October 2013 welcomes the first Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit bringing much anticipated electronic acts to Asheville, NC. As with any multiple stage festival there are difficult choices and sacrifices to be made as you will be unable to catch every performance. It is for this reason that SceneSC is excited to provide the first installment of Mountain Oasis 2013 - MUST SEE ACTS!
Superhumanoids
Hailing from Los Angeles, this synth-pop trio is near the top of my list of artists to see at MOF. After a couple of EP’s, Superhumanoids released their first full-length album, Exhibitionists, in June of this year.  There is an array of genres packed into the tightly knit album. Each track showcases its own uniquely diverse influences from the infectiousness of an 80’s pop hit in Geri to the almost dub-hop beat of Too Young for Love. Then there’s Cranial Contest which could have easily slipped right onto an early Strokes album. Given the diversity of the individual tracks on Exhibitionists it is impressive how well the album retains its Superhumanoid identitiy. 11:00pm, Friday at Asheville Music Hall.
King BrittÂ
King Britt picked up the torch from the pioneers of DJ-mixed dance music before the average Mountain Oasis Festival-goer was born. From that moment forward Britt has created some of the most influential dance music to date while collaborating with artists from Digable Planets and De La Soul to Madlib and Quasimoto to Flying Lotus and Zomby. His catalog spans over two decades and works as a traveler’s guide through underground hip hop, dance and neo soul to the electronic and afrofuturstic sounds of his latest works: Cosmic Culture and Fhloston Paradigm. Mountain Oasis 2013 is the American debut for Fhloston Paradigm and will feature vocalist, Pia Ercole, so do yourself a favor and don’t miss it – 7:00pm, Saturday at Diana Wortham Theatre.
http://youtu.be/QnMti0JuH_g
Big Black Delta
Big Black Delta (the album) is the synthpop creation of Mellowdrone vocalist/bassist, Jonathan Bates. The pulsing beat and synths of Put the Gun on the Floor have a Kavinsky–esque intensity about them and set the stage for a collection of songs that manage to capture a spanning arsenal of complementary elements. Huggin and Kissin screams of Bear in Heaven. The krautrock keyboards during the verses of Betamax overlay a thunderous beat leaving just enough room for Bates’s subtly distorted crooning. Midway through the album comes The Zebrah which sounds like the result of Ernest Greene (Washed Out) and Trent Reznor spending a weekend in Charleston together. Although Big Black Delta has the dynamics of a concept album it is not as tied together as as something like M83’s, Saturdays = Youth and it is no coincidence that it draws comparisons to M83 and even early NIN as Bates has been influenced by both groups in one fashion or another.  You can catch Big Black Delta – 11:00pm, Saturday in the Asheville Music Hall.
http://youtu.be/vz8yif7FWDU
