every memory has a soundtrack of its own

This is a 45-minute audio recording of Kloud at EDC Las Vegas 2021 live set, Saturday, October 23, 2021, at the Circuit Grounds stage. The set began at 7:00 pm.

Rave Tapes · Kloud Live @ EDC Las Vegas 2021 (full set, stereo)

KLOUD. What a pleasant surprise! I hadn’t originally planned to make Kloud’s set. I expected to record Diplo and Lee Foss’s opening B2B set at Cosmic Meadow and then take a leisurely break before checking out one of the trance dj’s at 8:30. But a bad accident on the northbound I-15 delayed my arrival by one hour. I was only able to catch the last 20 minutes of the Cosmic Meadow set – bummer!

Eager to record *something*I checked my set time spreadsheet. There was Kloud’s name, staring back at me. There had been some buzz online about Kloud. Some people were annoyed that is set was so early and were worried they would miss it. “Well, I won’t miss it,” I told myself.

But first, I had to make it to Circuit Grounds. The security staff is instructed to contain the crowd at Cosmic Meadow until the opening sets finish at 7 PM. Organizers don’t want masses of people wandering the festival grounds before the other stages officially open. So as soon as 7 PM hits, the walkways are opened, and people rush to reach their preferred stage. Not wanting to miss any seconds of Kloud’s set, I half-jogged my way to Circuit Grounds.

Circuit Grounds is easily one of the best venues at EDC. First, it’s a massive space, but not as massive as Kinetic Field. It’s huge, but not overwhelmingly huge. Second, the sounds system rocks. No matter who is playing, the sound is usually excellent, with clear fidelity and loud volume. Visually speaking, the stage is surrounded by a series of large LED panels. Lighting trellises extend far back on either side, so the space feels simultaneously contained yet wide open. That Kloud would play at Circuit Grounds almost guaranteed it would be a good experience.

It did take me about 3-4 minutes to reach Circuit Grounds after the gates opened. So I probably did miss the opening notes of Kloud’s set. However, I managed to get close enough and fire up my recorder just as a slow build was developing in the mix. It was actually a good place to start the recording. As most of the crowd hadn’t arrived yet, I got first pick of where I wanted to stand – direct center, right behind the vip skybox deck. That spot may not have the best view, but it’s certainly the best spot from an auditory standpoint. I took a swig of water from my hydro pack and settled in for the ride. And what I ride it was!

Truth be told, the first time I heard Kloud was one week before EDC. About 7 days before the festival, organizers finally release the set times. For me, that week is a mad rush to figure out which artists I want to see.

Of course, there are a few standouts every year that I know I will see. But then there are some time slots where my choice isn’t so clear. I actually spend several hours scanning live sets on SoundCloud and YouTube, hoping to discover worthwhile up-and-coming artists. The criterion I use for choosing an artist isn’t necessarily the genre. Anyone who follows this site knows that I enjoy most sub-genres of electronic dance music. Rather, the criterion I use is very simple: am I moved by what I hear? To me, there must be some kind of emotion contained in the music. That emotion can be wild and aggressive, mellow and melancholy, bouncy and energetic, or any other combination of emotions I can connect with.

Unfortunately, my system isn’t foolproof. Sometimes an artist’s live performance outshines anything they have online. The opposite is also true. Sometimes an artist has impressive content online, but the live set falls flat. In many cases I just have to take a chance and go with my gut. Sometimes it pays off big time. Other times, it’s “meh, oh well. Maybe I should have seen that other set…”

And this brings me to Kloud’s set. To borrow from the kids’ current vernacular, Kloud’s set was, in a word, Fire! I mean, from start to finish, I was just blown away. It was hard driving techno, not too fast, not too slow, and it had a distinct personality.

Upon seeing Kloud’s robotic helmet, one can’t help but draw comparisons to Daft Punk. But the mask also integrates animated LEDs somewhat reminiscent of Rezz’s electric glasses. Ok, I thought, what am I in for?

I should take a moment and say I have no problem with masks, uniforms, so-called gimmicks, whatever it takes to differentiate from the crowd. I actually like it when an artist embodies a mysterious avatar. It adds a fun element to their brand. At the end of the day, however, the music has to stand on its own. There have been several artists who successfully incorporated a mask while proving their musical muscle: Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Marshmellow, Voyd, Malaa, Claptone, to name a few.

That said, Kloud certainly added his (its?) name to my list of competent, masked, producers and deejays.

The music itself meshed perfectly with Kloud’s robotic image. It felt like we were listening to music robots would dance to. The connection to Daft Punk isn’t only symbolic. I’ve always imagined Daft Punk’s music was made by funky robots, androids that somehow became infected by human soul. I was sensing something similar in Kloud’s music, although this creature was still more machine-like. KLOUD hasn’t yet been compromised with human funkiness.

And I friggin’ loved it! This was one of the sets that turns me into an instant fan. From this point forward, I will not miss a Kloud set if I can help it. I can’t wait to hear what he (it?) unleashes next time.

And the emotion that I demand was unquestionably present. In this case is was hard and mechanical, but there was something else. It was as if the Robot was yearning to be human. This contradiction culminated in the Kloud’s final track of the set. The female vocal “Follow me and I will follow you, Save me from this hell that I’ve been through” reminded me of some Isaac Asimov plot line, like two robots trying to escape a doomed space station.

It was all just so perfect. The music, the helmet, the venue, the crowd, the atmosphere. I can say with confidence this was one of my favorite sets of the weekend.

Thank you, Kloud! Until we meet again!

Buy Kloud’s new album ANATOMY on Apple Music!

Watch Kloud on YouTube!

Listen to Loud on SoundCloud!

This is the complete 69-minute live set of i_o at EDC Las Vegas 2019, recorded at 7:00 pm on May 17, 2019, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This recording is different from the official Insomniac live stream.

Last week I heard about i_o’s passing. The news struck hard. i_o was a rising star. He was a fresh face, full of talent, a young ambassador bringing techno to the EDM crowd and making it cool again.

I saw i_o play twice. The first time was at EDC Las Vegas 2019. He was one of the artists I purposely hand picked while trying to figure out my personalized schedule – a difficult task considering the daunting number of stages and artists performing each day.

As soon as Mala’s opening set concluded at Cosmic Meadow, I ran across the speedway to Circuit Ground and flicked on my camera just in time to catch the first notes of i_o’s set. I was giddy I had made it in time.

The air was warm with a light breeze blowing. The sun was still in the sky. People kept arriving by the hundreds. There was a sense of elation in the air. After the months and weeks of anticipation, after the ordeal of arriving in Las Vegas and sorting out accommodations, fighting traffic to reach the speedway, and making it through security, once inside the festival “headliners” were ready to let loose. Walking into the massive sprawl of Ciruit Grounds with i_o’s techno blaring and coordinated visuals splashing across a matrix of LED panels…one was easily overcome with inspiration and energy.

As you’ll hear, the set is a pattern of one techno banger after another. The sun began to set, marking the transition from day to night and signaling the start of a beautiful weekend.

As the daylight faded, the lighting and visual effects became more pronounced. Lines of code scrolled by at hyper speed, with the iconic i_o logo flashing on the center screen. To me, the computer imagery perfectly complemented the mechanical nature of the i_o’s music. Simple but powerful. The audience locked into the dj’s time code.

The set included many highlights, my favorite being a brilliant mashup of Eric Prydz’ “Generator” and Deadmau5’s “Monophobia”. As far as I know, this mashup is an i_o exclusive.

Speaking of Deadmau5, the second time I saw i_o live as was at Deadmau5’s Cube v3 show at the Hollywood Palladium on September 26, 2019. When I bought the tickets several months prior, the opening acts had not been announced. I was thrilled to discover i_o would be one of the opening djs.

i_o’s set at the Deadmau5 show was great, of course, but it was hard to compare to the magical open-air set played over Circuit Ground’s thundering sound system at EDC.

Some might wonder why I am releasing this recording after i_o’s passing, more than a year after his performance at EDC. The main reason why I didn’t release it earlier was because his set had been broadcast on the official EDC live stream. As a result, torrents of the ripped mp3 started popping up within hours of the performance. The set was already out there on the internet.

Still, news of i_o’s passing prompted me to pull up my files and take a closer look at what I had. Within a few moments I knew the right thing to do was to clean up the recording and share it. The simple reality is that my recordings sound drastically different than official streams. While this recording lacks a dry feed from the soundboard, it does a superb job of capturing the sound from the audience’s point of view. There’s no denying that this is a LIVE performance! Also, I discovered that the stream rip is missing the beginning of the set. I suspect the live stream started some minutes after i_o started. This means that my recording is likely the only one that exists that has the entire set, from start to finish.

That concludes the info I wanted to share about this recording. And as I type these words, listening back to the recording on headphones, the Prydz-Deadmau5 mashup comes on and a tear begins to fall.

“All of the love we generate The only thing that carries me on There’s nothing we need that it can’t create”