While likely known most in the United States for their collaboration with Disclosure on “White Noise,” this duo from London has been making waves overseas ever since their debut album Body Music was released in 2013. As EDM, hip-hop, alternative rock and folk have their respective representatives this year at Revelry, the rising prominence of electropop and R&B will be expressed at the festival by a duo cut from the same cloth as Sylvan Esso and CHVRCHES.
In the tradition of Toro Y Moi and Gemini Club at past Revelry Music and Arts Festivals, AlunaGeorge will provide an alternative option for many members of the University of Wisconsin community who are not as interested in the common “party genres” of college. Though acts such as The Social Experiment and The Chainsmokers will be representing the musical realms more commonly associated with parties, the bar scene, and events like Revelry, AlunaGeorge’s presence at Revelry is undeniably important to the propagation of such a festival.
In order to appeal to all areas of the UW campus community as well as live up to the title of a true music and arts festival, acts like AlunaGeorge are necessary. This is not “Revelry Party Festival;” it is Revelry Music and Arts Festival, a showcase for up-and-coming artists that are producing great material in all facets of the music world, not only the musical areas that will draw the most out of town guests.
Regardless of the fact that AlunaGeorge will be appealing to a different demographic of music fans, they will not be out of place at Revelry. Their mix of alternative R&B (a quickly progressing genre in its own right) and electronic production presents listeners with the best of multiple worlds: the singer-producer collaborative approach, infective, body-melting beats, and proficient female vocals.
We will be graced May 2 with an important day in Madison music history. While last year will be hard to top, the mixture of hip-hop and jazz, EDM and pop, R&B and electro synths promises to give 2014 a run for its money. Coupled with the completion of another stage of Library Mall/Memorial Union construction, the presentation of an eclectic group of musicians at 2015’s Revelry Music and Arts Festival will be a spring day to remember.
