Embrace hosted their 3rd year anniversary at the Hoxton’s Focus Friday event, sponsored by Heineken, which featured Toronto locals DJ BASSik, Decibel, Dr. Ozi, Hydee and headlined by Kill Paris.
I arrived at 10:30 p.m. and was greeted at the door by the Heineken ladies who were handing out green glasses for the event. The entire venue was decorated with green lights, and the stage looked a bit classier than usual. DJ BASSik was already playing all the right types of Trap as I walked in. I could tell it was going to be an excellent evening because people immediately wandered to the stage and started wobbling like zombies hungry for trap!
Decibel took to the stage soon after, and fed the crowd all types of bass music including Dubstep with hints of Electro and Trap. Decibel had already put on a great performance earlier in the week at Toika for Toronto Bass Community’s monthly “Low Frequency” event, which I heard nothing but good things about, and I felt lucky to get a taste of that at the Hoxton.
Dr. Ozi
Soon enough, Dr. Ozi came to the stage for their first ever Hoxton show, and the crowd went pretty wild. They shared the stage with Heineken dancers in bright green light up dresses and drummers who hyped up the crowd even more while showing off their techniques. Ozi was great; Christian and Nix had many laughs and smiles on stage and were full of energy. They leaked two new songs which will be released on their upcoming “Correlations EP” with Twofold on Buygore Records which is expected to drop September 2nd, 2014! Their entire set was heavy and nuts. They also dropped their solid track Bring the Fiyah with Twine, Victimless Crime, and people lost their marbles to their bootleg of Childish Gambino’s track The Party. Only a few months ago Nixon and Christian were telling me about how The Hoxton was a venue still on their bucket list and it truly is amazing to watch them grow and cross another dream off their list. They were also on Z103.5’s Drive at 5 Street Mix that very same day and killed it!
Kill Paris came to the stage around 1 a.m. and changed the tone of the evening from heavy to funky. He played The Walk and Float off his “Foreplay” EP, and brought out the Keytar for some crazy solos. But I was more satisfied when later on in his set, he eventually played Slap me, To a new Earth, and Catch You off his “To a New Earth” EP, which is rock inspired funk with crazy bass, catchy synths, and glitchy electronic elements. One of the craziest crowd reactions was from when he played I Love you Lana Del Rey, which is one of his older tracks and is super melodic. He gave us a good dose of Dubstep every little bit which was the perfect balance in my opinion. He also played his remix of Play that Funky Music White Boy and a remix of Anita Ward‘s Ring my Bell.
Towards the end of his set, after 2a.m., he played some big room house, some Trap, and swung right back into the melodic Dubstep. We were all expecting Hydee to come to the stage at any moment with some Drum & Bass, but Kill Paris kept playing to the end. I guess you could say the funky vibes were just undeniable.
Kill Paris
The entire evening was great. The crowd had so much energy, the DJs were so very supportive of one another, the venue looked great, and the night was a blast. It still feels like a dream to me. Every time I go to the Hoxton for a bass event, I never leave disappointed.
LINKS:
Kill Paris
Website
Facebook
SoundCloud
Twitter
Youtube
Dr. Ozi
Facebook
SoundCloud
Twitter
DJ Decibel
SoundCloud
Facebook
DJ BASSik
Facebook
Soundcloud
Instagram
Website
Twitter
Serafina Thoma – EDM TOR
