Giraffage @ Johnny Brenda’s with Spazzkid.
Text and images by Rick Kauffman.
Last Friday night, Johnny Brenda’s played host to some intricately produced electronic music. The infectious tunes, which dabbled in treble-heavy grooves with smooth basslines, transitioned effortless from ambient sounds to glitchy rhythms backed by heavy bass.
LA’s Giraffage, the stage name for producer Charlie Yin, along with Spazzkid from San Francisco brought their personal flair for sample-based pop music to Philly on their “No Reason Tour.”
This form of dreampop, indie dance music is progressive in its delivery, with chopped rhythms that begin with a sample — anything from 8-bit video games to J-Pop — and is modulated and warped to faster tempos. It’s as if the melodies become the rhythms that build before the break. In contrast to EDM music like dubstep, the basslines complement the treble-favored beats but the drops are just as fierce.
A quote overheard during the set put it simply: “The production is so clean it’s giving me a boner.”
These guys knew exactly when to throw in club banger to take the crowd, who packed the joint to capacity, along for the ride.
Giraffage showcased effortless control of his components, any bedroom DJs dream-setup. In addition to his own tracks, many from his recent EP No Reason, he busted out some deep cuts like “9 PM (Till I Come)” by ATB, a middle-school throwback, samples from “Forgot About Dre” and finished with remixes of Ignition and Sandstorm, which even after 15 years he made sure those tracks were still hitting.
Regardless of the steaming dance floor, the two DJs mixed in enough cool beats to keep the mixed-bag of attendees grooving until the lights came on.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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