Organic Family blew everyone’s minds with the last event they hosted in January 2016, Mad Moon, and for the Halloween season they decided to do it once again. This time they created an event that took the city of Toronto through a psychedelic journey in a completely new setting: the Night in Between was hosted in a massive church hall.
Organic Family called in some of the top local DJs to perform a psychedelic story through music. Vidhishada, Playdifferent, Aio and Plan B, were the openers and closers for the evening’s main storyteller: Already Maged. In addition to this stellar lineup, they also managed to obtain the amazing skills of VJ Neuronaut to ensure the sounds blended with the visual deco that was provided by the international deco crew Apsynthe from Sayp and Organic Family themselves.
United Torch Productions also took a small roll in transforming the bar into what looked like a psychedelic cyber punk station. To top it all off, Organic Family gave an amazing gift to the people of Toronto by presenting them with a bouncy castle inside the venue, next to the bar. Inside the bouncy castle were two little blown up dinosaurs that you could ride back and forth and a raised slide that had a perfect view of the stage.
I arrived at the church around 10:30PM and just like last time I stood frozen for several minutes, in awe of the sight of the UV-reactive decorations that were carefully and strategically placed around the church walls and ceiling. The stage looked like something pulled straight out of the cosmos, with giant psychedelic tapestries posted on the walls and behind the DJ, one that cascaded from the ceiling all the way down to the booth, and to add to the Halloween spirit, two intricately carved pumpkins sat up on the booth.
Two more booths were set up near the entrance. The one belonging to Lush Earth served food – soup, chai tea, muffins, cups of yogurt, fruit juice, and gum, while the other was occupied by Emilija Call, who offered her skills and held Tarot card readings for part of the night.
I saw a lot of familiar faces from the Toronto Psyfamily that I hadn’t seen in a very long time as well as a lot of new faces that were very welcoming and friendly. Everyone was wearing amazing costumes, some of them were dressed up from head to toe like demons, while a few were dressed in anime costumes like Sailor Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask. I went with the bare minimum of a sign that simply said “nudist on strike”. Some people complimented their costumes by adding the visual arts and accents of the very talented body painter, Cornelia Rose.
Vidhishada was the first DJ and opener for the night. He set the mood perfectly for the small amount of about 30 people that were in attendance at the time. The beats were deep and groovy and the sounds were some of the most psychedelic alien like noises I had ever heard. No one was dancing, but you could tell they were enjoying just listening to his set. After about an hour, Vidhishada started mixing into some killer forest darkpsy into his set as the crowd began to flood into the venue. 11:30PM rolled around and it was time for some of the original funky forest beats that Playdifferent had to offer.
As I have mentioned before, Roberto Foti is the mastermind behind the project that is Playdifferent. He smashes dance floors with his original animalistic and playful beats that take you through trippy psychedelic experiences and get people stomping on the dancefloor. This time was no different for Robbie; he started his set off, seamlessly blending with the previous DJ, Vidhishada. Playdifferent dropped me to the floor for the second time that night, and I had to sit down on the slide of the bouncy castle to be able to understand how the music flowed. After about 30 minutes I finally began to come up with my own interpretation of the message the music was trying to relate. In keeping with the experience of the night itself, the musical story the artist was weaving almost felt like I was going down a deep rabbit’s hole that kept going forever. With every change of the track, a new tunnel appeared, as the sound guided your choices down the winding path. In short, it was a mind blowing set.
The clock struck 1AM, and it was time for the main event, Already Maged. I was still in the bouncy castle when Already Maged appeared on stage and I felt a slight pause in the music, but I didn’t realize that it was the artists swapping places until about an hour into Already Maged’s set. Playdifferent has a very similar style to Already Maged, so what finally made me notice that the DJs had swapped was a loud glass smashing sound that was part of a track in Already Maged’s set. Once I heard that, I left the bouncy castle and began to take in the differences.
Already Maged was dropping little samples of sounds that were melting brains and twisting mine in ways I couldn’t imagine. After 3 hours of mind bending pleasure, Already Maged finished his set off deep, and brought the mood down just a touch so everyone could last through the next 2 hours of psychedelica. That was when Aio stepped up to the decks and greeted the Toronto crowd.
Aio started off as usual with her characteristic forest darkpsy style. The bass she laid on us hits deep into the core of your chest and carries psychedelic effects that almost resemble a horror movie. It blended perfectly with the mood that Already Maged had set, and she maintained the vibe pretty consistently for hr entire set. She had the crowd howling and whistling on the dance floor, begging for more. The intensity kept rising with every track she played, and after an hour and a half, Aio said goodbye to the Toronto Psyfamily. It was time for Plan B to conclude our journey.
Another seamless transition between artists occurred, then Plan B went full til and didn’t let up throughout his set. He spun track after track of some of the craziest dark psy that was almost like full-on, but without the happy melodies. It had a driving bassline and running hi-hats with trippy psychedelic growls and high pitched sounds. Plan B had everyone jumping until the end of the night. Plan B played until 6:10AM and didn’t seem like he was going to stop. Unfortunately, it did have to end and he closed out the party by slowly lowering the tempo until the music stopped. Everyone began to grab their belongings and headed for the exit.
This had to be the best indoor event of the year for me. As always, Organic Family pulled off an epic party that will never be forgotten. I couls tell that there was a lot of time, thought and effort put into this event. They planned it with the intentions of telling a story, and they accomplished just that. Everything was done perfectly! The DJs played seamlessly and took us on a psychedelic journey down rabbit holes and through horror-like settings, and the decorations that came to life completed the journey with visuals.
Organic Family creates these events to give Toronto the true psy experience they deserve. I say they accomplished that with flying colours.
Relive the magic here until next time!
LINKS:
Already Maged
Aio
Plan B
Phillip Pereira – EDM TOR
