MoMA
July 12, 2013  |  Warm Up
Warm Up 2013: Kicking Off Week Three
Warm Up 2013. MoMA PS1, Saturday, July 6, 2013. Photo: Charles Roussel

The crowd goes wild during the second week of Warm Up 2013. MoMA PS1, Saturday, July 6, 2013. Photo: Charles Roussel

Following last week’s sweaty dance party with Anthony Naples, DJ Qu, Kim Ann Foxman, and the Martinez Brothers, the July 13 Warm Up, the third of the season, welcomes a number of adventurous producers from across North America to the courtyard at MoMA PS1.

The day opens with a DJ set from NYC-via-RISD artist/video maker/producer James K (aka Jamie Krasner). She’ll be followed by live sets from experimental Harlem producer/drummer Gobby, who released Fashion Lady earlier this year, and Pete Swanson, a onetime member of the Portland, Oregon, improvisational electronic duo Yellow Swans who’s known these days for danceable noise music on records like 2012’s Man with Potential and, most recently, the Punk Authority EP.

The prolific Canadian electronic producer and DJ (and very funny Twitter user) Ryan Hemsworth has created excellent mixes for the likes of Diplo and Friends and remixes of songs by artists as diverse as Grimes, Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Cat Power (featuring Angel Haze), Rhye, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, and Migos, while composing his own evocative productions on collections like the recent free Still Awake EP. He’ll provide a midday DJ set.

He’s followed by 90s-born Orlando, Florida, knob-turner XXYYXX, aka Marcel Everett. Everett’s created official remixes for Usher and Tinashe; sampled Beyonce, TLC, R. Kelly, Monica, and others; and has a large online following in part because of his provocative tweets, easy-to-download releases, and very popular “About You” video (a clip that gives an idea of his chilly, smoked-up bedroom aesthetic). He also handled this week’s Fader mix.

James K; Gobby; Pete Swanson; Ryan Hemsworth; XXYYXX; Mark "MK" Kinchen

Clockwise, from top left: James K; Gobby; Pete Swanson; Ryan Hemsworth; XXYYXX; Mark “MK” Kinchen

The day closes with a DJ set from legendary producer Mark “MK” Kinchen (aka 4th Measure Men). A key participant in the Detroit underground, Kinchen now resides in L.A. He’s known for his early use of chopped female vocals and the 1995 remix of the Nightcrawlers’ classic “Push the Feeling On.” More recently, he’s worked with Pitbull, who sampled “Push the Feeling On” on 2009’s “Hotel Room Service.” MK went on to produce three songs on the artist’s 2010 album, Armando, a couple songs on 2011’s Planet Pit, and the 2012 track, “Get it Started,” which featured Shakira. This may seem like a stretch, but Kinchen’s often straddled the above- and underground worlds: he helped redefine house and garage in the early 1990s, but he’s also worked with artists like Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Beyonce, and Will Smith (he was his in-house producer from 2002 to 2006), earning a couple Billboard Dance no. 1s in the process.

This quote from his official bio, about his early days, adds further wrinkles: “I was into Skinny Puppy, Ministry…all that alternative/industrial electronic stuff…. And then through a girl I knew, I ended up in a band called Separate Minds with Terrence Parker and Lou Robinson. I didn’t really know anything about house and techno then, but I knew a lot more about how to use the equipment than they did!”

This from the guy whose remix of Celine Dion’s “Misled” gave the Canadian singer the only Billboard Dance/Club Play no. 1 of her career.