MOONTRICKS
Thursday, January 30th, 2025
7:00PM $22.50 adv / $30 DOS
Based in the rustic Kootenay mountains of Western Canada, Nathan Gurley and Sean Rodman of nationally renowned electro-folk duo Moontricks draw inspiration from the ongoing cycles of the natural world. Both volatile and constant—like nature’s best offerings—the band finds solace and beauty in the fusion of seemingly disparate elements. There’s a kind of technicolor campfire quality to their uniquely hybrid sound: Each track is steeped in tradition and polished with a futuristic sheen, mixing organic folk, roots rock, and old-time blues with modern electronic production. Since its initial release, the band’s breakout hit “Home” has reached over 5 million streaming plays, and their original tracks have been licensed for a wide range of television networks, including Netflix and Fox Sports. With the release of their debut full-length album Currents, the duo reveals an ever-evolving, cohesive blend of introspective writing, soulful, gritty blues, boot-stomping basslines, and intricate electronic arrangements.
Gurley and Rodman first connected at a music festival in rural BC, then collaborated on a series of rhythmic, instrumental soundscapes that eventually developed into their signature electro-folk sound. After dropping their debut single “Home” in 2013, they joined international tours and festivals in Australia, Costa Rica, and across the USA, gaining a loyal following for their dynamic live shows, which feature a rotating assortment of guitar, keys, banjo, and vocals accented with original electronic elements. Now with their debut album Currents released September 09, 2022 via Westwood Recordings, Moontricks honor the steadfast cycles of nature that carry the world forward, despite the chaos around and inside us. “The solace found in reaching past our personal confines into the vastness beyond them is something we return to again and again—in nature and in our music,” says lead singer and songwriter Rodman. Gurley, who focuses on production, views the album as a series of paths leading into unknown territory. Vast, intimate, and dazzling, Currents is an album about settling into feeling comfortably lost, and being okay with not knowing it all. It’s about finding joy and inspiration in the act of seeking.
Balkan Bump
Balkan Bump is the global electronic music project orchestrated by trumpet player, producer and ethnomusicologist Will Magid.
Balkan Bump’s music fuses heavy electronic production with global music influences including traditional Balkan brass melodies, Middle Eastern sounds and American hip hop. The Balkan Bump live show highlights Magid’s expertise as an orchestrator, ranging in size from a solo performer to a 12-piece band featuring a menagerie of global instruments including sitar, saz, oud, clarinet and trumpet. The live performance’s popularity has brought the project to global renown with performances at the world’s biggest music stages including Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lightning In A Bottle, as well as beloved jazz, blues and world music festivals including Harvest Music Festival and CA WorldFest, and numerous appearances at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Balkan Bump debuted with the single “Aymo” alongside famed Slovenian producer Gramatik and American hip hop royalty Talib Kweli. Gramatik quickly championed the new project, unveiling Balkan Bump’s live show on his Re:Coil Tour and releasing Balkan Bump’s debut EP on his Lowtemp label imprint. Since then the Balkan Bump project has gone on to collaborate with global and live music projects Beats Antique and Moon Hooch; international electronic music superstars CloZee, Fakear, & Manic Focus; and American hip hop icon The Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious). Balkan Bump has been featured in Billboard Magazine, NPR’s The World, The San Francisco Chronicle and Magnetic Magazine. In 2020 Magid curated a series of global music mixes for Los Angeles-based Dublab Radio under the Balkan Bump alias.
As a solo artist, Will Magid has collaborated and performed with artists including Bonobo, Erykah Badu, Pretty Lights, and soul music legend Solomon Burke. He has led numerous jazz and global music outfits including his eponymous soul-funk band’s seminal Alligator Spacewalk album in 2016, and the 2017 neoclassical exploration Lunar Conquest Suite. His music has been featured in campaigns for global brands including Warner Brothers, Uber, Porsche, HP, Vogue, GoPro and Ubisoft. Magid graduated from The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music with a degree in Ethnomusicology.
