Delivering EDM at its finest, Australian electro-pop duo Bag Raiders dropped into Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn for a night of kaleidoscopic hits and eccentric dance moves.
As a wall of flashbulbs pulsated in the background, Jack Glass and Chris Stacey balanced each other perfectly—playing off one another’s rhythms while toying with sonic texture and tempo. They are masters of the rave – that slow mounting of intensity before an epic surge comes crashing down.
Their set drew heavily from their self-titled album, but sprinkled in were a few newer tracks from 2014’s Nairobi and 2015’s Waterfalls. It’s shocking to hear how Bag Raiders’ sound has evolved over their near-decade of activity—from sugary tracks like “Sunlight” and “Shooting Stars” and the serpentine uncertainty of “Way Back Home” to an understanding of the fleeting and the ethereal in “Vapor Trails.”
Their newer songs are experimental and thoughtful, deliberately taking us to new destinations so that we may escape into a different environment. A song about feeling entrenched, “Waterfalls” recreates the feeling of a free fall with low flowing confessional verses followed by a fast-paced falsetto chorus.
“Nairobi,” on the other hand, sports a worldly influence. The deep tones of the African marimba and the low handmade thumping of the conga drum are fused together with a synthetic pulse. It’s an atypical arrangement that blends together homegrown, earthy instrumental movement with abstract and synth-raised energy.
Bag Raiders are headed down to South America next month for shows in Colombia and Chile. I wonder what musical souvenirs they’ll bring back for their next release.
Article: Heather McAdams
