  for Marty Party with very little down time being on stage alone. Luckily for him Ana Sia was itching to get back out there, even with only one CDJ available she formulated a plan to help Marty Party. Ana Sia re-took the stage, and for the last 45 minutes of the Marty Party set there was an exclusive tag team between the two! Using the one working CDJ and a mixer Ana Sia would cue up a song to blend with Marty Party's set and back and forth they went. It was a lot of fun to watch Marty Party and Ana Sia adjust and learn each others technique. They were feeding the crowd with incredible music and amazing vibes, it was all smiles through out the entire room.




This was a crazy night at both sides of Cervantes', but it all worked out in the end. It was so much fun to get to see a completely new combination of musicians on stage together. Big ups to Marty Party and Ana Sia for putting on an outstanding impromptu tag team performance. Also make sure to check out the new Late Night Radio album Soap Box that just dropped.