The first time you go to Church, the electronic dance music party held every Sunday at the Dragon’s Den, prepare to meet the converted.
Church's Erik Browne and Carmine P. Filthy. Photo by Donovan Fannon.
Girls in sequined tops with unicorn heads dance on top of speakers as hipsters, frat boys and service industry workers converge in raucous communion on the dance floor. Crossing the threshold into the outdoor hallway paralleling the first floor, your first reaction may be surprise—what are all these people doing out this late on a Sunday night? Doesn’t anyone actually have to work in this town?
In a city where so much of the culture involves looking to the past, the current New Orleans electronic scene often goes unacknowledged in the greater public consciousness. But with the national popularity of electronic dance music growing constantly larger, and the city’s number of young transplants increasing, the local EDM community has become richer than ever, with Church at the very center of it.
“Not everybody moves here just for the jazz,” jokes Erik Browne, known by his DJ name Unicorn Fukr. Browne is one of the main promoters of Church and a longtime resident DJ in the Louisiana electronic music scene. “What I’ve found in my experience of talking to people is that, when they come to New Orleans and they’re looking for this, it’s at first a little difficult to find. And I think part of that is because there’s not a lot of coverage that goes on.”
As the city’s only weekly electronic dance party, the event has developed a loyal following of “Church-goers”, and it has attracted the attention of artists and promoters on a larger scale. With its rotating cast of resident DJs and national acts, Church has been at the forefront of the electronic music boom in New Orleans since it began in November of 2010. “The one thing that Church seems to be focused on,” Browne says, “is that we push more underground versions and styles of dubstep, though maybe at the peak hour we tend to have more aggressive energetic styles. And not only dubstep, but we’re pushing all this evolving music that’s come from this renewed interest in bass-oriented dance music.”
While Browne had been involved in the electronic music community for years, it wasn’t until he was approached by the Dragon’s Den about organizing a Sunday night dubstep party—then called Bass Church—that he saw the genre establish a foothold in the city’s nightlife. After a trademark issue forced the organizers to change the event’s name, as well as removing all publicity materials from the Internet, the outpouring of support from regular attendees ultimately worked in the event’s favor. Following a lengthy online discussion, the name was eventually changed to just Church with a clever added tagline: “being required by law to drop the bass”.
Carmine P. Filthy has been a resident DJ at Church since relocating to New Orleans in 2010. He’s been DJing professionally since the age of 15, when he would spin classic reggae 45s at a dancehall night in his hometown of Miami. While he’s been involved in the electronic music scenes of other cities, including New York and Chicago, he was attracted by the communal nature of New Orleans and the sense of collaboration that the city encourages. “What I found here that was most interesting to me is that, at this point in my career and my life, I was interested in cultivating a community where it was based on both my tastes and the tastes that we were able to gain from the people that were coming to the parties.”
Church is not alone in attracting local EDM crowds, with the rising attendance of monthly local parties like Kompression at 1135 Decatur and BASSIK at Republic, as well as the Buku Music and Arts Project—the electronic music festival held for the first time this past winter.
The growing popularity of electronic dance music in New Orleans can be understood by looking at this year’s Voodoo lineup, with electronic acts like Skrillex, Kascade, Justice and Awolnation making up some of the festival’s top-billed acts. Both Carmine P. Filthy and Unicorn FUKR will be featured this year on the Le Plur stage, along with resident Church DJs Beverly Skillz and Rekanize.
“This is an ideal city for electronic dance music because people who like electronic dance music like to dance all night, and this is a 24/7 city.” Browne explains. “Our event now is actually recognized nationwide. People that travel to this city that are just visiting are told on Sunday nights, if you’re interested in electronic music, you go here. I’ve seen people from all over the world come through.”
Browne credits the genre’s growning popularity with a rise in professionalism among those who’ve chosen to promote and organize the scene. “I think this time around, electronic dance music came about in a more legitimate way. The festivals that are being put on are done professionally, the events are done in legitimate venues, there’s still underground parties going on but there’s less of a perception that what’s going on here is bad. I mean, it’s just another kind of music that gets featured out at venues.”
However, what appears to distinguish the electronic music scene here from those in other parts of the country is how it has begun to incorporate aspects of New Orleans culture and re-imagine them under the guise of something new. After Browne was contacted by local burlesque dancer Roxie Le Rouge about scoring some of her routines to dubstep music, he worked on incorporating her dancing into one of his sets. The result was a perfect integration of new and vintage New Orleans that symbolizes the growth of the movement as a whole.
Carmine P. Filthy views the shift towards electronic music in both New Orleans and across the country as the inevitable next step in the evolution of popular music. “In general, what I’ve seen happen is rock music and indie music have become lackadaisical, so the days of having bands that you rocked out to, that were the big bands on the planet…now the big bands on the planet are bands that you can kind of chill out to and listen to.” he says. “I mean, Arcade Fire doesn’t necessarily make me want to jump up and down, but a remix of Arcade Fire might.”
